9781422272275

1 CHAPTER

The Popularity of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Nicotine is a natural chemical derived from the leaves of the tobacco plant. For thousands of years, people have used nicotine as a drug, ingesting it either by smoking dried tobacco leaves, chewing the leaves, or even snorting the powder made from dried leaves. Until the twentieth century, tobacco was considered a beneficial substance that helped people’s health in many ways. Sadly, people today know that this perception is cruelly mistaken. Over the last ninety years, the dangerously addictive nature of nicotine has been conclusively proven in study after study. The adverse health effects of using tobacco have also been clearly demonstrated. Yet, despite this proof, millions of people still purchase cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, and other tobacco products every day. Some of these users are teenagers, who are just beginning a lifelong nicotine addiction.

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