In North Africa and the Middle East, a widespread ritual prevails among many young people: a ritual that I once enjoyed daily, but which I no longer participate in. The Egyptians call it by many names—khabur, dabus, cubea—but the ritual remains the same. Every evening, and particularly on Thursday evenings, tens of thousands of middle-class men from all over the capital go home (to their parents' house until they get married), have dinner, go out to meet friends and smoke hashish in the streets. They send calls, missed calls and texts to friends, anxious and curious: "Where can we score tonight?" Young people sit on the hoods of their cars, smoking cigarettes one after another, but it's not enough. Finally, after driving around Abbasaya and Heliopolis in groups of Peugeot, Mitsubishi and Daewoo, a deal is concluded. They get back in the car, drive to a seized location and, sitting on the hood or on the sidewalk, cut a thin 10g ribbon of hashish. piece (an 'ersh). The ribbon is heated and rolled between the fingers or into a crisp 10-piastra note, until it becomes perfectly round, long and thin, forming a khabur. Then, a cigarette is placed in a small glass, and the khabur is hung on the cigarette and lit as incense. A paper placed over the mouth of the cup captures the smoke. The glass slowly fills with smoke and, when it is full, you inhale the aromatic smoke and allow the cup to be filled again. The cup is then passed around for all to smoke, the same way Alexandrian sailors smoked hashish centuries ago. The ritual, shown to me for the first time by four police officers in the Carrefour car park in Alexandria, is wrapped in etiquette and always carried out in a group manner. There is generally no correct direction to p...... middle of paper ......nunbreakable social stratification, the cup ritual is a way to calm one's anxieties and move forward. It is a way to reaffirm group identity and friendships, and one of the few avenues of recreation available to Cairo's vanishing middle-class youth. Therefore, the ritual has a very direct function in Egyptian society and also for the individual. Unfortunately, due to the draconian crackdown on drug traffickers along Egypt's northern coast, the price of hashish has risen exponentially over the past two years, putting this latest cultural phenomenon and recreational activity out of reach of all but the most wealthy Caireneans. rich. Although smoking has many negative effects, it also has many positive aspects. Contrary to the American belief that cannabis makes you unproductive, in Egypt it is seen as a tonic for dull or boring work and as a great way to relax at the end of the day. Good times.