Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Aug 7, 2006 -- Combine South Florida weather and the decadent pleasures of smoking fruit-flavored tobacco from a three-foot-tall water pipe and, well, you have yourself a mellow experience.

A legal, mellow experience.

Hookahs, also known as shisha pipes, have been growing in popularity throughout the nation over the past seven years, according to tobacco trade magazines and retailers.

Scott Graber, sales manager of the Austin-based hookah-shisha.com, one of the nation's top retailers of hookah products, said that Florida ranks as its third-biggest market for both commercial and personal use.

Hookahs are ancient, oversize decorative Middle Eastern water pipes that conjure romantic images of puffing Arab sheiks, stoned hippies or the caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland.

''It gives you a euphoric feeling,'' said Nat Spencer, a waiter at Hollywood Pita Cafe -- soon to be aptly renamed The Taboo Lounge -- at 250 N. Broadwalk on Hollywood beach, where, for $10, you can order a hookah and choose between 18 selections of flavored tobacco, including peach, rose and double apple.

Owner Ehab Atallah, who opened the hookah lounge last month, said most people partake after dining on some of the cafe's hummus, falafel or kabob platters -- cooked by his mom, chef Fitna Atallah -- for the full Middle Eastern experience.

With satisfied tummies, they then retire to the cafe's sexy dark lounge, with plush velvet sofas, ornate tables and soft Middle Eastern music.

People who want to smoke in solitude come in weekdays in the midafternoon.

But those who want the festive experience -- complete with belly dancers, singers and musicians -- come weekend evenings.

''The mood is different, depending on what time of day you come,'' said Atallah, whose hookah lounge attracts customers in the 22- to 45-year-old age bracket -- those with money to spend.

Hookah smoking has been popular among college students for some time, but is just starting to take off among other adults.

''Media exposure to the Middle East is the biggest factor in growth. Servicemen and women returning from Iraq have embraced it. And it is seen as the cool social thing to do among college students,'' Graber said.

In South Florida, the Tantra Lounge in South Beach and the Funky Buddha Lounge in Boca Raton also offer the eyebrow-raising image of smoking something naughty out of a large ice-water-filled bong-like device.

People smoke outdoors or in the exotic lounge areas designed for the experience.

And yes, like cigarettes, it is hazardous to your health.

''Tobacco smoking causes cancer. In fact, a recent study shows that 45 minutes of hookah smoking is equivalent to smoking one pack of cigarettes,'' said Ray Carson, Florida spokesman for the American Cancer Society.

Last year, a research article published in the Office Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics stated: ``water-pipe smoke is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke.''

What is puffed through a thin, hand-held hose connected to the water-filled base is a heated, sticky, mushy blend consisting of 30 percent tobacco and 70 percent fruit, honey, herbs, flowers and molasses.

This mixture is packed into a bowl on top of the hookah and covered with aluminum foil. A hot charcoal is placed on top of the foil to ignite the mixture.

When the user inhales through the hose, the smoke is cooled as it passes through the ice water bowl. The cooled smoke, which has a small amount of nicotine, is inhaled slowly.

Hookahs are usually shared with a friend or two. The process takes about 45 minutes.

''I tried one at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Cleveland. I liked it, the fruit flavor was tasty, and the truth is, it got me high -- legally,'' said Paul Krassner of Desert Hot Springs, Calif., a longtime contributor to High Times magazine who co-founded the Yippie movement with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman in the 1960s.

According to Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, of Sausalito, Calif., who specializes in the causes and effects of addiction, continuously and deeply inhaling cooled, flavorful tobacco mixtures will cause the user to experience a very relaxed, elated mood.

''And if the user is traditionally a nonsmoker, they will experience an even more concentrated feeling of relaxation, because their system is not used to the effects of inhaled smoke,'' Schoenfeld said. ``A nontobacco user will experience an altered mental state.''

Occasional cigar smoker Tony Perrotti, 48, of Brooklyn, N.Y., lounging on a sofa at the Hollywood cafe, agreed.

''I like this,'' he said, grinning as he puffed a peach-flavored mixture. ``It makes me feel very relaxed, very much at peace with the world.''