Shisha cafes must stop selling shisha, Thai officials warn of crackdown

[gchurch259]

^{What I want is the enforcement of the No Smoking in the Go Go Bars and restaurants. 90 % of the people will go outside and smoke the 10% make it unpleasant. Secondary Smoke is dangerous and smoking makes all smell bad !!}

[jaywalker]

How about "Cracking Down" on something that might do some good?

I agree it's all about the taxes.

Why doesn't Pattaya, for instance, put some undercover "volunteer" farang police on baht buses at 0200 hrs to bust pick-pockets?

When I was 18, I tried something called crack. I quit it very quickly (I tried it here & there for a month maybe).

Why oh why is EVERTHING the cops actually DO in LOS, called a "Crack-Down"?

[Benmart]

I believe more harm has been done to humankind by the ingestion of alcohol. I wonder if the discussion about the evils of sheesha was done over drinks of that nature?

[jaywalker]

^{What I want is the enforcement of the No Smoking in the Go Go Bars and restaurants. 90 % of the people will go outside and smoke the 10% make it unpleasant. Secondary Smoke is dangerous and smoking makes all smell bad !!}

The human race survived for millinea around cooking fires, yet tobacco smoke is the killer.

Yeah, right.

[gigman]

Do the people in charge really think that they will change the world ?

Let's see when they will show their assets if they are as clean as they would like Thailand to be...

Yes , they are !

Change our world or their world ....

The different only is which one will have better world ? truly better world

If the smoking is so bad for humanity ..? 'they' care about so much

Why not to close tobacco factories about the world in one go?

Did anyone did a searches what nicotine is doing for human body ??? is it so bad a maybe science is hiding something ?

Because I did ! and I am stoned of result.

I am talking about nicotine in cigarettes NOT the rest of hundreds of other factory processing chemicals!

For info; Electronic inhalers in the mix is just clean nicotine but as for me (personally)with nicotine or without I do not see much different in tastes.;

I am making my own which is simple ..

1 Vegetable oil

2 Flavours

and sometimes with some nicotine....because is good for my cholesterol......

.................any one surprised?

Is this mixture is worst then cigarette or pollution in the Bkk traffic ???

Have a healthy day guys !

P.S

Veggies are good for us too ...?? are you sure???

Because I know that they are not so good ( check your self how many minerals compare to chemicals in your salad today .....)

Do you eat real butter or alternations ???....you should know the truth too...

5555 just do not get hysterical...

World is beautiful ! and crazy...

[sgtsabai]

gchurch, don't worry, the farang bars are probably pretty high on the ban list. You will be much healthier then, just go to temples, enjoy the food, watch the general on tv or spend your "leisure time" (and money) in Thai "bars", ah there are plenty if you know where they are at and you can get in. All the do gooders will be happy.

[ldnguy]

They must have starter reaching the bottom of the to do list, if this is a big issue.

Or if its alphabetical.

Shisha

Shinawatra.....

I take it that you didn't learn the alphabet in school.

[nisakiman]

That is incorrect. Many shisha smokers think that though.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hookah-health-risks.html

To repeat what I have mentioned, the health risks of smoking hookah are no less damaging than in the case of cigarette smoking. In fact, according to the Tobacco Control Collaboration Centre, hookah is 400 to 450 times worse than a cigarette. As cited already, most people easily ignore all such health warnings, and some do not even consider hookah as smoking. The decked out settings of hookah bars, the smooth smell, taste and less irritating nature of the hookah smoke creates an inviting and seemingly less-harmful atmosphere for people. But baring all such phony features of this culture of smoking, it is nothing but a bag full of sicknesses and painful rewards.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs/

Because of the way a hookah is used, smokers may absorb more of the toxic substances also found in cigarette smoke than cigarette smokers do.1,2

An hour-long hookah smoking session involves 200 puffs, while smoking an average cigarette involves 20 puffs.1,2

The amount of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 milliliters (ml), compared with 500–600 ml inhaled when smoking a cigarette.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/quit-smoking/expert-answers/hookah/faq-20057920

Given that all those quotes are from avowedly anti-smoking organisations with a fanatical hatred of all things smoking related, it's hardly surprising that those are their conclusions.

The big problem with the anti-smoking zealots is that as far as they are concerned, there are no benefits to smoking, only downsides. They work on the assumption (because that is what they have been indoctrinated with) that smokers are all hopeless addicts who all want to quit and who all regret ever having started.

They are, of course, completely wrong. I've smoked for more than fifty years (apart from a couple of year-long breaks), and I enjoy every cigarette I smoke. Smoking improves mental acuity and cognition, it is unique insofar as at acts a a relaxant when you want to wind down, and a stimulant when you to need to keep going. It stimulates thought and lively conversation and is a wonderful companion to contemplation. It stimulates literary and artistic endeavour. It's no coincidence that most of the great writers, artists, scientists and statesmen have been enthusiastic smokers.

I have neither the desire nor the inclination to quit.

And I'm not alone in my appreciation of the benefits of tobacco. All smokers who are resistant to the relentless propaganda constantly emanating from the bowels of 'Tobacco Control' (Orwellian, or what?) enjoy smoking for all the reasons I have given, and most, like me, have no intention of eschewing the pleasures of tobacco just because a small but vociferous minority of fanatics disapprove. The smokers who 'Tobacco Control' quote as regretting their habit (for in truth that's what it is: a habit, not an addiction) are the ones who have been successfully brainwashed into believing all the lies and exaggerations that the anti-tobacco organisations disseminate on a daily basis. As Goebbels said, "If you tell a big enough lie for long enough, people will come to believe it". And that has been the modus operandum of 'Tobacco Control' for the past few decades; to keep repeating the same lies and exaggerations over and over.

The idea that shisha is 400 times worse than cigarettes is risible. Who smokes shisha all day every day? Nobody. And that is the only way that shisha could possibly be considered worse than cigarettes. And that is assuming, of course, that you accept at face value what 'Tobacco Control' claims are the dangers of smoking, which I don't, having done a huge amount of research on the subject over the past few years.

"I don't want any of your statistics; I took your whole batch and lit my pipe with it.

I hate your kind of people. You are always ciphering out how much a man's health is injured, and how much his intellect is impaired, and how many pitiful dollars and cents he wastes in the course of ninety-two years' indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking; and in the equally fatal practice of drinking coffee; and in playing billiards occasionally; and in taking a glass of wine at dinner, etc. etc. And you are always figuring out how many women have been burned to death because of the dangerous fashion of wearing expansive hoops, etc. etc. You never see more than one side of the question.

You are blind to the fact that most old men in America smoke and drink coffee, although, according to your theory, they ought to have died young; and that hearty old Englishmen drink wine and survive it, and portly old Dutchmen both drink and smoke freely, and yet grow older and fatter all the time. And you never try to find out how much solid comfort, relaxation, and enjoyment a man derives from smoking in the course of a lifetime (which is worth ten times the money he would save by letting it alone), nor the appalling aggregate of happiness lost in a lifetime by your kind of people from not smoking. Of course you can save money by denying yourself all those little vicious enjoyments for fifty years; but then what can you do with it? What use can you put it to? Money can't save your infinitesimal soul. All the use that money can be put to is to purchase comfort and enjoyment in this life; therefore, as you are an enemy to comfort and enjoyment where is the use of accumulating cash?

It won't do for you to say that you can use it to better purpose in furnishing a good table, and in charities, and in supporting tract societies, because you know yourself that you people who have no petty vices are never known to give away a cent, and that you stint yourselves so in the matter of food that you are always feeble and hungry. And you never dare to laugh in the daytime for fear some poor wretch, seeing you in a good humor, will try to borrow a dollar of you; and in church you are always down on your knees, with your ears buried in the cushion, when the contribution-box comes around; and you never give the revenue officers a full statement of your income.

Now you know all these things yourself, don't you? Very well, then, what is the use of your stringing out your miserable lives to a lean and withered old age? What is the use of your saving money that is so utterly worthless to you? In a word, why don't you go off somewhere and die, and not be always trying to seduce people into becoming as ornery and unlovable as you are yourselves, by your villainous "moral statistics"?

Now, I don't approve of dissipation, and I don't indulge in it either; but I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices. And so I don't want to hear from you any more. I think you are the very same man who read me a long lecture last week about the degrading vice of smoking cigars, and then came back, in my absence, with your reprehensible fire-proof gloves on, and carried off my beautiful parlor stove."

Mark Twain

The Moral Statistician

[SPALAX]

Shisha is much less harmful way of smoking tobacco. If you've ever tried it before, you would understand what I'm talking about.

Well, not really.

Barbecuing a nice T Bone steak is equivalent to smoking 2500 cigarettes. California wanted to ban barbecues.

Smoking Shisha: about 250 cigarettes

Smoking a cigarette: a cigarette

No smoking: stop drinking. Then government bankrupt.

[Benmart]

The reason they want to clamp down on that and the electronic cigarettes is they are missing out on collecting the tax

Rubbish: Both E-Cigarettes AND the Shisha Tobacco are extremely hazardous to one's health ! ! ! End of argument.

I find it humerous and pretentious when someone states "end of argument".

There seems to be discussion being exercised and not argument in the negative sense. Discourse is vital to the exchange of ideas, be it face-to-face or via a discussion group such as this.

I doubt the "end of argument" statement has any effect, except perhaps in the mind of the person exclaiming it so.

[Docno]

And the slide into totalitarianism begins... ["Totalitarianism or totalitarian state is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible." - Wiki]

[Halion]

This is simply control for the appearance of being in control and lets not forget the tax revenues. There is a myriad of project with significantly higher importance but as always in Thailand it is the little people who are under control. The rich and influential of which many have the IQ of a rock pool get as always, a free ride.

[gigman]

^{What I want is the enforcement of the No Smoking in the Go Go Bars and restaurants. 90 % of the people will go outside and smoke the 10% make it unpleasant. Secondary Smoke is dangerous and smoking makes all smell bad !!}

That's why someone implemented E-cigarette.

They do not release smoke just vapor ( the is no real fire in it just little heater )

They do not smell as real cigarette , depends of the flavor you can have taste of anything.

I love Coffee lathe taste ...which you could only smell it a very little from very close distance or nothing at all.

I love also strawberries tastes.....don't you like strawberries?

It helped me to stop coughing and improved my health where even 3 years of no smoking cigarettes did not helped me...............

Hence all of this is just hysteria about shisha ,e-cigarettes without any independed proof of harm??

E- vapors ; (I do not agree with name "e- cigarette" )

create pollution

no rubbish (butts) left on the streets

no need for ashtrays and smell

no smoke and bad smell at all

cost just fraction of real cigarettes

No REAL health treat recorded compare to original cigarette.

Cost of electronic is just fraction of the price of real cigarette ( i spent $5 doll/month for electronic compare to $400 doll/ month for tobacco)

Why not to Just close tobacco factories ...he....he

Anybody.....after this????

NO ! Can not touch them because TAX is big money.

NOBODY REALLY CARES ABOUT US

Have lovely Thai day

[Bluespunk]

That is incorrect. Many shisha smokers think that though.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hookah-health-risks.html

To repeat what I have mentioned, the health risks of smoking hookah are no less damaging than in the case of cigarette smoking. In fact, according to the Tobacco Control Collaboration Centre, hookah is 400 to 450 times worse than a cigarette. As cited already, most people easily ignore all such health warnings, and some do not even consider hookah as smoking. The decked out settings of hookah bars, the smooth smell, taste and less irritating nature of the hookah smoke creates an inviting and seemingly less-harmful atmosphere for people. But baring all such phony features of this culture of smoking, it is nothing but a bag full of sicknesses and painful rewards.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs/

Because of the way a hookah is used, smokers may absorb more of the toxic substances also found in cigarette smoke than cigarette smokers do.1,2

An hour-long hookah smoking session involves 200 puffs, while smoking an average cigarette involves 20 puffs.1,2

The amount of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 milliliters (ml), compared with 500600 ml inhaled when smoking a cigarette.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/quit-smoking/expert-answers/hookah/faq-20057920

Given that all those quotes are from avowedly anti-smoking organisations with a fanatical hatred of all things smoking related, it's hardly surprising that those are their conclusions.

The big problem with the anti-smoking zealots is that as far as they are concerned, there are no benefits to smoking, only downsides. They work on the assumption (because that is what they have been indoctrinated with) that smokers are all hopeless addicts who all want to quit and who all regret ever having started.

They are, of course, completely wrong. I've smoked for more than fifty years (apart from a couple of year-long breaks), and I enjoy every cigarette I smoke. Smoking improves mental acuity and cognition, it is unique insofar as at acts a a relaxant when you want to wind down, and a stimulant when you to need to keep going. It stimulates thought and lively conversation and is a wonderful companion to contemplation. It stimulates literary and artistic endeavour. It's no coincidence that most of the great writers, artists, scientists and statesmen have been enthusiastic smokers.

I have neither the desire nor the inclination to quit.

And I'm not alone in my appreciation of the benefits of tobacco. All smokers who are resistant to the relentless propaganda constantly emanating from the bowels of 'Tobacco Control' (Orwellian, or what?) enjoy smoking for all the reasons I have given, and most, like me, have no intention of eschewing the pleasures of tobacco just because a small but vociferous minority of fanatics disapprove. The smokers who 'Tobacco Control' quote as regretting their habit (for in truth that's what it is: a habit, not an addiction) are the ones who have been successfully brainwashed into believing all the lies and exaggerations that the anti-tobacco organisations disseminate on a daily basis. As Goebbels said, "If you tell a big enough lie for long enough, people will come to believe it". And that has been the modus operandum of 'Tobacco Control' for the past few decades; to keep repeating the same lies and exaggerations over and over.

The idea that shisha is 400 times worse than cigarettes is risible. Who smokes shisha all day every day? Nobody. And that is the only way that shisha could possibly be considered worse than cigarettes. And that is assuming, of course, that you accept at face value what 'Tobacco Control' claims are the dangers of smoking, which I don't, having done a huge amount of research on the subject over the past few years.

"I don't want any of your statistics; I took your whole batch and lit my pipe with it.

I hate your kind of people. You are always ciphering out how much a man's health is injured, and how much his intellect is impaired, and how many pitiful dollars and cents he wastes in the course of ninety-two years' indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking; and in the equally fatal practice of drinking coffee; and in playing billiards occasionally; and in taking a glass of wine at dinner, etc. etc. And you are always figuring out how many women have been burned to death because of the dangerous fashion of wearing expansive hoops, etc. etc. You never see more than one side of the question.

You are blind to the fact that most old men in America smoke and drink coffee, although, according to your theory, they ought to have died young; and that hearty old Englishmen drink wine and survive it, and portly old Dutchmen both drink and smoke freely, and yet grow older and fatter all the time. And you never try to find out how much solid comfort, relaxation, and enjoyment a man derives from smoking in the course of a lifetime (which is worth ten times the money he would save by letting it alone), nor the appalling aggregate of happiness lost in a lifetime by your kind of people from not smoking. Of course you can save money by denying yourself all those little vicious enjoyments for fifty years; but then what can you do with it? What use can you put it to? Money can't save your infinitesimal soul. All the use that money can be put to is to purchase comfort and enjoyment in this life; therefore, as you are an enemy to comfort and enjoyment where is the use of accumulating cash?

It won't do for you to say that you can use it to better purpose in furnishing a good table, and in charities, and in supporting tract societies, because you know yourself that you people who have no petty vices are never known to give away a cent, and that you stint yourselves so in the matter of food that you are always feeble and hungry. And you never dare to laugh in the daytime for fear some poor wretch, seeing you in a good humor, will try to borrow a dollar of you; and in church you are always down on your knees, with your ears buried in the cushion, when the contribution-box comes around; and you never give the revenue officers a full statement of your income.

Now you know all these things yourself, don't you? Very well, then, what is the use of your stringing out your miserable lives to a lean and withered old age? What is the use of your saving money that is so utterly worthless to you? In a word, why don't you go off somewhere and die, and not be always trying to seduce people into becoming as ornery and unlovable as you are yourselves, by your villainous "moral statistics"?

Now, I don't approve of dissipation, and I don't indulge in it either; but I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices. And so I don't want to hear from you any more. I think you are the very same man who read me a long lecture last week about the degrading vice of smoking cigars, and then came back, in my absence, with your reprehensible fire-proof gloves on, and carried off my beautiful parlor stove."

Mark Twain

The Moral Statistician

You want to smoke?

Fine. Go ahead.

Just don't do it around those of us who find it a foul habit.

[HerbalEd]

If its illegal how do people manage to.open whole bars devoted to it?

One would presume someone in customs knows how this stuff gets into the country.

Do you also want to know how illegal prostitution happens where "whole bars are devoted to it"?

[JesseFrank]

So I assume Sukhumvit soi 3 and the Arab quarter in South Pattaya are out of business then.

[h90]

Do the people in charge really think that they will change the world ?

Let's see when they will show their assets if they are as clean as they would like Thailand to be...

Some of these are extreme proud of what they call "Social Engineering".

Social Engineering is basically the same that Hitler, Stalin and Mao tried, just they were more honest about it.

[12DrinkMore]

Given that all those quotes are from avowedly anti-smoking organisations with a fanatical hatred of all things smoking related, it's hardly surprising that those are their conclusions.

The big problem with the anti-smoking zealots is that as far as they are concerned, there are no benefits to smoking, only downsides. They work on the assumption (because that is what they have been indoctrinated with) that smokers are all hopeless addicts who all want to quit and who all regret ever having started.

They are, of course, completely wrong. I've smoked for more than fifty years (apart from a couple of year-long breaks), and I enjoy every cigarette I smoke. Smoking improves mental acuity and cognition, it is unique insofar as at acts a a relaxant when you want to wind down, and a stimulant when you to need to keep going. It stimulates thought and lively conversation and is a wonderful companion to contemplation. It stimulates literary and artistic endeavour. It's no coincidence that most of the great writers, artists, scientists and statesmen have been enthusiastic smokers.

I have neither the desire nor the inclination to quit.

I do not have a problem with people smoking, just as long as

1. I do not have to inhale the smoke, which gives me asthma.

2. I do not have to inhale the stench that the hookahs emit.

3. I do not have to pay for their healthcare.

I also do not dispute that nicotine also has positive effects, although it has negative effects as well.

I do have a problem when claims are made

1. That it is not damaging to health

2. That hookahs are not as bad or worse than cigarettes

3. "I have smoked for 50 years with only benefits". For every such lucky claimant there are many many more who suffer from lung disease, throat and mouth cancer, poor blood circulation with ensuing gangrene and amputations.

And I certainly do have a problem with the stink left on clothes, hair, the holes left in my clothes by some careless <deleted> with a cigarette.

So carry on smoking, just don't expect other people to appreciate it too.

And as a final request, when you hold the burning cigarette try to ensure that the smoke ends up in your eyes and not those of the person standing next to you.

[howzat]

I am just a simple lad from the North of England so what the devil is shisha. Is it edible like shush kebab or you put it on your toast as an alternative to Marmite or do you smoke it like woodbines.

[luckyman]

Great news !! That stuff really stinks and attracts 'undesirable' customers....

[howzat]

I am just a simple lad from the North of England so what the devil is shisha. Is it edible like shush kebab or you put it on your toast as an alternative to Marmite or do you smoke it like woodbines.

[retarius]

Number one priority: Do something about slavery on the fishing boats. If you don't the country will become a pariah state.

Number 2 million priority: Crackdown on shisha. If you don't absolutely nothing bad will happen at all.

Crackdown on everything equals crackdown on nothing.

[freedom4life]

Who is it harming, except for the smokers; authorities or politicians not cashing-in on it? Of course if they are laying the tobacco with hash or pot...then I can see.

Edited August 18, 2014 by freedom4life

[Trouble]

Most people I know are using the electronic cigarettes to stop smoking. They can adjust the nicotine level to gradually reduce the the level. These Shisha cafes have popped up here in Los Angeles and I can see the concern, but a ban? Well, if they are going to confiscate the smoking paraphernalia as well maybe the good Gen. might consider taking the glass meth pipes off the market as too. Since they are widely sold all along the streets, it would seem that the government condones that usage.

[smotherb]

The reason they want to clamp down on that and the electronic cigarettes is they are missing out on collecting the tax

That may indeed be true but in the case of shisha targeting student areas in mentioned, indicating a concern about health, and keep in mind shisha smoking is extremely carcinogenic.

yes, and could be a way of mixing other ingredients to smoke

[mikosan]

Breathing is next on the list....

Actually, what I breathe is important to me and whilst I don't give a toss whether other people smoke shisha, or anything else for that matter, nor do I care whether it is legal or not, I do care about where they smoke it and whether I have to inadvertently smoke it as well. So if they want to clamp down on smoking whatever, then clamp down on doing it where I am eating, drinking or even breathing, please. Thank you General, sir.

[SiggiCM]

Shisha is much less harmful way of smoking tobacco. If you've ever tried it before, you would understand what I'm talking about.

I ont know what is the provblem, Sisha noit allowed in Chiang Mai or Northern Tahiland, same liek not allowed to smoke inside any places, but in Bkk or Pty and the South they not care, police not work. terrible place for non smokers, they smoke it in every disco in Pty,

it smells terrible and for sure it harms all non smokers,

Respect the change of time, smóking not allowed in public, especially 1 Shisha stink like 50 cigarets smoker

[SiggiCM]

This must be all part of getting ready for Asean or something, Thailand has changed so much in the past few months its unreal, Bangkok at least.

Maybe they might clamp down on the Go-go bars next, It would not bother me.

My opinion is there are bigger problem's than shisha like Alcohol, including that Thai whiskey rocket juice they sell for 10 baht.

Will not even talk about the Yabba as I m still getting my head around how its so popular and why among young people.

Bann Sisha not effect tourism, but ban of cigaretes, alcohol would have an massive negative effect to the tourism, A Gogo bars you cant ban because they not exist also like prostitutes or whorehouses

[Soi Sauce]

Just ask the Thai Tobacco Monopoly, as listed on Thai fags.

They are the end of Soi 4.

PS; Fags here means cigareettes.

[lovetotravel]

Shisha is much less harmful way of smoking tobacco. If you've ever tried it before, you would understand what I'm talking about.

Well, not really.

Barbecuing a nice T Bone steak is equivalent to smoking 2500 cigarettes. California wanted to ban barbecues.

Smoking Shisha: about 250 cigarettes

Smoking a cigarette: a cigarette

No smoking: stop drinking. Then government bankrupt.

That is absolutely not true. Show a credible link to prove this. Barbecuing is nothing like smoking 2,500 cigarettes. I call BS.