Tobacco
Today, there is probably no drug that is more highly campaigned against than tobacco. Images of diseased lungs have become standard on cigarette packets in many countries, yet Bhutan is the only country where the sale of tobacco is actually outlawed.
The campaign against smoking is such that photos of the likes of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Winston Churchill have had their trademark cigars airbrushed out in school textbooks. This is also true for Paul McCartney's cigarette on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album.
This Orwellian rewriting of history is dangerous and counter-productive. While there can be no doubt about the proven multiple dangers of tobacco smoking, particularly as manufactured cigarettes, the plain truth is that many smokers do not regard nicotine as a serious drug in the same way they do heroin. Despite the constant anti-smoking messages and restrictive laws about where one is permitted to smoke, tobacco brings in huge amounts of revenue in the form of tax, and therefore governments have a vested interest in keeping it legal.
Cigarette smoking is still seen as cool among many young people. James Dean was rarely seen without a cigarette, while Che Guevara was often photographed with a cigar. It has been proven that it is actually more difficult for a teenager to give up smoking than a sixty a day addict who has been smoking for most of their life, as a teenager doesn't have the same motivation for stopping.
Until the First World War, cigarettes were generally only used by the upper classes. The majority of people smoked tobacco in pipes (nowadays associated with old men) or chewed it. Snuff, rarely in use in modern times, was also widely used. Cigars are still associated with the rich, though as attitudes towards smoking have changed, this is changing too.
Tobacco was in fact chewed by the indigenous Americans with little or no negative effects long before the Europeans arrived in the New World. It was also smoked ritually for ceremonial purposes in small amounts. Before the development of different strains of tobacco, the early rough tobacco could not be inhaled directly, leading to the development of water pipes and bongs. When the Europeans arrived, tobacco became a popular trade item and indeed underpinned the economy of the Southern US states before cotton became the main crop. Tobacco is native mainly to the Americas and Caribbean islands, particularly Cuba, famous for its cigars, but also Turkey, Greece and other parts of the Balkans, depending on the variety of plant. Like cannabis, there is not just one sort of tobacco plant, and different plants have different tastes and aromas.
Medical research into tobacco is generally limited to the effects of smoking rather than other forms of usage, but there can be no question that first and second hand smoke is dangerous. China is the world's largest consumer of tobacco, though attitudes are beginning to change due to extensive campaigns. The World Health Organisation reports 5.4 million tobacco related deaths per year.
Tobacco of course contains the drug nicotine, a highly poisonous substance, which in its pure form only needs a tiny dose to kill a human.
THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. MORE TO COME
The campaign against smoking is such that photos of the likes of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Winston Churchill have had their trademark cigars airbrushed out in school textbooks. This is also true for Paul McCartney's cigarette on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album.
This Orwellian rewriting of history is dangerous and counter-productive. While there can be no doubt about the proven multiple dangers of tobacco smoking, particularly as manufactured cigarettes, the plain truth is that many smokers do not regard nicotine as a serious drug in the same way they do heroin. Despite the constant anti-smoking messages and restrictive laws about where one is permitted to smoke, tobacco brings in huge amounts of revenue in the form of tax, and therefore governments have a vested interest in keeping it legal.
Cigarette smoking is still seen as cool among many young people. James Dean was rarely seen without a cigarette, while Che Guevara was often photographed with a cigar. It has been proven that it is actually more difficult for a teenager to give up smoking than a sixty a day addict who has been smoking for most of their life, as a teenager doesn't have the same motivation for stopping.
Until the First World War, cigarettes were generally only used by the upper classes. The majority of people smoked tobacco in pipes (nowadays associated with old men) or chewed it. Snuff, rarely in use in modern times, was also widely used. Cigars are still associated with the rich, though as attitudes towards smoking have changed, this is changing too.
Tobacco was in fact chewed by the indigenous Americans with little or no negative effects long before the Europeans arrived in the New World. It was also smoked ritually for ceremonial purposes in small amounts. Before the development of different strains of tobacco, the early rough tobacco could not be inhaled directly, leading to the development of water pipes and bongs. When the Europeans arrived, tobacco became a popular trade item and indeed underpinned the economy of the Southern US states before cotton became the main crop. Tobacco is native mainly to the Americas and Caribbean islands, particularly Cuba, famous for its cigars, but also Turkey, Greece and other parts of the Balkans, depending on the variety of plant. Like cannabis, there is not just one sort of tobacco plant, and different plants have different tastes and aromas.
Medical research into tobacco is generally limited to the effects of smoking rather than other forms of usage, but there can be no question that first and second hand smoke is dangerous. China is the world's largest consumer of tobacco, though attitudes are beginning to change due to extensive campaigns. The World Health Organisation reports 5.4 million tobacco related deaths per year.
Tobacco of course contains the drug nicotine, a highly poisonous substance, which in its pure form only needs a tiny dose to kill a human.
THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. MORE TO COME