Secretary-general of IATA in a meeting with Imam of Friday’s prayer of Varamin, while mentioning that the bill for forbidding tobacco consumption was sent to the parliament, said that we have a plan for revival of teahouses that through it they can perform cultural activities like reciting Shahnameh and poetry nights instead of providing hookah.
Mohammad Reza Masjedi continued that with implementing this plan, we prevent any loss of these businesses and people will enjoy cultural activities instead of smoking hookah. He said that we start this plan from Varamin and fortunately the Imam of Friday’s prayer of this town, Ayatollah Morteza Mahmoodi supported this plan completely. Hopefully, after Varamin, this plan will be implemented nationwide.
He said that with the promotion of cultural products in these places, the families will go to these places both for having fun and also for buying the cultural products they need; we should know that it’s not necessary to damage people’s health and their values to earn a profit.
Dr. Masjedi mentioned that there are more than 4 million people with substance use disorder in Iran whom half of them abuse substances regularly and the other half do it casually. He said that the key element is that the gateway to addiction, is tobacco consumption and as long as the tobacco companies produce cigarettes full-powered, there is no hope for reducing tobacco consumption and we should expect growth in addiction and other social problems.
