Albert Einstein smoked a pipe.
He said that when asked a question by physics students, he would always pause to relight his pipe and savor a puff or two, before answering the question.
Groucho Marx, Sigmund Freud, Sir Winston Churchill, and John F. Kennedy smoked cigars.
Why would G-d create such a beautiful and desirable plant, if He did not want it to be used by humankind?
During modern history's dark periods of war and economic chaos, tobacco has always been one commodity more valuable than money to a very large percentage of population.
Inside prison systems, cigarettes have more value than money, and are used as "payment" for favors, debts, etc... .
How could this be so?
Because nicotein reduces the appetite, stimulates the mind, all while producing a calmative, tranquilizing effect.
I remember hearing numerous "folk tale" accounts from fishermen, who claimed that if stung by a wasp or bitten by snakes, they would immediately put a plug of tobacco over the injury, denaturing the toxins and reducing inflammation.
Recent scientific studies indicate that nicotein usage staves off the development of Alzheimer's Disease.
The average age of onset for lung cancer is 65.
The average life-span of humankind prior to recent scientific advancements was 30 to 40 years.
Could the increased longevity of mankind, prolonging our exposure to cancer-causing chemicals, be the actual reason for the high rates of cancers seen today?
Statistical charts are always used by the "anti-tobacco" lobby to show that cancer rates have risen with the advent of tobacco's widespread use.
However, the popular use of tobacco also correlates with the popular widespread use of the internal combustion engines which power our automobiles, buses, jet planes, and military vehicles; all of which have been spewing far more toxic gases and carcinogenic particulate matter into Earth's breathable air than could be derived from all of the tobacco ignited during the same period.
The other "politically incorrect" sources of carcinogens and mutagens originate from daily exposure to industrial chemicals, from the burning of coal, from the nuclear and microwave radiation to which our planet has been heavily exposed as a result of TV/Radio broadcast transmissions, the above-ground nuclear weapons tests of the 1940's-1970's, and the widespread acceptance of "nuclear power plants" within both the civilian as well as the military sectors of our society.
Nuclear energy produces highly dangerous "radioactive wastes" which remain poisonous and lethal for 50,000 years and longer.
A "dirty little secret" is the fact that all of the militaries of the world have for years been dumping their toxic radioactive wastes directly into the oceans and seas, resulting in radioactivity entering our food chain.
When exposed to radiation, humans accumulate and store it in their breasts, thyroid glands, and prostate glands.
It may well be that the cancer epidemic witnessed throughout the 20th Century has been the result of a combination of factors, including the breathing of poisonous air, tobacco usage, exposure to nuclear radiation, and bombardment by microwave transmissions from TV, radio, computers, cell phones, X-rays, etc...
Currently, the West is experiencing an epidemic of cancerous tumors of the brain, skin, and other organ systems, which do not appear to be the direct result of long-term tobacco use.
Advances in medicine and nutrition have enabled most of us in the West to live far longer than did our ancestors, allowing most of us to reach the age when physical bodies begin a state of decline known as "the aging process", at which time the combined synergistic effects from decades of air pollution, water pollution, nuclear radiation, food chain pollution, electromagnetic pollution, and tobacco use, produce epidemic rates of cancer.