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Social Benefits of Smoking

We asked hundreds of habitual smokers what they like about smoking. The most frequent answers were:

It relieves stress. It tastes good. It makes you look cool (sexually attractive).

Relieving Stress
Smoking cigarettes relieves stress. We know this because hundreds of smokers that we interviewed told us so. Stress causes:

Heart Disease Ulcers High Blood Pressure Poor General Health Low Immunity Menstrual Problems Diabetes Skin Problems Cancer

The key question here is: does the smoking cause the disease, or is the smoking something that people are doing to relieve the stress that is the true cause? Gathering mountains of tatistics do show coincidence but can not tell anything about cause and effect. People who are subjected to a great deal of stress get all of the above listed diseases, whether they smoke or not. Some of these diseases are fatal. Epidemiological studies of people who have these diseases show that smokers who get them statistically live about two years longer than non-

smokers who get them. For instance, non-smokers who develop lung cancer die at an average age of 75 years. Smokers who develop lung cancer die at an average age of 77 years. People who experience more stress tend to smoke more than people who experience less stress. Some people who smoke cigarettes begin chain smoking during periods of high stress. Corporate executives, who experience more stress every day than most of us would care to imagine, are often depicted continually puffing large cigars. Could such men achieve such success in highly competitive businesses without the stress relief of a good tasting cigar? Many women have told us that one of their strongest urges to smoke occurs immediately after childbirth. Sexual intercourse and orgasm are stressful and often followed by a good cigarette break. The short term symptoms of stress are:

Headaches Backaches Muscle Tension Diarrhea Nausea Digestive Problems Heart Palpitations Dizziness Anxiety (excessive worry)

The symptoms of anxiety are:

Racing Heart Tightness or Pain in Chest Shortness of Breath Headache Tingling in Finger Tips Muscle Pains Muscle Weakness Dizziness Difficulty in Swallowing Abdominal Discomfort Diarrhea Frequent Urination

There are several medications that relieve stress. Among them are:

Diazepam (Valium) Lorazepam (Ativan) Barbiturates (sleeping pills) Ethanol (liquor, alcohol)

All of these are addictive, which means that you will require a continually higher dose to get the same relief the longer you take them, that you will die from a fatal overdose if this goes on long enough, and that you will probably die from the withdrawl symptoms if you stop taking them once you are addicted. All of these, except alcohol, require a doctor's prescription. All of them are a lot more deadly and dangerous than cigarettes. Any one of them can kill you in less than ten minutes if you overdose. When a person goes into a bar to "unwind" after a stressful day, the intake of alcohol is usally accompanied by several cigarettes. You can not die from an accidental overdose of cigarettes. You can not die from withdrawl symptoms if you stop smoking cigarettes. When you quit smoking, you will experience the stress that you were trying to relieve by smoking, but you will not die unless that stress gives you a heart attack. You will not experience a never ending need to increase your dose of cigarettes to get the same stress relief. Every smoker reaches a certain level, such as a pack a day, two packs a day, etc., and will not increase their smoking beyond that level unless external stress increases. Smoking is an associative habit. This means that you get the urge to light up whenever you do a certain thing. For instance, some people always light a cigarette when they get in a car and start to drive. Some people always smoke a cigarette when they drink coffee. Some people only smoke when they are drinking in bars. Some people always smoke after sex. If you are a smoker, try paying attention to the times at which you light up each day. Write down what activity you were doing right before the urge to smoke came on. You will see very specific patterns after three or four days of this. If you want to quit smoking, you must break these associations. If you can not break these mental associations, then you will never quit smoking. There is no such thing as nicotine addiction. Forget that nonsense. You can't even get nicotine from smoking a cigarette because the nicotine burns at a temperature far lower than the tobacco leaf. There is no doubt that people who smoke cigarettes tend to die of stress symptoms at a younger age than people who do not smoke. However, is smoking the cause or the effect? Could it be possible that smoking is just a marginally effective attempt to releive the symptoms of stress which is the true cause of "smoking related" diseases?

How Does Smoking Relieve Stress?

The motion of a single bluish-white thread of smoke rising from the lit end of a cigarette has a hypnotic effect on the human brain. It directly hits a built-in, instinctive reflex that relaxes by inducing hypnosis. This effect is not unique to humans, but common to most predatory mammals. Drag a string slowly across the floor in front of a kitten if you need evidence of this reflex. You will not hypnotize the kitten, but you will instantly get its undivided attention. Young cats and dogs will usually stare at, and try to capture, a thread of smoke, until they learn that it is

not a food source. A human baby will do the same thing. Even a fish or a frog is instinctively triggered by the sight of a sliding earthworm, will chase it and try to eat it. The phrase "pipe dreams" comes from the fact that a person smoking a pipe will often become hypnotized by watching the smoke rising slowly from his bowl. If the smoke has a pleasant, sweet or spicy aroma, this adds pleasure to the experience. This is the primary attraction to smoking, and the cause of the smoking habit. The physiology that causes an erection in a human male is a relaxation of muscles that constrict certain blood vessels to the penis. A man under stress can not get an erection. The hypnotic effect of watching drifting smoke frequently produces enough relaxation to trigger an erection in boys as young as two years old. Many boys grow up never understanding why they have "always" had erections when they saw attractive women smoking. Now you know why you are sending me your hard-earned money just to watch attractive women smoke, even though you might actually detest the aroma of burning tobacco. The tricky part for me is having a wide variety in the women, because various viewers have widely differing opinions of "attractive" or "pretty". There are many other sights, aside from drifting smoke, which can give relaxation by inducing hypnosis. Watching tropical fish in an aquarium is one. A pendulum or metronome swinging at just the right frequency is another. The rhythm of a good classical waltz is a third. This is why we sometimes play classical waltzes on the soundtrack of smoking video if there is no dialog.

Great Taste
All tobacco smokers think that tobacco smoke smells and tastes good. "Tastes good" means "tastes like food". This is not true for marijuana smokers. Marijuana smokers usually say that pot "tastes like shit", but they are trying to get "high" using a drug. Sometimes both smokers and non-smokers will say that the second hand smoke from certain brands of pipe tobacco smells good. Both smokers and non-smokers usually say that the smell of second hand smoke from cigarettes and cigars is foul. To understand the "taste" of tobacco smoke, you must first understand what's in it. Tobacco smoke is a mixture of many things. Not surprizingly, the largest component is air. By volume, more than 99 percent of tobacco smoke is air. The next largest component is water vapor (steam). The steam a white colored component that makes the smoke visible. Exhaled tobacco smoke is always white. Tobacco smoke that has not been inhaled (sidestream smoke) has a slight bluish color. The bluish color comes from sugar, which is the third largest component of tobacco smoke. All material that comes from plants is made up mostly of sugar molecules. Some of the sugar molecules are single or double units, called monosacharides and disacharides, respectively. Larger chains of sugar molecules are starches. Still larger chains of sugar molecules form a fibrous material called cellulose. Cellulose is wood, cotton, paper, stems, and other stiff parts of the plant. When heated, cellulose, starch and disacharides all break down into single sugar molecules and vaporize before they burn. Because all plants are more than 99 percent made up of water and cellulose, any smoke that comes from burning plant material is mostly water vapor and

sugar. The main thing that a person tastes when they smoke tobacco is sugar. Slightly burnt sugar is the brownish material that condenses on ashtrays, tobacco pipes and other places, which is commonly called "tobacco tar". Chemically, words like "syrup" or "caramel" would more accurately describe this substance, because it, chemically, contains very almost no real tar (hydrocarbons). But chemically accurate words do not suit the politics of anti-tobacco zealots, so they lie and call it "tar". When sugar burns, it breaks down into smaller molecules before it actually burns. Some of these are organic acids and some are alkaloids (organic bases). The acid components taste sour, like lemon juice which contains citric acid, or vinegar which is acetic acid. The alkaloid components taste bitter, like liquor (alcohol), pepper and other spices. These acids and alkaloids are present in the smoke in only trace amounts (parts per million or less), but you can detect them with your sense of smell. Common alkaloids that are produced when tobacco is burned are the flavors of vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch and nutmeg. Menthol cigarettes also have alkaloids with minty aromas, like spearmint, peppermint and wintergreen. The parts of tobacco smoke that are not air and steam are chemically the same thing as candy. When these chemicals reach the human tongue and nose, they are interpreted as the flavors of food. The exact mixture of trace chemicals that give each particular brand of tobacco its flavor depends on the way that the tobacco was grown and cured, and how hot it burns. When plant matter burns at a high temperature, more of the flavor chemicals, the organic acids and alkaloids, are converted to water vapor and carbon dioxide. Then they can not be tasted. To get more flavor from burning plant matter, it has to burn at a cooler temperature. Any cigar aficionado will tell you that cigars must be kept slightly moist to get the best taste. Keeping cigars moist makes them burn at a cooler temperature. Likewise, cigarettes and pipe tobacco are also sealed in celophane packages to help them retain their moisture until smoked. Though it is widely reported that there is nicotine in tobacco smoke, nicotine is a slightly bitter alkaloid which has no odor. However, nicotine is a highly flamable molecule, with a flash point just above the boiling temperature of water. Chewing tobacco might be able to get you some nicotine, but in smoking, any nicotine would be completely burned long before the sugars are vaporized. Likewise, hydrocarbons like benzene, toluene, xylene and benzopyrenes would burn to water vapor long before the sugars vaporize. These chemicals all burn at temperatures far lower than cellulose.

Looking Cool
There is no object on earth that looks and feels as much like an erect human penis as a wellmade, hand rolled cigar. Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, is quoted as saying, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," implying that most of the time a cigar is a substitute for an erect penis. Think of the diameter and length of a Churchill or double corona cigar. Then visualize the veins in the rolled tobacco leaves. Now add a cone shaped head which is radiating heat. Finally, put that image between a beautiful woman's lips, which resemble vagina lips, and let her suck on it a bit. See the way its cone-shaped head glows, sparkles and gives off even more heat as she sucks? Now, as she parts those soft, warm, moist, pink lips, her mouth is filled with a thick, creamy white substance that flows like fresh semen. This is why polite society strictly

forbade women to smoke from the time of Columbus until the Twentieth Century. Watching an attractive woman savor a good sized cigar is about as close to watching her have sexual intercourse as you're going to get without seeing the real thing. Watching an attractive woman smoke a cigarette is a similar experience, but with one added feature. When she delicately holds her lit cigarette between the tips of two perfectly straight fingers, it looks like an exceptionally large, erect penis between two legs, in miniature. Then you can watch its head glow brightly as she sucks on it as well. If she follows that with a pop inhale or a French inhale, you get to see that thick, creamy white stuff that filled her warm, moist, pink mouth as well. It just doesn't get any better than this. Needless to say, women who smoke have always been classified by society as "bad girls". A lit cigarette is an essential accessory for any prostitute or topless dancer who wants to make money. "Good girls" don't smoke, but a girl who smokes always has a "dark side" lurking somewhere. Combine the phallic appearance of a lit cigarette between a woman's straight fingers, and the hypnotic relaxation of watching drifting smoke and you often have an instant, uncontrollable erection. The sight of a "bad" mother teaching her young daughter to be "bad" more than doubles the effect. A similar "bad" connotation applies to young boys who smoke, but it works a little differently.

Predators and Prey

As explained above, smoking relieves stress. Different people develop different personalities that are more or less aggressive. Some of this is genetic instinct and some is learned behavior. All humans are born with a certain amount of predatory instinct, but some develop this part of their character more than others. People who develop a strong predatory instinct also tend to develop a lot of stress. A predatory lifestyle is stressful. To relieve some of this stress, some boys and men take up smoking. Think back to your high school and grade school days. Weren't the first boys who started smoking the class bullies? This forms an association between aggressive, masculine behavior (excessive testosterone, or "balls") and smoking in the minds of young girls. It is a natural instinct for young girls to be attracted to the most aggressive or dominant male that they can find. Some girls never outgrow this and find themselves infatuated with convicted, imprisoned, rapists and serial killers, even into adulthood. For a boy, having a cigarette tells girls that he is "bad", "dangerous" or "aggressive". Young girls often find themselves becoming moist between the legs when they see a boy with a cigarette, without understanding why. Smoking is often used in literature and cinema to help depict a character as dominant or aggressive. Smokers are the predatory villains of many books, plays and films. Some classic examples are Disney's Cruella DeVille, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, and just about any role ever played by Sean Penn or Nicholas Cage. Even nine year old Tatum O'Neal smoked cigarettes

in Paper Moon to show her dominance over adults. Many men fantasize about being dominated by a woman who smokes. See any issue of Cruella> magazine for numerous examples.

Coming of Age
Traditionally, smoking is also a symbol of reaching adulthood. From a practical point of view, young children can not be allowed to smoke without adult supervision because they do not understand fire. They can easily leave a cigarette burning and set the furniture, their clothes or the house on fire. Regardless of any possible health risks from smoking, children should not be allowed to play with fire. As they begin to reach an adult level of mental cognizance, usually a year or two short of puberty, children can be allowed to handle matches, cigarette lighters and fire. Thus, a young boy or girl who is allowed to carry matches and light his or her own cigarettes is usually looked on as "more adult" by his or her peers. This makes him or her a more likely candidate for an adult sexual experience. These are the reasons why smoking is "cool", and children who smoke are sexually more attractive to their peers. Ever notice that it's usually the non-smokers that have to place personal ads in the newspaper? Finally, a note to anti-tobacco Nazis: You can not legislate these human instincts out of existence. All you can do is piss people off. Once they get rid of you, they will eventually fix the problems that you created through your own stupidity. Beyond foolish you are indeed to so quickly forget the lessons learned during alcohol prohibition. Do you need to push it far enough to feel the bullet hit the bone again? Your legacy will be as the ripples made by a pebble tossed into the ocean.