Hookahs are hot with the college crowd

By RYAN E. SMITH BLADE STAFF WRITER Friday, November 25, 2005

Soft, white wisps of smoke curled out of Jim Shaheen's mouth, gathering into a cottony cloud in front of him.

He leaned back, a satisfied, mellow look on his face, and passed the hookah's snakelike hose to the person next to him.

"It's cool," he said. "It just chills you out."

For Mr. Shaheen, 25, and his buddies at the University of Toledo, there's nothing sweeter than sitting on the couch, tuning the television to Family Guy or Jeopardy, and hanging out around a hookah, a traditional Middle Eastern device used for smoking tobacco.

More and more college students these days are joining them in the pastime, as evidenced by the growing number of hookah lounges that have sprung up around campuses nationwide.

In Toledo, hookah hunters can go to Maxwell's Brew on West Bancroft Street, just a short walk from UT's main campus. Owner Eddie Kanon introduced hookahs to customers three years ago after studying how popular they were around colleges.

"At that age, they like to try something different," he said. "It's given us business."

The coffeehouse keeps about 100 hookahs on hand and 15 flavors of tobacco - anything from apple to strawberry to margarita. A group of four can smoke a hookah with enough tobacco to last three hours for $10. Mr. Kanon said he limits their use to the patio during evening hours for people 18 and older and provides new tips for the hose each time.

To use a hookah, special wet tobacco, often flavored with fruit and molasses and heated by special charcoal, is placed in a bowl with a hole in the bottom that connects to a water-filled container below. When the smoker inhales, the smoke is drawn through the water, where it is filtered and cooled, and into the smoker's mouth.

At Toledo Market on Dorr Street, a hookah - also known as a narghile, shisha, or hubble-bubble - can sell for $10 to $100. The store usually sells more than six of them a week, increasingly to students, according to Samar Hakki, who works there and whose father owns the business.

Mr. Shaheen's nicest hookah, which cost him about $50, stands a couple of feet tall, with an ornate swan near the top and a red glass base. Its pet name is Alice, oddly enough, just like Alice In Wonderland, where the little girl encountered a hookah-smoking caterpillar.

Some visitors who see it for the first time aren't sure what to make of it, the MBA student from Canton, Ohio, said.

"A lot of people go, 'What is that? A lamp?' "

Or they wonder if he's using it to smoke marijuana - a stigma that he said is unfortunate.

Police and residential life staff may look on hookahs suspiciously from time to time, but campus police officials at UT and Bowling Green State University said they have not had problems with students using them to smoke illegal substances.

Not that everyone is OK with students using them to smoke tobacco, either.

While some claim the water filtration makes the smoke from a hookah less harmful than cigarettes, Wendy Simpkins, spokesman for the Ohio division of the American Cancer Society, said studies have shown that it still contains dangerous substances, including nicotine and arsenic, and contributes to increased risk of cancer and coronary heart disease.

"No tobacco product is safe," she said. "Claims that it is a safer way to smoke are untrue."

At the very least, the smoke has a smoother taste and doesn't burn the lungs like a cigarette, making it more attractive to those who might not smoke otherwise.

Taking advantage of this, hookah bars have taken root in cities from San Diego to Chicago to New York, though they've encountered trouble in some cities that have or are considering smoking bans.

Mr. Shaheen, who is of Syrian and Lebanese descent, said he got hooked on hookahs in college after he used one in Dearborn, Mich. He liked the connection to his ethnic heritage - it's long been part of Middle Eastern culture to gather around a hookah - and the social nature of the experience as smokers relax and chat.

"You slow down a little bit. You sit down and just talk," he said. "It's almost a philosophical thing."

Contact Ryan E. Smith at:
ryansmith@theblade.com
or 419-724-6103.