Without drugs, they are legitimate

CHENNAI: Over two weeks after the Chennai Corporation sealed four hookah bars, the joints came under further pressure with the Madras High Court directing the government to prohibit or strictly regulate their functioning. City Commissioner of Police J K Tripathy explained that it is a crime if the user laces drugs with the nicotine. “If we find such things, stringent action will be taken against them.”And there lies the catch: the police can’t initiate action against restaurants just because they run a hookah bar, as it is covered neither under the City Police Act nor under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, clarified a senior police officer.Cops can crack the whip only if restaurants, eyeing the youth, allow users to mix drugs in the hookah.Recalling an incident at Triplicane last year, the officer said when the police received a tip-off that three restaurants in the area were allowing customers to lace the nicotine in the hookah with drugs, they conducted a raid and shut them down. During the raid, the police found teenagers using banned narcotic substances, like ganja. Some restaurants reportedly gave the go-by to drugs under the pretext of a ‘herbal’ hookah.It was after this that the police lay down strict guidelines for restaurants and set up CCTV cameras in the hookah booths, besides insisting on an ‘adults only’ display board.“Only after the restaurants complied with our demands did we allow them to reopen,” said the officer.