I have no issue with the factual basis of your claim. I am only asserting that you have an uncanny habit for turning a thread that is not intended for the debate of serious issues into one that is. If you wish to start a thread to discuss the health problems related to smoking, you are free to do that.

I myself have never chosen a tobacco based on how "healthy" I thought the product might be. I've only chosen cigarettes based on flavor and enjoyment, with the exception of when I used to smoke American Spirit Organic Rolling Tobacco, which is healthier than a non-organic tobacco, but not healthy.

Unfortunately, not too long ago, RJ Reynolds bought out the Santa Fe Tobacco company and has begun bio-engineering the tobacco that they use for the organic blend to have exorbitantly high nicotine levels. I guess nothing remains sacred for very long.

Point taken. We all have our little habits, I guess, and maybe I'm addicted to serious debate. ;)

However, to be fair I should point out that the second post in this thread is by someone trying to quit smoking, and the third post is by someone wishing her luck since smoking is such a hard habit to quit, so I don't think the fault for turning this topic in a serious direction lies *entirely* with me. Mostly, maybe, but not *entirely.* :D

Damn those companies and their GMOs! Don't get me started on Monsanto.

Here's some tobacco trivia for you that you might like, SATCHMO. I once did a small research project on some GMO tobacco plants (to study an enzyme unrelated to nicotine production), and the first time I walked into the warm greenhouse full of tobacco plants I was very surprised that their flowers produce a deliciously sweet, spicy scent. It was a very lovely smell. I lingered a little longer than I needed to, just to smell the flowers. And I inhaled...deeply, I might add.

I didn't expect a plant that has caused such pain and suffering and death for millions of people to smell so tantalizingly sweet. I guess I can see how tobacco can become a delicious torment.

Whoops! There I go, all serious again!

I did a small research project on a packet of cigarettes

They tasted great

Tobacco, in and of itself, is relatively harmless compared to the end product that tobacco companies use to amass their billions.

I don't have the research data, but it has been shown that the advent of smoking related death and disease is concurrent with the Tobacco companies using pesticides and additives to preserve the shelf life and reinforce the tobacco's addictive nature. It has also been shown that the negative effects of smoking organic and additive-free tobacco can be reversed and/or prevented through the adaptation of a raw, vegan, vitamin C an B complex rich diet and maintaining an active lifestyle.

There is no such thing as an evil plant. A soybean is one of the most healthy things a human can consume, but when we chemically modify it to produce a partially hydrogenated oil, it becomes the substance that is responsible for more disease in humans than smoking cigarettes alone.

Easily the worse tobacco I've ever had the misfortune to smoke was only last month while on holiday in Turkey.
I ran out of Golden Virginia and having failed miserably to locate new supplies I was forced to buy a packet of 'Istanbul' rolling tobacco.

Never again!

The tobacco was so smooth I would have needed a set of bellows surgically implanted up my anus just to get a decent drag.
Once the colour had returned to my face, I was left with the strangest sensation to my lips.
It was if they'd been anaesthetised!

I was so disgusted that I was forced to smoke Lambert & Butler for the remainder of the holiday. :(

I ate those candy cigarettes when I was a child, and tge chocolate ones. Not oncexwhen I pick up a cigarette I think hmm childhood nostalgia, I'm no gonnae lie to yae, I used to scoff those sweeties. You didn't faff about, you ate them.

lmao

I didn't know that. That's interesting. I'm skeptical, though, that a vegan diet, terrific as it is ;), could prevent/reverse negative effects of smoking, no matter how organic the leaves are...but maybe if one doesn't smoke a lot?

I never got my hands on chocolate candy cigarettes. :( My candy cigarettes were just a hard, chalky, white chewing gum. I gnawed on them and they were okay, but chocolate would have been much better. I always suspected my childhood in Iowa was deprived, but now I *know* it was.

NEW BREAKING SCIENTIFIC CIGARETTE RESEARCH!!!

100% of people say...

They're Grrreat!

(Disclaimer: Sample size = 1. Experiment not to be repeated in your own home.)

http://www.yannone.org/BlogPics/FOOD...gerSmoking.jpg

I'm not going to lie, they are glorious at times. I'm officially quitting my social smoking now.