Just How Dangerous is Hookah?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I was invited by some acquaintances tonight to go to a hookah bar in San Francisco (about 40 miles away from SSU).</p>

<p>I know it’s legal and I’m over 18, but a couple of things kept me from going:</p>

<p>-I don’t know these people well enough to really do something like that with them (even though my roommate is going)
-I don’t know the side effects/dangers of hookah
-They were very vague about who will be driving and whether or not they’ll be under the influence of hookah (does it even make a difference?)</p>

<p>Does anyone know anything about hookah?</p>

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<p>Hookah is actually the thing that you smoke out of. It generally just contains like fruit-flavored tobacco.</p>

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<p>Yeah a hookah is just a water pipe for smoking flavored tobacco. The smoke gets “filtered” through the water leading to a smoother flavor, and can be had in many different flavors (think vanilla, straberry, mint, etc etc)</p>

<p>Don’t worry about being “under the influence” - its equivalent to smoking a cigarette in that regard. It also carries the same dangers. Don’t let people tell you that hookah is better for you. Its not - you’re still inhaling the same things… it just tastes better.</p>

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<p>Don’t disregard the danger of sharing mouthpieces … many diseases including mono are easily passed along that way.</p>

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<p>I don’t see why any college-aged person would start to smoke. Inhaling smoke into your lungs, whether through the hookah or otherwise, is not good for you. I suggest skipping this one. Don’t bend to peer pressure on this one - there are better ways to spend your time. JMO.</p>

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<p>Nicotine is probably the most easily addictive drug on earth, especially for young people. Research has shown that many young people are well on the road to addiction after smoking nicotine one time. Understand that this is no laughing matter. Smoking kills one out of ever two nicotine addicts.</p>

<p>Smoking hookah (or cigarettes) is basically about like handling poison snakes or playing Russian roulette – only the odds are better with the snakes and the loaded gun.</p>

<p>As an ex-smoker, let me put it to you bluntly. You have to be out of your ever lovin’ mind to ever put nicotine in your body. Might as well go with herioin; it’s not as addictive. Just say no, while you can. If you have to smoke hookah, smoke marijuana in it. At least that won’t kill half the people in your group smoking it.</p>

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<p>Thanks all.</p>

<p>I’m not going, but my roommate is.</p>

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<p>I had faith in you. :)</p>

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<p>Interesting post-- I had also wondered what the heck hookah bars were-- Also - is there nicotine in all/most tobacco products?</p>

<p>A bit off the OT, but I wonder if there’s some sort of genetic predisposition to nicotine addiction, or if it’s just something that builds over time. I HATE (HATE!!) cigarette smoke, and never saw the attraction in pot back in the 70’s either. It was very easy for me to pass up purely because of the physical aversion. What makes it a positive experience for some, and a turnoff for others?</p>

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<p>Excellent question lspf. When I was growing up my father was a two pack a day smoker. He weaned himself down to one pack until he had a heart attack and then gave them up cold turkey. I HATE cigarette smoke and tend to not think so well of people that smoke. Unfortunately, my sister, who grew up in the same household smokes.</p>

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<p>Maybe I should be posting this in the college forum but, what in the world is the reason anyone would go to a hookah bar? Years ago people didn’t know about the dangers of smoking. Now we do. So . . . what’s up?</p>

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<p>Hookah is not addictive. On the other hand, I’ve seen people get a little “buzzed” from hookah, so I think the driving concern is valid.</p>

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<p>So, there is no nicotine in these flavored cigarettes?</p>

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<p>

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<p>If it contains tobacco, this is incorrect.</p>

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<p>do they just spoke tobacco, or is there a back room?</p>

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<p>

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<p>Yes. All tobacco products. It’s a naturally-occuring insecticide poison in the tobacco plant. It’s more lethal than strychnine, dose for dose.</p>

<p>It is possible to remove nicotine from tobacco, but then nobody would smoke. The only reason for smoking is nicotine addiction. There are no benefits to tobacco otherwise. The reason tobacco use spread around the globe is the intensely addictive nature of nicotine.</p>

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<p>Yes, there’s probably a genetic predisposition. However, nobody should take any comfort from that in terms of thinking, “oh, I won’t get addicted.” Basically, if you smoke, you should be prepared to accept a drug addiction that can last decades if it doesn’t kill you first. Research has shown that it is even more addictive for teenagers due to some brain chemistry issues.</p>

<p>BTW, nicotine works on a specific group of receptors in the brain, causing a release of dopamine in a mechanism that is virtually identical to heroin addiction. As the addiction takes hold, the number of those receptors increases. The addict goes into withdrawal without that dopamine release. That’s what creates the false impression that smoking “relieves stress”. The only stress being relieved is the stress from falling nicotine levels. Of course, there’s the Catch-22 of drug addiction. Relieving the “stress” from the nicotine wearing off from the last cigarette causes the “stress” that requires the next one.</p>

<p>Nicotine withdrawal is actually pretty mild, about like a bout of the flu. What makes it so insidious is the wildfire speed with which the addiction can be reestablished. People quit for months, years, even decades, think they can smoke just one, and end up almost immediately back at their full pack or two a day addiction. It’s an all or nothing proposition, something that can only be grasped once smoking is properly viewed as a powerful drug addiction. Since there is not a single benefit from smoking, the obvious policy for any young person is a simple zero-tolerance policy - never put any nicotine in your body.

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<p>That is completely false. Actually, hookah smoking has more of everything bad in cigarette smoking including nicotine.</p>

<p>[Hookah</a> smoking: Is it safer than cigarettes? - MayoClinic.com](<a href=“http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hookah/AN01265]Hookah”>Hookah smoking: Is it safer than cigarette smoking? - Mayo Clinic)</p>

<p>Nicotine is not just addictive, but breathtakingly addictive, regardless of the source. Cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars, hookah, snuff, chewing tobacco, nicotine gum, nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges. All highly addictive. Just like with cocaine, the delivery mechanism is more efficient when the drug is smoked (nicotine from a puff on a cigarette or hookah hits the receptors in the brain in just eight seconds), so the smoked versions of the drug produce a more faster, more intense brain chemistry reaction. However, there are fully-addicted long-term users of smokeless tobacco and nicotine gum.</p>

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<p>This has become very popular around here. My D’s friends would go frequently as seniors in HS. She couldn’t wait to turn 18 so she could try it; I was happy to hear she didn’t like it. None of these kids have ever smoked cigarettes, so it is just a social fad with them. I think they’re nuts!</p>

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<p>kathiep-- my father smoked too, and it’s probably the main reason I hated it so much. Actually, that, and the girls’ bathroom at my high school – if you went in, you were going to come out reeking of smoke.<br>
Back then, people didn’t always leave the room or go outdoors to smoke— my father smoked in the house and always in the car. Except for summer, I’d be allowed to open the back passenger window only a tiny crack. He would open the tiny triangular window up front (remember those?) just enough to flick ashes out… </p>

<p>oldfort – I’ve never seen a hookah bar – just did a google image search. The apparatus(es) look pretty exotic, but have no idea if they’re kept up front in main rooms or not.</p>

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<p>Filling your lungs up with smoke, any kind of smoke, is never a good idea. Some kinds of smoke are deadlier than others, but all are bad to one degree or another. Your lungs were meant to breathe clean, fresh air, not smoke.</p>

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<p>Thanks for that post, i-dad-
I’ve seen how addictive it can be-- my sister-in-law slowed down, but couldn’t quit, even during pregnancy. I was shocked, even though I knew I couldn’t really relate to what she was going through. She finally quit later in life after watching her father die of lung cancer.</p>

<p>Also have a friend who used to try to push “cloves” which she said were perfectly safe. Doubtful also.</p>