I became passionate about the topic of cigarettes when my sister made a lasting exclamation to me soon after she had graduated college. She alerted me to the fact that many of her friends now smoked, as in a significant >50% margin of her friends. My sister has never smoked a single cigarette in her life and she certainly wasn’t aware any of her friends had. It really is quite interesting to learn why these young people, in their early to mid twenties, had chosen to take part in an activity that is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S.

Further, these students were not some high school dropouts that wouldn’t understand a statistic if it hit them in the face. These people were college educated engineers, biologists, chemists; a group of people that believe strongly in the sciences. Yet, they take part in this statistically extremely harmful vice. Their answer for why they partook was also unsatisfactory. Nearly all of them simply answered that they smoked so that they could fit in with their college friend group. These otherwise objective people gave in to simple peer pressure? These adults would throw away 14 years of their life so they could be “with it”? They went on further to say that they felt lonely in a strange environment and wanted to be able to fit in, but that still doesn’t seem like a firm answer. The old saying, “If all your friends jumped off a bridge” comes to mind, would a person really risk everything that comes with cigarettes just for other people?

This phenomenon flabbergasts me, how the tobacco industry uses advertising, propaganda, and the addictive power of nicotine to keep 18% of our population hooked on cigarettes. Even with a plethora of medical research behind the toxicity of cigarettes and a history of ever more stringent regulation, people continue to smoke. They are a huge drain on the medical system, incurring billions of dollars of extra medical aid spent on dying smokers and those affected by secondhand smoke. I am extremely disappointed  that people in this day and age are dying from these “death sticks”.

As a legal adult, I can admit I have smoked a cigarette before and can also proclaim that  for all the hype and pressure around them, cigarettes are a dull disappointment. It was at some lame bonfire party where people were drinking and smoking but I was there because friends had invited me. I was having an enjoyable time and someone offered me a cigarette. I thought, “hey, why not, just one to try it out,” so I lit it up and tried it out. I put the cigarette to my lips, inhaled deeply, and exhaled in a cloud of smoke and coughing. I continued this regimen until all that remained was the stubby orange butt. My forehead wrinkled and I my eyes bore into what remained of the cigarette. That was it? That was all that it offered? For all the hype, for all the people that smoke, for all the damage it causes to society, I was expecting so much more. I tossed the butt, disappointed, and later that night gave my thoughts to my friends at the party who smoked regularly. The same answers seem to come back, “Its cool”, “It helps me relax”, “I do it cause everyone else does”. The same unsatisfactory answers that so boggle my mind, given to me by my peers.

        These, among other reasons, is why I am so interested by the history behind cigarettes, their advertising, and their place in popular culture. How so many people could be convinced to smoke is almost as enthralling as knowing why hundreds of people would willingly drink arsenic laced kool aid. Understanding how the tobacco project has indoctrinated such a large portion of our population through advertising, propaganda, and false science. I am hoping that through this project I will get a better understanding of the motivations behind cigarettes and better ways to go about ridding them from our culture.