Hookahs For Minors

[glenh12]

i recently found a hookah in my sons room and i was wondering how u think he got it. He is only 16 years old. I know there is a local head shop around town. do u think this head shop would sell a hookah to a 16 year old? this poses another question .

would a local head shop sell a hookah-

-shisha

-bowl

-coal

all to a minor.
i can believe the charcoal (i have doubts)..but what about all the others?

please respond and state which items a minor can buy.

FYI i live in new york.

[mdl]

I know when I was 16 I knew people who were 18+.

[glenh12]

I know when I was 16 I knew people who were 18+.

yes but he has no siblings and is rather shy. Im almost positive he doesnt have any friends that are 18+. and i dont think he would hang outside the local headshop and ask someone to buy it for him.

[drfefe2]

Sometimes it is a simple matter of lazy tobacco shop owners; they just don't really card if you look old enough. Also he could have purchased it online, they don't card either. To my knowledge a minor cannot even buy a lighter let alone coals or any tobacco product, the owner of the store might want to take a chance to get more sales.

[mobbed]

finding someone whos 18 or older who would buy it is not hard at all so i wouldnt worry about how he got it so much as he has it and probably isnt using it for decoration i started smoking hookah when i was 14 or so i would just make sure he isnt using it for the other things hookah is misconstrued for smoking out of

[kudomonster]

There's tons of ways. I would say he ordered online, 18+ friend, or bought it off someone else. The way you perceive him is probably not how he is around others...
It's absolutely illegal for a head shop to sell any of the aforementioned products to minors.

[leadpipecinch21]

not only is it illegal for a headshop to sell to a minor, technically it's illegal for a minor to even be in the store, since tobaccianna is solely for those that are 18+.

but, it's definitely easy to get around this kind of stuff. as others have said, it's not hard finding someone who's 18+. ordering online is definitely possible, though i don't know if he has access to a card of some sort...even if he did you should have seen a random charge for $100 or so with hookah or something of that nature in the name on his statements.


oh, and talk to your son about it. don't yell at him or get pissed off, just talk with him. smoking might not be something you like, but it's a decision every person makes, whether or not they're of age or not...so hear him out. just don't go off the deep end on the kid...he's at the point where he needs to start making his own decisions. Edited July 23, 2008 by leadpipecinch21

[mattathayde]

ya its not hard for people, even "shy" people to get people older than them to buy stuff.

now i am not going to even attempt to try and tell you how to raise your child but i want to put out some thoughts to think about, and feel free to say "your a stupid college kid, shut it"

1) remember that as a teen ager what you "can't" do you want to do and probably will do
2)while he is still "under your control" he doenst want to think that probably and trying to control him hard core at this point may be worse when he turns 18
3) anecdote: A) had a friend that was smoking (cigs) and doing a lot of other bad junk but because his parents kept trying to restrict him he used stuff more and more, when they lightened up he calmed down, and visa versa, another friend smoked and did some drugs in highschool and his parents never really caught him but kinda knew some stuff was up but never really said anything (but they smoked, drank, and did some drugs them selves) and now he is not much worse than he was.

so basically im just trying to get you to make sure you look at it from his perspective and to think about what your reaction is and how it will be taken. you seem a little more angered at the fact he was able to get it and seem to be upset about a lost of trust (yes/no?) as apposed to the fact he was smoking.


now, this is putting on totally different shoes as guessing how i would walk but if i was in your position i may talk to him, make sure he is not using it for other things and then maybe allow it at home, but again not trying to tell you to raise your son, just pointing out that theres not a lot more time you can control

-matt

[srawas89]

It is illegal to sell tobacco to minors but some head shops are pretty shady and will sell to just about anybody. Sometimes they dont card because the person looks old enough. My guess is he could have probably got it from a friend. And trust me just because he seems shy to you does not mean that he is that way around others (don't mean to scare you) every kid has lied to their parents or has put up some kind of impression that they are one thing when they might be another.

[glenh12]

ya its not hard for people, even "shy" people to get people older than them to buy stuff.

now i am not going to even attempt to try and tell you how to raise your child but i want to put out some thoughts to think about, and feel free to say "your a stupid college kid, shut it"

1) remember that as a teen ager what you "can't" do you want to do and probably will do
2)while he is still "under your control" he doenst want to think that probably and trying to control him hard core at this point may be worse when he turns 18
3) anecdote: A) had a friend that was smoking (cigs) and doing a lot of other bad junk but because his parents kept trying to restrict him he used stuff more and more, when they lightened up he calmed down, and visa versa, another friend smoked and did some drugs in highschool and his parents never really caught him but kinda knew some stuff was up but never really said anything (but they smoked, drank, and did some drugs them selves) and now he is not much worse than he was.

so basically im just trying to get you to make sure you look at it from his perspective and to think about what your reaction is and how it will be taken. you seem a little more angered at the fact he was able to get it and seem to be upset about a lost of trust (yes/no?) as apposed to the fact he was smoking.


now, this is putting on totally different shoes as guessing how i would walk but if i was in your position i may talk to him, make sure he is not using it for other things and then maybe allow it at home, but again not trying to tell you to raise your son, just pointing out that theres not a lot more time you can control

-matt

i have already talked to him about the hookah and i allow him to smoke it every now and then. but not with other friends. i asked him how he got it but for some odd reason he wont tell me how. i was just curious what others thought. im now thinking he got it from someone who was 18+, considering he doesn't have access to a card where he can buy it offline.

[mattathayde]

you probably wont get it out of him where he got it, either he would rat out a friend or think he would get a place busted thus everyone else couldnt go and get stuff under age.

-matt

[Speak_In_Vowels]

well i know when i used to work at a hookah lounge, minors would always come in and hang out. some of them became close to the owner and eventually he sold them stuff.

also i know that a few tobacco shops around me, sell hookahs and shisha and they dont card.

[blckngld760]

when i was 17 i used to buy shisha coals and even cigarettes at my local smoke shop and they never carded me

[wpw36]

i would say it doesn't serve any purpose yelling at him my mom does that at me even though i am 19, all it does it make me mad and show that she doesn't respect me as an adult. at 16 he wants to be seen as a adult even though he might not legally be one he might think he is. i would say treat him as an adult and talk to him about it don't get mad it serve any purpose talk to him like you would expect another adult to treat you

[mushrat]

As a hookah bar owner with retail, i regularly have to kick kids out who aren't 18. It's likely, depending on how old you son LOOKS he might be getting it from a lavy shop owner. If he doesn't have a debt card, have you checked YOUR card lately for every charge? Also, it's easy to use cash to get disposable credit cards that he can use online. A;so some places still allow pay pal to be used, though it is against their own rules. Have you checked HIS bank account lately? It's also possible a friend got it for him. He may be shy but it only really takes 1 friend to buy the stuff.

There is also another possibility, and that one may explain his reluctance to tell you. He may have simply bought it from some other kid, friend or no, 18 or not, who had one to sell. Same with the supplies. Once he had a hookah or knew how to talk like he knew what he was doing to fool a shop into sellign him supplies. More liekly to get away with than buying a whole rig from them.

Take a picture of your son to the local head shop, show them a picture and ask if he ever bought anything there. They may of course lie, but you can warn them that if you find out they ARE selling to him, and you have iinformed them the's 16, you can make things rather hairy for them. This may make them think twice about selling to him AGAIN.

That's what id do from a retailers point of view, so im not going to presume as a bunch of thore people who have no kids themselves have to tell you how to handle it. I have no kids of my own.

Good luck.

[SuburbanSmoker]

You bet your ass they will...well at least where i live. And fakes are not hard to come by.

[Codename067]

Watch out!!!

[greeknate88]

I'm 20 and my parents won't let me smoke at home, my Mom would even kill me if she found out I smoked. Dumb, but you don't have much leverage when someone else pays your tuition bills.

And growing up, it was never a problem to find people to buy "things" for my friends.

[vin13]

All of the shops around here card like crazy and I look old for 22. He likely got it from a friend or walked into the right shop. Edited July 23, 2008 by vin13

[mattathayde]

I'm 20 and my parents won't let me smoke at home, my Mom would even kill me if she found out I smoked. Dumb, but you don't have much leverage when someone else pays your tuition bills.

And growing up, it was never a problem to find people to buy "things" for my friends.

well my moms a nurse and when i said i was going to buy a rig before i move in to my apartment the only thing she said was "that is coming out of YOUR money right?" (since they have been supplying all the main stuff for my apartment and pay my bills/tuition). kind of expected a little more resistance.

-matt

[speel]

where in ny?

[TBatcho07]

There are a couple places around me that sell liquor and ciggarettes to minors..It's total bullshit.

[jezter6]

Any NHT shop in either a big city or college town will be much less likely to check ID.

In places like that, tobacco is such a small part of their business that they probably don't even realize that it is tobacco and needs to be regulated as such. Usually they just see 'shisha' and 'molasses' on it and figure it's just flavored crap for the yuppie kids to smoke while the stoners can get their fix off the other PVC vaporizer pipes in the store.

[benton]

I have never been to a headshop that has checked ID. Most of their business is minors so they'd be killing their business not to. However, any respectable tobacco shop I have been to is quite the contrary.


Before I was 18, I had absolutely no trouble buying any tobacco related products. It's pretty simple with siblings, friends older siblings, shoulder tap, find a store that doesn't card, etc.

[hookah hippie]

head shops (at least where I used to live) Rarely card I have seen them card people maybe 5 times and been buying tobacco at them for years