Hookah in USA

Hookah is used for smoking that first originated in India many centuries ago. Other synonyms that are identical for hookah are Turkish pipe, shisha, goza, hubble bubble and narghile.

Usually hookah has the following constructions: pipe for smoking with a long flexible tube whereby the smoke cools down by passing through water.

Coming from India and Pakistan, this kind of smoking became popular in Turkey. Here, hookah was smoked by upper class and intellectuals.

Usually, hookah is decorated with different intricate paintings, mosaics, images that make it more impressive and notable. Soon, this habit was spread to neighboring states. In USA and Europe it comes in 1960.

Today, hookah is very popular among American students. For example Amin Alomran, SCSU first-year student majoring in business computer information systems, said he first tried to smoke hookah when he was 16-years-old when was with his friends. Amin said that it became so popular because it is new to United States. It differs in taste and effect in comparison with smoking of ordinary cigarettes.

Alomran also stated that some used juice instead of water in hookahs. This combination gives the hookah more flavors, creating a mixture of flavors in both the tobacco and the water.

In the past, Alomran was a cigarettes smoker, now it quit and starts to smoke hookah. He said people appeal to hookah less often than cigarettes. “I believe that cigarettes keep you smoking them continually throughout the day, but for hookah, you smoke it less often, and not on a regular basis. He, also added, “When we are smoking (hookah) with my friends, we have more conversation. That is what I like in it (hookah).” Alomran smokes hookah about four times a week, he said.

Lisa Carr, Liz Schmidtke and Jaynie Peter, St. Benedict University students, first tried smoking hookah through their friends. “It was very fun the first time,” Schmidtke said. Peter’s experience was a little different. He recounted that first impression of smoking hookah was very weird. Now, hookah becomes a friendly tradition. “Neither of us smokes cigarettes at all,” Lisa Carr said. “(The Hookah is) very relaxing.”

Schmidtke said: “Some people do it for relaxation, or if they used to smoke, this is something different to get them off smoking.”

Speaking about popularity that gain hookah smoking, Peter said:”I think it’s becoming a lot more popular now. I never even knew about it, and now more and more people have it.”