Smoke me the way to grass land, Lady Nicotine

He was just 17 years when he had a drag from a hookah at a Cafe Coffee Day lounge in Chennai. Now, he has ‘grown up’ to the level that he can brag of having done it all – cigarettes and marijuana – in six years. It is a different matter that Shahid (named changed) has not touched ‘grass’ for the past five months but Lady Nicotine remains his constant companion, despite the courtship having invited the wrath of his parents several times. He agrees that the affair started with his inhaling a whiff of strawberry flavoured smoke from a hookah way back in 2005. Just like any other teenager attending an elite school in Chennai, Shahid used to go out with friends and close relatives of his age to coffee bars. One day he spotted a few ‘cool’ guys, including a classmate, at the Cafe Coffee Day, which in those days used to have the hookah, gathered around for a session of what in popular perception was ‘harmless smoking’.He wanted to try it out himself and visited the place along with a cousin of his age a few days later and asked for strawberry flavour. Then he tried out other flavours, including chocolate. Within three weeks, he was at a street side shop near his house puffing a cigarette. He soon felt that smoking too was cool as he met many schoolboys at the shop and developed a wide circle of friends there. It became part of his life as even elder men bonded with him, sharing manly secrets as they puffed at the lighted stick. Of course no one asked him if he had crossed the legal age of 18 years to smoke.Then he went to college, a top notch arts and science institution in Chennai, and met richer boys. That was when a rich boy suggested that they do ‘grass’. So as a group they went out one day, stopped the car in a quiet spot, rolled a joint and lighted up. With that he stepped into the hazy world of marijuana.Though the smoke-filled journey from a ‘harmless hookah’ to a ‘banned marijuana’ took about four years, he lingered on the grass land, making periodical visits, for two years. What started as a once in a month affair became thrice to four times a week. By then, he personal life had suffered. He had bunked so many classes that he had to repeat a year in the college.Then he had also piled up arrears that became too many to clear in one go. That was when he realised that ganja was not going to help him and kicked the habit.In retrospect, he feels that if had not been curious and wanted to have a drag at the hookah six years ago just for the heck of it and also to send across the message to his friends that he too was ‘cool’, he might not have taken the smoke route and passed out of college in time. Hookah may not kill but it can be a gateway to getting hooked to deadly drugs.High prices, ban on bars push up machine salesShutting down a few hookah bars a few weeks ago might have left a lot of

teenagers disgruntled in the city, but owners of shops selling hookah

machines are a happy lot.Popular among regulars who crave their

daily flavoured puff, the ‘Kashmiri Emporiums’ in malls and other parts

of the city have been a source of manna in the wilderness. “This

month, we have had exceptional sales and our entry level hookahs (Rs

850-Rs 1,800) have been moving very well,” says Kishore, a salesman at

an emporium in Spencer Plaza. “In fact, we won’t even mind giving an

Aadi discount if sales keep up at this rate!” he adds with a smile. Another

shop owner offers to part with larger models for half the rate because

they are the only ones left in his stock. “This brass and marble piece

that I have had for four years is usually sold at Rs 5,000, but I am

willing to sell it even at `3,000 because we are actually re-ordering

stock from Jaipur after only three months,” he chirps.When asked if

hookahs can be transported overseas, Kishore says he “100 per cent

certain” that they can be exported, adding that a large part of his

clientele are foreigners. “We dismantle and pack the hookah part by part

so that the airport authorities have no issues with it,” he says. The

spike in sales has been noticed since late 2009, explains Kishore.

“Somehow, people realised that instead of paying Rs 500 for an hour of

smoking the hookah, they can actually buy a pipe for double that and use

it for life.” All the basic flavours—orange, peach, apple, mint,

chocolate and strawberry are available at Rs 90 per packet, while the

more exotic essences cost “a little more”.Without drugs, they are legitimateOver two weeks after the Chennai Corporation sealed four hookah

bars, the joints came under further pressure with the Madras High Court

directing the government to prohibit or strictly regulate their

functioning. City Commissioner of Police J K Tripathy explained that

it is a crime if the user laces drugs with the nicotine. “If we find

such things, stringent action will be taken against them.”And there

lies the catch: the police can’t initiate action against restaurants

just because they run a hookah bar, as it is covered neither under the

City Police Act nor under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances

Act, clarified a senior police officer.Cops can crack the whip only if restaurants, eyeing the youth, allow users to mix drugs in the hookah.Recalling

an incident at Triplicane last year, the officer said when the police

received a tip-off that three restaurants in the area were allowing

customers to lace the nicotine in the hookah with drugs, they conducted a

raid and shut them down. During the raid, the police found teenagers

using banned narcotic substances, like ganja. Some restaurants

reportedly gave the go-by to drugs under the pretext of a ‘herbal’

hookah.It was after this that the police lay down strict guidelines

for restaurants and set up CCTV cameras in the hookah booths, besides

insisting on an ‘adults only’ display board.“Only after the restaurants complied with our demands did we allow them to reopen,” said the officer.