Lebanese smokers bubble with anger after govt imposes hookah tax
Date:2019-5-29 21:19:04 Clicks:438 【Font Size:
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Flipping the hot coals on his green hookah in a crowded Beirut cafe, Abbas Nasreddine says Lebanon's new austerity budget has spoilt his daily treat of smoking a water pipe.
"It's how we deflate stress," says the 26-year-old university student, a long drag of mint-scented smoke rising overhead.
"But now our tool for coping with our worries has become a worry itself," he said, fiddling with the hookah's long hose.
Nasreddine is among many regular smokers who are displeased with a government decision to impose a new tax on water pipes as part of a larger austerity package.
They will soon have to pay an additional 1,000 Lebanese pounds ($0.66) for every water pipe they order in the country's cafes and restaurants.
The World Health Organization has warned that a full hookah is equivalent to smoking 20 to 30 cigarettes at once, and has linked the practice to lung damage and cancer.