Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Health authorities say that six million smokers in the Kingdom spend a whopping SR11 billion annually to satisfy their urge for nicotine. Smokers in Saudi Arabia are mainly between the ages of 17 and 40, Ali Zaeri, a psychology expert, was quoted by local media as saying. “The latest problem is the emergence of young girls who smoke shishas,” he added. Jeddah tops the list of areas where young people smoke cigarettes and shishas, Zaeri said. The expert said some stores break the law by selling cigarettes to those less than 18 years of age and that children under the age of 10 have been seen buying and smoking cigarettes. In 2010, a health official said that the number of smokers in Saudi Arabia reached six million, including 600,000 women and 772,000 teenagers. Expatriates also account for a significant number of those consuming cigarettes in the Kingdom despite the increase in campaigns about health concerns, the adoption of several legislative restrictions and new views on the effects of passive smoking. Zaeri said that “there is a mafia engaged in pushing cigarettes in Saudi Arabia and its members use any means at their disposal to promote tobacco products and hamper research on the damage caused by smoking.” Officials in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's leading consumers of cigarettes, have often stressed a ban on smoking in public places. “Since we are a Muslim country, we must be an example for other countries in applying the rules of Islam that call for preserving people's money and interests and public healthcare,” Prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz, Interior Minister, said in July. “We must stress that smoking is banned in all closed places, including coffee shops, restaurants, shopping malls and crowded areas. The ban extends to cigarettes and to shishas.” In July, a Saudi judge ruled that a woman who suffered from her husband's smoking was allowed to file charges against him. “Legal rules applied in such cases could reach the stage of divorce,” Appeals Judge Ebrahim Khodairi said. The judge said that if a woman found out that her husband was a smoker and that she had any health issue resulting from his smoking, the marriage could be annulled. Meanwhile, smokers of the hubble-bubble water pipe have until Saturday to indulge their fondness for sweet flavored tobacco in Jeddah's cafes as authorities prepare to enforce a public ban on the habit. There is a law against smoking shisha in public places, but it is only now being implemented in Jeddah. “It's a big problem for our cafe. More than 80 percent of our customers come to smoke shisha. Now they complain as soon as they walk through the door when we say we won't have shisha,” said Ghassan Mohammed Mansour, the manager of Jeddah's upscale Caffe Aroma in a phone interview. — With input from Agencies
