Everyone loves to pay $30 to suck peach-flavored smoke out of skinny Slinkys, because it makes you look sophisticated and tastes great. But unfortunately teenagers seem to be abusing their hookah privileges, and two New York state pols want to harsh their buzz (which is delicious carbon monoxide). State Senator Martin Golden and Assemblyman Alec Krasny are putting their partisan differences aside and sponsoring a bill that would "prohibit the sale of hookahs, water pipes, and shisha to minors." However perhaps all the underage hookah smokers have less to worry about than the underage…kids who need "water pipes" for their really important science project .
So far the bill has passed the Senate 138-0, and awaits approval from the Assembly. The legislation dovetails nicely with councilman Gentile's proposal that all new hookah bars be banned in 2012. Gentile notes in a press release that the law would be "an important part of making our approach to smoking consistent," given that teenagers are barred from purchasing cigarettes and other tobacco products, but not hookahs or shisha, which "contains tar, heavy metals and other cancer-causing chemicals."
As much as we hate the nanny state (where are these teenagers hiding their hookahs? In their lockers?) maybe a ban on shisha could help teenagers focus on more important things.
