Shisha: Pipe Smoking.. A Legal way of Pot Session??

Shisha is famous in Arab Countries where prohibited drugs are not allowed

Smoking tobacco using the traditional hookah waterpipe, which is less harmful method of tobacco use, has been part of the fabric of life in the Middle East for centuries.

It is a kind of 'smoking' using a tall glass pipe stand filled with flavored water. 'Shisha' seems to be the patent of men but now there are modern middle class ladies joining the smokers.



I already tried mint and apple flavours with my Saudi friends whenever I visited them or having a good bonding with them, but can't really tell the true taste.

A physician, Hakim Abul Fath, suggested that "tobacco smoke should be first passed through a small receptacle of water so that it would be rendered harmless."

So began a myth that shisha smoking is far less dangerous to health than cigarette and pipe smoking.

However, World Health Organisation has quashed that myth, suggesting that smoking a hookah is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. It also said that more research is needed into the link between the use of the waterpipe and several fatal illnesses.

An advisory note from the WHO says that smoking a hookah may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking cigarettes.

Because smoking a hookah may take up to 80 minutes, the report suggests that the smoker is subjecting himself to as much smoke as somebody dragging on 100 cigarettes.

And the water does not strip out all toxic substances. Some of the nicotine is absorbed, but this leads to people smoking for longer in order to experience the effects of the drug, and therefore inhaling more smoke containing carbon monoxide, heavy metals and other toxic compounds, which leads to heart and respiratory problems.