It may be deadly, but irresistible.
You dream of its euphoric scent penetrating the air around you. You crave that mellow flavour filling your lungs, feeding your organs, spinning your head, with soothing, satisfying sensations. One long, deep breath and your whole world looks rosy.
It has you under its spell — more alluring than Anthony’s Cleopatra, more treacherous than Samson’s Delilah, more brutal than Jason’s Medea.
It came from the Old World to the New World; never before unseen or unheard.
Subtle, aromatic, and intoxicating, it proceeded to destroy both worlds, old and new.
Provocative, yet subtle, it proceeded to destroy both worlds, slowly, assuredly. It brushed aside historic monuments, wondrous inventions, technical advances, it pursued people.
Its aim were its creators, artists, philosophers, geniuses. It found the farmers and labourers, the students and scholars and even the innocent children.
That almighty seductress is called the cigarette. Smoke it at your risk.
The cigarette has 50 ways of making your life miserable and 20 ways of killing you, decisively, emphatically, without a doubt.
Unrelenting in its pursuit, it works without repose.
Annually, eight million victims die early due to smoking.
Researchers estimate that over 100 million smokers have died prematurely, most of them in rich countries.
Statistics from the US and UK conclude that deaths from smoking are five times higher than all deaths resulting from traffic accidents, poisoning, alcohol, liver disease, murder, manslaughter and AIDS combined. Since the anti-smoking campaign of the 1990s, five million premature deaths from smoking took place in 2002, and doubled to 10 million within a decade, in 2012. Lung cancer deaths reached 92 per cent, and 30 per cent of all cancer deaths are caused by smoking.
Heart disease, emphysema, bronchitis, pneumonia, are major causes of smoking addictions. Has anyone noticed?
There is more. Fertility in both sexes reduce miscarriages, still births, premature deliveries, low birth rates and infant deaths. In addition, the cigarette and its sisters cause depression, diabetes, cataracts, influenza, impotence, ulcers, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, hearing loss, teeth loss, as well as the very common, common cold. One-thousand daily hospital admissions in England alone are directly related to smoking.
Surely by now we would be well versed in the evils of the Seductress of the Century, that Magnificent Obsession, that Black Widow. Did we not avoid the poisonous killer? Have we forgotten our promises, pledges, disciplines, oaths? Is it allowed to kill at will, again?
Tobacco still pursues the accursed flame.
What, why, or where from did we first encounter tobacco?
The Old World, with enough plagues and vices of its own, knew nothing of that magic plant until 1492, when Christopher Columbus decided “to sail the seven seas in search of cheaper pepper”. Watching the “Indian” natives thrilled with ecstasy, as they blew on their peace-pipes, he decided it was a gift worth offering to her queen, Isabella.
Everyone, from queen to farmer began to grow the plant in Spain and elsewhere. It was first used as a relaxing medicine, until French diplomat Jean Nicot (derived from nicotine) introduced the use of tobacco in 1560. Seeds from South America were cultivated in North America and the crops were exported by the colonists to England.
Sir Walter Raleigh, who had so fattened the coffers of the crown, was so delighted with Elisabeth I, she declared: “I have seen many a man turn his gold into smoke, but you are the first man turn his gold into smoke.”
Since the 1500s, Europeans knew of the perils of tobacco.
Napoleon I cried: “This vice brings 100 million francs in taxes every year. I forbid it at once as soon as you can name a virtue that brings it as much revenue”. Was that not the crux of the matter since?
James I, who followed Elisabeth I, denounced it as “a custom, loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs.” Five centuries later the English as well as the rest of the world, continue to “stink the black fume of that bottomless pit”. Why then do we smoke? Says Oscar Wilde “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure” he rejoiced. “It is exquisite and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?”
How about our detriment? Despite its irrefutable proof that “cigarettes are killers that travel in packs,” they seem irresistible to those who try them. Although 70 per cent of smokers want to quit and 30 per cent attempt to quit every year, less than five per cent succeed. Once hooked, you are shamelessly, deplorably ensnared or enslaved.
The addictive substance, nicotine, is amply supplied in the cigarettes and its sisters, the cigar, the pipe, snuff, chewing tobacco and the harmless looking “hubbly-bubbly” also known as shisha, hookah, etc.
Earnest anti-smoking campaigns started in the 1950s. The surgeon-general of the US submitted a pernicious report in 1964, following a sharp rise in the 1960s. Except for some decline not much has changed in half a century (1964-2014).
Once again the tobacco epidemic is one of the highest public health threats the world has ever seen. Since 2022, cigarettes have increased aiming at the youth, even ages 13 to 15 years.
Cool, glamorous, and sexy, it is the silent, unforgotten or condoned crime. What is there left to say but “Shame on us”.
Cigarettes cannot be outlawed universally.
Like decency, morality, and humanity, it has come from within our souls.
“Tobacco drieth the brain, dimmeth the sight, vitiateh the smell, hurteth the stomach, corrupteth the breath and scorcheth the heart.”
Tobias Venner (1577-1660)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 11 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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