“So, I had my meeting with the Dean about hookah the other day,” Katie Cullinan ‘08 began as she bent over to grab the slender tube that is now a familiar sight at Dartmouth. After taking a few deep breaths of the dry fragrant tobacco, she continued, explaining that her voluntary meeting was due to the fact that the College considers hookah to be “drug paraphernalia” and possession to be suspect.

Also known as the nargile, hubbly bubbly, shisha, or waterpipe, the hookah’s inception into American and collegiate culture has been relatively rapid. Although it has been popular in Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries since the time of Murat IV (1623-1640), its recent popularity in the US can perhaps be traced to Ali El Sayad, who opened the first New York City hookah bar at 14 Steinway Street in 1988. Within the space of a few years, that stretch of street became known for the sweet smell of smoke and the calm peaceful atmosphere that led to hookah’s quick spike in popularity nationwide. In the new age health-freak venues of LA, the first oxygen bar, O2, opened a few years ago offering - that’s right - oxygen pumped out by hookahs. The tobacco industry’s recent estimations approximate between 200 and 300 new hookah bars have opened across the United States. One student - who wished to remain anonymous - was introduced to “the wonderful world of hookah smoking in this lovely, charming Moroccan hookah bar in downtown Philadelphia” by, ironically, her coworkers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

As Ann K. Irvine ‘06 put it, hookah is “the perfect social medium.” And, it’s so relaxing that it might even be a feasible alternative to my indulgence in boat races or phi die. Recently, student organizations at Dartmouth have begun to capitalize on these properties of this ancient recreational experience. Organizations as diverse as Hillel and Buzzflood have held successful hookah nights meant both to attract new members and build solidarity within their organizations.

As useful as hookah might be, Safety & Security crackdown endangers the trend’s growth. For hookah, students have been cited or harassed for possessing drug paraphernalia on several occasions. Yet students who are both marijuana users and veteran hookah smokers dismiss the charge that hookah is used for anything less legal than tobacco. They note that they like to travel with their hookahs and that marijuana resin inside of the body would not allow them to do so. They also note that smoking marijuana in a hookah would be “a waste of weed”: meaning it just wouldn’t burn satisfactorily. Cullinan noted the fanciful nature of these charges: “Technically, Sarah Michelle Gellar snorts crack out of a crucifix necklace in Cruel Intentions - but they aren’t considered drug paraphernalia.”

Harry Kinne, Director of Safety and Security and the College Proctor, noted that “hookahs are not necessarily prohibited if used legally” and that “hookahs have been used at the college to smoke illegal substances.” Officers in routine patrol may also “ask the person how it is used or if there is some reason to suspect it has been used illegally check it to see if it appears to have been used [in that manner].”

Yet, the changes in housing policy and routine patrols that threaten hookah at Dartmouth and, according to Sarah Overton ‘07, force hookah smoking to be “hidden from Safety and Security in private rooms,” come amidst other overarching trends. According to the CDC, tobacco and cigarette use among high school students has fallen to the lowest level since 1975. The number of high school smokers is down 36% from 1997 alone. In the minds of administrators and policymakers (New York has also cracked down on hookah smoking on Steinway Street for ostensible “smoking law” violation), the rise in popularity of hookah, coupled with the perceptions that the activity is not harmful, threatens public health. Indeed, even smokers at Dartmouth seem to believe that hookah is relatively harmless.

Yet Thomas Eisenberg, head of the Clinical and Pharmacology Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, stated that carbon monoxide and nicotine levels delivered to the hookah user seem to be the same as those delivered through a cigarette. Rebecca McGill, director for the American Smoker’s Helpline states that the onset of oral cancer, lung cancer, decreased fertility, and other tobacco related disorders are correlated with hookah.

This concern is only one symptom of the underlying clash of cultures that hookah represents. In the midst of attempting to assimilate a foreign cultural practice, certain values have been maintained that clash with mainstream United States health-centric, anti-smoking ones. Chloe Mulderig ‘05 notes: “To me, the hookah is not only a mode of recreation, but a way of taking part in traditional Middle Eastern practices. I brought my hookah home from Morocco, and it is a part of my experience as a Muslim and an aficionado of Maghrebi Culture.” Indeed, in the context of a college campus and society that emphasizes multiculturalism as a movement, it seems both wasteful and pointless to crack down on this practice. As we promote the influx of students from cultures and countries that accept hookah into their ritual and recreation, hookah smoking at Dartmouth will not only to continue, it will also increase.

Despite next year’s smoking ban in all dormitories, students are hopeful about Dartmouth’s hookah future. Some like Kristina Conner ‘08 wish “Hanover had a hookah bar” while others suggest that “fraternities and sororities would be smart to incorporate a hookah bar for fun.” Others, like Rahim Budhwani ‘05 state that “hookah smoking should be done everywhere.”

Here at Dartmouth, where the favorite flavor is Double Apple, hookah’s popularity, like that of quite a few other practices, seems set to grow with or without the blessings of administrators. That this foreign cultural practice with its rhythmic bubbling and fragrant smoke has so captured the imaginations of college students across the country is no surprise. When asked what animal a hookah resembles, one student described it “as an iridescent jellyfish that doesn’t like to sting but tickle.” The greatest mystery of the universe now solved, hookah users can finally return to taking peaceful draughts of smoke.