HYDERABAD: While Karimnagar police recently decided to identify pan shops selling hookah flavours, apparatus and issue notices to them against their sale, the scenario is not that serious in Hyderabad even though the city police have managed to shut the parlours.
Denizens manage to buy all flavours and apparatus including pots, coal bricks etc at any unassuming pan shop in the city. The city police who went all guns blazing in making sure youth doesn’t pick up drugs through hookah smoking, have failed to realise that shops still sell hookah products.
Sheesha, the pot that forms the basis of hookah, is sold at a price ranging between `450 and `12,000 and flavours, the tobacco mixture is sold between `60 and `100 depending on the place from which one procures. Available at many pan shops and perfume shops in the city, the products are relatively cheap for long-term use when purchased compared to what a parlour serves.
“A hookah parlour in the upmarket localities of Hyderabad charges between `800 and `1200 with just two hours to sit. But when we prepare our own hookah, we can have it for as long as we want.
It is cheaper this way,” said a hookah smoker. And, moreover, the purpose of banning hookah is defeated when one can buy it in stores, he added.
“Since all parlours are closed, we are mixing flavours by ourselves and are hanging out at our houses to smoke hookah. It is much more convenient now as we do not have to worry about police raids in parlours citing our age,” said a 17-year-old. While coffee shops and hookah parlours claim innocence with respect to drug abuse, shops supplying hookah products find fault with some owners. “Some hookah parlours who provide a unique flavour might mix other tobacco substances including ganja. This might have irked police,” said a supplier on condition of anonymity.
Police said the ban was purely in view of the Supreme Court’s order to stop people serving any kind of service other than hookah in a smoking zone. “We are implementing the Supreme Court’s ruling and are not concerned about a person’s individual choices,” said A Venkateshwar Rao, deputy commissioner of police (West Zone).