# Can tobacco be used with a bong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903 "2002-07-20T00:46:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/1 "2002-07-20T00:46:47Z")
I heard that inhaling smoke (well, at least marijuana smoke) filtered through a “bong” is a healthier way of consuming the drug. Can the same be done with tobacco? Could I get a nicotine buzz using a bong? ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/2 "2002-07-20T01:10:34Z")
Back in my youth when money was short and I could not afford smokes, I would collect butts for the left over tobacco. It tasted a lot nastier than a regular cigarette, sort of like a non filter cigarette. You won’t get any more of a “buzz” than you would from a normal cigarette. I have a better idea, quit smoking altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Ave\_Minerva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@Ave\_Minerva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ave_Minerva)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/3 "2002-07-20T01:11:57Z")
I have an old National Geographic that has a picture of a man in Thailand smoking (I guess) tobacco in a bong. I believe National Geo called it a “water pipe”, but it was a bong. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/4 "2002-07-20T01:24:36Z")
yes, you can get a buzz. but from my (and friends’) experience, you are more likely to get sick to your stomach. even if you are a regular smoker (of cigarettes). anyway, a bit of a hijack, but i can’t swallow the whole ‘bongs are better for you’ mentality. to be honest, i have never sucked more smoke (and sucked it deeper and harder) than i have from a bong. especially a gravity bong (ooh, the delicious pain). jb ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/5 "2002-07-20T01:33:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ave Minerva \* > \*\*I have an old National Geographic that has a picture of a man in Thailand smoking (I guess) tobacco in a bong. I believe National Geo called it a “water pipe”, but it was a bong. \*\* When I was a boy I had a “Dennis The Menace” comic where Dennis gives Mr. Wilson a “water pipe” or [“hookah”](http://www.tierracaliente.com/hookahm.shtml). That Hank Ketchum and his sly drug references! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/6 "2002-07-20T01:37:42Z")
A hookah cools the smoke, making it possible to inhale more, more deeply. You get less thermal damage to your lungs from the smoke, but more exposure to the toxins in the smoke. Overall, it tends to tip the balance towards being worse for you rather than better. At least so my pulmonology readings have told me. QtM, MD ---
**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/7 "2002-07-20T02:29:13Z")
It can become really “smooth.” There’s a middle eastern restaurant in ‘alphabet city’ in NYC that provides coal hookahs with disposable mouth piece covers and flavored tobacco. I don’t smoke, but gave it a try. I kept inhaling waiting for the smoke. When I couldn’t inhale anymore, gave up, and exhaled out came the smoke and the smell/taste of strawberry. I hadn’t felt the smoke in my lungs at all, but inhaling 2nd hand cigarette smoke can make me cough. PC ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/8 "2002-07-20T03:36:45Z")
Every head shop I’ve ever been to sells them as, ahem, Tobacco Water Pipes. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/9 "2002-07-20T04:34:29Z")
Isn’t that the only way they can legally sell bongs, by advertising them for tobacco use only? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tobacco-be-used-with-a-bong/119903/10 "2002-07-20T04:49:21Z")
Or as decorations, yes (at least I don’t know where drug paraphernalia can be sold legally in the U.S. Obviously, the statement doesn’t apply to other countries).