Hookah Tobacco Use

Tobacco use is the single most harmful drug in the U.S. Its main ingredient, nicotine is highly addictive and leads to cancer, lung disease and cardiovascular disease. As with many drugs, manufacturers have created an alternative to this highly addictive drug by creating a filtering process to give a false interpretation of the underlying side effects. This new method is hookah.
The contents of this article discussed hookah use among college students and the concurrent use of other drugs such as alcohol, cigarette smoke, cannabis, cocaine, and stimulants. Among the population of undergraduate hookah users, a brief investigation of mental health (ie anxiety, depression) and stress in relation to hookah use was also analyzed. Results showed …show more content…
This article has greatly impacted my understanding of drug use, specifically nicotine. I learned that the health effects of nicotine are chronic, meaning constant and prolonged use yields addiction and nearly irreversible health effects. Furthermore, I learned that the use of hookah although it is filtered with water has similar health effects as cigarette smoke,often more harmful than cigarette smoke. In fact, hookah second hand smoke has more carcinogens than cigarette second hand smoke. How can something that was supposed to be less dangerous, display more negative health effects than the “real deal?” The answer that I obtained from the reading is that repetitive activity and drug concentration play a role in the severity of health outcomes.
Other interesting findings from this paper made me think of other aspects of hookah use such as the health effects associated with regulated and unrelated drugs. Hookah is unregulated in the U.S. which makes it a high profile drug among the younger population. The unregulation of this drug plays a significant role in the effects that are seen in users. In other words, without regulation of a drug the likelihood of abuse thus deleterious health effects greatly