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Let’s Talk Smoke History…..
I’m Just Say’ in…..
I
used to smoke a pack a day, every day for over 27 years. I enjoyed smoking, it
was part of my everyday life and I didn’t know SQUAT about tobacco except it’s
a plant. For all the time, money and effort I put into smoking all I knew was what
brand I smoked, where to buy them and I preferred menthol over regular tobacco
flavor. It wasn’t until I started using electronic cigarettes that I began to
wonder when, where & how cigarettes came about. I’ve already shared my
amazement with my family & friends, so it’s only right I post it online for
all to see.
In the beginning there was Man,
Woman and Tobacco. Some will say Brazilians invented paper rolled
cigarettes almost 2000 years ago. Most historians will say as early as 1 BC the
Native American Indians were smoking tobacco in wooden pipes. The Mayan Indians
carved pictures in stone showing tobacco use dating back somewhere between 600
and 900 AD. Throughout history up until the late 1800s people believed tobacco
had healing qualities. It was the cure – all for everything from open wounds to
cancer. YES! Cancer and if that don’t beat all, let’s include using tobacco as
a painkiller, for toothaches and asthma. I couldn’t stop shaking my head when I
read this, but it gets better.
There’s tobacco history for every
continent on the planet. Jean Nicot, a French Ambassador took tobacco plants to
Portugal boasting about its curing abilities in 1559. Hence his last name is
the root for the words nicotine and nicotinic. In the 1600s a few countries
outlawed tobacco with some really harsh penalties. Turkey would torture or kill
you. In China you would be beheaded and Russia’s second time offenders were put
to death without question. Makes me real happy to be a 21st Century
American, where I get to choose whether or not I want to kill myself slowly by
smoking tobacco. I became interested in tobacco history in the first place
because when I started using electronic cigarettes 2 years ago and recent
events, I see the U.S. is trying to ban my new healthier alternative. Keep in
mind smoking of any kind is dangerous to your health & since I survived an
aortic aneurysm 28 months ago I can testify with all honesty quitting smoking
is the absolute best thing a person can do, but converting to e-cigs
(electronic cigarettes) is the next best thing if you can’t quit. I thought
maybe the history of tobacco in the U.S. could tell me why I have the right to
smoke tobacco knowing it can kill me but I don’t have the right to choose how I
want to save myself from tobacco. So why is tobacco so damn controversial?
Tobacco was the first crop grown
& harvested for money in North America. Tobacco was a cash crop for the
first settlers of the first American colony in 1612 Jamestown, Virginia.
Tobacco was literally “As good as gold”. In 1632 it was illegal to publicly
smoking in Massachusetts. Pierre Lorillard established the oldest U.S. tobacco
company to date in 1760. It started off processing tobacco, cigars & snuff.
Today their known as the makers of Newport menthol cigarettes. (My brand 27yrs)
Tobacco financed the American Revolutionary War in 1776 serving as collateral
for loans the Americans borrowed from the French. 1826 nicotine is discovered as main ingredient in tobacco and ten
years later Samuel Green found nicotine to be an insecticide and poison with
the ability to kill humans. The first death linked to smoking was documented in
1859. Washington Duke was the first to sell hand rolled cigarettes in 1865 at
the end of the Civil War. James Bonsack invented a cigarette making machine in
1881 which helped make cigarettes the #1 tobacco product made and sold
everywhere by the 1900s. This machine could make 120,000 cigarettes a day.
In 1901 over 3.5 billion cigarettes
were sold. In 1902 Phillip Morris set headquarters in New York to market the
famous Marlboro brand cigarettes. World War 1 (1914-1918) cigarettes were the “Soldiers
Smoke”. World War 2 (1939-1945) cigarettes were at an all-time high and
included in soldiers C-rations like food. Millions of cigarettes were sent to
the soldiers for free so when they came home tobacco companies had a stream of
loyal customers. From 1952-1956 Lorillard’s Kent brand had asbestos in the
filters. RJ Reynolds made filtered Winstons in 1954 and introduced Salems the
first filter tipped menthol in 1956. After what appears to be a few hundred
years of knowing the dangerous capabilities of smoking tobacco, the Surgeon
General finally put out the “Smoking and Health” report in 1962. This report assisted
the government to regulate advertisement and sales of cigarettes. It took two
more years 1966 for the health warnings to be put on every pack. Until the
1960s the U.S. was the #1 manufacturer and exporter of tobacco, more than any
other country. Television Ads weren’t taken off the air until 1971 but they’re
still the second most heavily advertised products to cars. The first Great
American Smoke Out was in 1977 the same year the Surgeon General reported the Health
Consequences of Smoking for Women. In 1982 the Surgeon General reported second
hand smoke may cause lung cancer leading to the restriction of smoking in
public areas especially in the workplace. 1985 lung cancer became the #1 killer
of women followed by breast cancer. The 1980s was called the “Tar Wars” because
tobacco companies made over a hundred low tar & ultra-smokes.
History tells us that tobacco has
been used since the dawn of time and I believe it to be true that history
repeats itself. Again cigarettes are “as good as gold”, especially in places
like New York and California. But this time around cigarettes also carry
governmental and political values far heavier than ever before. For every pack
a smoker buys, that’s one pack closer a smoker is to dying and more power to
the government that regulates them. I am thankful to Mr. Hon Lik who invented
the e-cig in 2003 even though Herbert Gilbert had the concept since 1963. Here
it is 2011 and I finally find an alternative to the addiction that binds me and
since my government can’t find a way to regulate it, they plan to ban
electronic cigarettes altogether. This leaves me and others like me no choice
but to continue using tobacco products if we can’t quit.
The FDA claims there’s not enough
research testing on the effects of nicotine alone despite the fact nicotine was
discovered and separated from the tobacco plant in 1826. Smoking is an
addiction and smokers need as many options available to help them quit or at the
very least a healthier alternative without the consequences of second hand
smoke. If you’re a smoker or knows someone that does. What harm would it be to
look into electronic cigarettes? Research it and choose what works for you.
Just Say’ in
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