SMOKE SHOP HAS WINDSOR FUMING

Businesses are sprouting up around Windsor's Town Green these days,
signaling more profitable times ahead for the new downtown.

But one store in particular is attracting an extraordinary amount of
attention since it opened last week. And it's not positive.

The Smoke Shop sells bongs and pipes not associated with tobacco use,
but marijuana.

"They're not elegant, rosewood pipes the professors at Harvard use,"
said Ronald Boomer, who owns a dry cleaning store on the opposite
side of the street. "I would call it paraphernalia."

Situated on a prominent corner of Windsor Road, the store offers
elaborate hookahs and fancy tall, glass bongs in relatively plain
view to passers-by, including the many students strolling to and from
nearby Windsor High School.

"We're absolutely horrified. It's a travesty. Our biggest concern is
it puts the kids in jeopardy," said Terri Burger, co-owner of the
pharmacy across the street. "It's enticing to kids. They have a vulnerability."

Mayor Debora Fudge said she hasn't seen an issue provoke this much
public consternation in her 17 years on the town council.

"I've gotten probably 100 e-mails and five phone calls," she said
Thursday, describing all of them as from people opposed to the Smoke
Shop and very upset.

"We created a family-friendly downtown. This does not fit into our
retail mix at all," she said.

But Sam Khouri, owner of the shop, disagrees.

"Everything is legal. I have a license from the city. Some people
like it, some don't," he said.

Khouri pointed out that there is a sign on the front door prohibiting
anyone under 18 from entering.

The large, prominent picture of Bob Marley and the psychedelic poster
of Jim Morrison scream out "head shop," but the Jordanian-born Khouri
maintained "everything is for tobacco, yeah for tobacco."

His brother Basim Khouri added in a separate interview Thursday:
"When we buy and sell, it's for tobacco. What they are going to use
it for is their problem, not our problem."

He noted "medical marijuana is legal to use. We do something to try
to help people too," explaining that the store plans to offer
vaporizers that enable people to more easily take smoke into their lungs.

Stores that sell drug paraphernalia and accessories have been around
since at least the 1960s and are allowed under state law. There are
five or more in Santa Rosa and others in Petaluma and Ukiah.

The Khouris say they have operated one on Third Street in downtown
Santa Rosa for several years.

But Windsor officials are concerned about the prominent placement of
the shop and its merchandise and the way the Khouris represented
their store before it opened.

On a business registration application they filed with the town, they
said they would sell "gifts, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, water pipes,
hookahs and smoke accessories," Planning Director Peter Chamberlin said.

They also called their business the "Windsor Tobacco Center," despite
the fact no tobacco is for sale -- at least not yet -- and the only
signs this week said "Smoke Shop" and "Pipes."

"It's not really a smoke shop. It's a drug paraphernalia shop. I've
been in it, and there's not a stick of tobacco in it," said Town
Councilman Warin Parker.

"We don't want it in downtown. It's just not appropriate for the Town Green."

Basim Khouri said he is waiting for the state to issue a license
within the next few weeks that will allow him to sell cigars and tobacco items.

And the "accessories," he said, will be moved to the rear of the store.

Moving the glass and metal pipes and related items to a more discreet
place may have been prompted in part by a letter Windsor officials
sent to the business three days ago. It observed that state law
"requires that drug paraphernalia be wholly kept within a separate
room or enclosure where persons under 18 years are excluded."

That may not placate opponents of the business and those who don't
see it fitting into the Town Green, where new family-oriented
businesses have opened recently or are on the verge of opening.

A Baskin-Robbins ice cream store, a speciality hot dog place, a toy
store and gourmet grocery are among the latest additions to Town
Green Village, which in the past has struggled to create more foot traffic.

The Smoke Shop is generating some customers and some support, too.
One woman who declined to give her name, but said she was 59 years
old, came into the store Wednesday afternoon to browse the items on display.

"I'm not offended, or I wouldn't be in here," she said, adding she
would consider buying a pipe.

Town officials acknowledge they may not be able to do anything about
the shop. But Councilman Parker said it has highlighted the need to
require business licenses and not simply a business registration
"which does not have teeth."

And at its next meeting Oct. 1, the Town Council will consider an
emergency ordinance that would suspend for at least 45 days approval
of any more "smoke shops."

The moratorium would encompass check-cashing businesses, pawn shops,
bail bondsmen and tattoo parlors.

Chamberlin said the moratorium would give the town time to consider
how to regulate such businesses and where else in Windsor they might
be allowed.