Arab teens embracing tobacco product five times stronger than regular cigarettes

Despite campaigns on the risks of smoking, teenagers in the United Arab Emirates are turning to a little-known tobacco product five times more potent than cigarettes and said to cause seizures.

Omar, an 18-year-old Sudanese student in Abu Dhabi, describes how each hit of medwakh - a legal product inhaled from a small pipe - makes him feel.

"It's a horrible habit. But if I don't do it my head hurts," he said. "I feel I need it."

Omar is not alone in smoking medwakh, which means "dizziness" in Arabic; the product is reportedly popular among young people throughout the United Arab Emirates.

One puff is enough to make the smoker light-headed, or as one 17-year-old ex-smoker who identified himself as 'Clique-C' said he felt "relaxed".

Based on 2013 statistics from the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation, 15.6 per cent of male teenagers smoke tobacco daily in the UAE, as do 18.1 per cent of men.

And while there are no official statistics on the use of medwakh among young people, researchers say the habit is widespread.