SEQUIM — Hurricane Coffee Co. has had a fairly easygoing relationship with smokers since it opened.
The coffee shop has never allowed smoking inside, but has set up tables and chairs outside so customers can have a cigarettes with their coffee.
That easygoing relationship changes today, when voter-approved Initiative 901 takes effect.
The initiative was overwhelmingly passed by 63 percent of the voters on Nov. 8.
The law prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, minicasinos, most hotel rooms and most other nontribal businesses currently exempted by the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act, which already bans smoking in most public places.
It also requires a 25-foot smoke-free buffer around doorways, windows that open and ventilation intakes, making it tougher than in eight other states that also have statewide bans.
Specialty businesses like cigar bars and hookah lounges are not exempt.
Mallory Wilton, manager of the coffee shop and a non-smoker, said she isn’t sure the shop will make an immediate change to the outdoor area.
But as the weather warms and non-smokers want to use the outside area to drink their coffee, the outdoor smoking section may go the way of smoking on airplanes, she said.
“I’m kind of shocked,” Wilton said of the ban.
