Hookah bars targeting Phuket youth

Phuket Gazette

HOOKAHS AWAY! A collection of makeshift hookahs found at an establishment in Phuket recently.

PHUKET: - The Phuket Provincial Office is planning to crack down on hookah bars and other businesses catering to a growing demand among island youths to smoke flavored tobacco known as shisha.

The proliferation of venues offering shisha to youths has risen dramatically over the past year and the situation must be quickly addressed, a provincial panel heard recently.

New Phuket Vice Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada, who chairs a provincial panel aimed at keeping youths away from drugs, said there were at least 20 venues on the island set up as places for minors to socialize and smoke shisha through Middle-Eastern style water pipes known locally as baraku.

There are more than 10 such venues in Muang District alone, offering a wide variety of flavored tobacco blends including apple, strawberry, mango, coffee, vanilla, lime, rose and herbal mixtures, he said.

Restaurants and nightlife establishments in areas such as Patong that cater to Middle Eastern patrons have long offered shisha to adult clientele, but the popularity of flavored tobacco has now trickled down to local youths.

As a result, hookahs can now be found in restaurants and roadside shops set up specifically for minors. Businesses offering shisha are commonly found in or near student dormitories, the panel heard.

Vice Governor Chamroen said the problem can be addressed using a number of existing regulations. These include excise tax laws that forbid the import of shisha; regulations that forbid smoking in restaurants, parks and other public places; and restrictions against selling alcohol and tobacco products to people under 18 years of age.

The province will first launch a public-awareness campaign before launching the crackdown in order to give venues that have been engaged in the illegal business a chance to stop, he said.

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...ticle12470.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-03-03

Great idea to sit somewhere and stick a mouthpiece in your face that has been in god knows how many sh-tty mouths before yours.

ALways looked pretty disgusting to me, but is it as harmful as regular smoking? Is it just flavoured tobacco?

anyone know where i could buy one in BKK..thanks jr

Have a look around the top end of Suhk' road between Soi 3 and Soi 5 area.

great idea for CRACKING Down on drug use huh?

"As a result, hookahs can now be found in restaurants and roadside shops set up specifically for minors. Businesses offering shisha are commonly found in or near student dormitories, the panel heard."

Dormitories? ... are only found at universities which means everyone there must be 18++ so... whats the problem? So many many many problems in Thailand and they are worried about this? Logic:)

ALways looked pretty disgusting to me, but is it as harmful as regular smoking? Is it just flavoured tobacco?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028430/Hookah-use-rising-California--smokers-know-hour-long-session-equivalent-100-cigarettes.html

Alarmingly, scientists warn smoking hookah for one hour is equivalent to inhaling the smoke from 100 cigarettes.

yeah, like it's a drug. Anyone would think people were smoking the Green through the hookahs.

great idea for CRACKING Down on drug use huh?

soi 3,5 thanks for info.i like the vaporizer but sometimes the flavor is a must..thanks again JR

but they sell cigs that are way more harmfull at 7/11. Crackdown on 7's?

seen 8year old kids buying cigs there.

I like my tobacco tobacco flavoured, what is it with all these fruit flavours. I smoke cigars, everywhere I go in Asia I get offered vanilla flavoured, chocolate flavoured, strawberry flavoured etc. It seems to be an American idea judging by the brands.

Ummmmm, those flavored American cigars are not meant to be smoked "as is."

ah, i tought they ment HOOKERS but could not write this word in the forum

I thought smoking water pipes was a Middle East thing