Here is a poem by Graham Lee Hemminger, Penn State Froth, Tobacco.
Tobacco is a dirty weed
I like it.
It satisfies no normal need.
I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean.
It’s the worst darn stuff I’ve ever seen.
I like it.
Despite its obvious health risks and negative social stigma, still for every five people in the world, one is a smoker. Out of the 6.7 billion people living in this world, 1.2 billion people smoke tobacco. That’s 18% of the world’s population. Seriously, this is something many of us don’t understand. Throughout history smoking bans and prohibitions introduced by authorities resulted in minimal quit-smoking outcome. In spite of some harsh punishments including death penalty, smoking and smokers had continued to thrive and spread all over the world. Repressive measures seem to have aroused a spirit of popular rebellion and helped to increase the use of tobacco. The psychological pleasures and physiological satisfaction derived from tobacco smoking proved much more powerful than religious, moral, and legal persuasions. It seems that the senses of excitement derived from a cigarette can’t be obtained from anything else. Some smokers are unhappy, unsatisfied, nervous, bored, anxious, lonely, tired or just frustrated without their cigarettes. Some smokers use cigarettes to keep them thin, make them better able to think, or that they are more sociable while smoking. Some smokers smoke to celebrate the joyful times of life. Food, drink, fun and games, and even sex all seem to lose their appeal without an accompanying cigarette. Some smokers survived so many challenges in life, whose last, largest pleasure and perhaps his most effective way of relieving stress, are the treasured freedom to smoke. Some smokers have had multiple heart attacks, circulatory conditions resulting in amputations, cancers, emphysema and a host of other disabling and deadly diseases. They are fully aware that smoking is crippling and killing them, but continue to smoke anyway. To them, life seems not worth living without smoking.
The pleasure miracle provided by the little white paper roll has so much to offer that I can safely predict the cigarette is here to stay. It should point out that this predication is not intended as a eulogy of the habit of smoking, but rather as an objective estimation on why people smoke cigarettes.
