Exceptions allow groups to sidestep smoking ban

TACOMA – Using incense and smudge sticks in religious ceremonies and lighting up in private clubs that don’t have any paid employees do not violate the smoking ban Washington voters approved last fall, the state attorney general’s office says.

Storm Reyes, a Tacoma resident of Puyallup Indian decent, has worked since the smoking ban passed to secure an exemption for religious ceremonies.

Reyes, who has conducted such ceremonies for years, said it’s apparently already been a hassle at places in Seattle and Kitsap County. She led a pipe ceremony at a funeral home a few days ago.

“I promised to pay for the ticket myself if we got raided,” Reyes said.

An informal opinion the attorney general’s office issued Thursday said incense, smudge sticks – bundles of herbs that are burned – and smudge bowls aren’t covered by the ban on smoking in public buildings and workplaces.

The issue of ceremonial pipes is more complex. But the opinion said a court likely would conclude that it’s not the kind of smoking envisioned by the ban.

Reyes said she would rather the opinion say more definitively that sacred pipes are protected.

“On a practical level, it solves the problem,” she said. “On a moral level, I don’t think it does.”

State Sen. Debbie Regala, of Tacoma, pushed a bill last winter to exempt religious ceremonies from the smoking ban. But it stalled in the face of reluctance to change an initiative voters so recently passed. Regala and four other legislators asked for the attorney general’s opinion on various questions about the smoking ban.

Sen. Bob Morton, of Kettle Falls, said he wanted to know whether groups like the Eagles and the Elks could smoke in their private clubs if members agree.

The opinion said private clubs aren’t covered by the smoking ban if they have no employees. Clubs with employees count as a workplace, where smoking is banned.

The 24-page opinion essentially confirmed that tribal casinos and other businesses aren’t covered under the smoking ban if they’re on reservations or trust lands.

It said tribal businesses outside American Indian land are subject to the ban. Enforcement might be a problem because of tribal sovereignty issues but “on-reservation activities are much more likely to enjoy tribal sovereign immunity than off-reservation activities,” the opinion said.

Earlier this year, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department cited the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for smoking ban violations at its Emerald Queen Casino in Fife. The tribe said it was exempt from the law.

The department stopped pursuing the matter last month when Congress passed a bill granting trust status to the site of the casino.