Some thoughts:why young people smoke

        Actually research shows that most adolescents who are smoking are not attracted by “smoking” itself. For most of the time, they adopt the habit from their parents, neighbors or friends.Also,the propaganda of media has contributed a little bit(for example, if the actor he or she likes has made an ad for a certain brand of cigarette, then he or she may also want to give it a try). Sometimes they smoke in order to show their difference or rebellious spirit; and sometimes they smoke in order to fit into a certain social group. So smoking for adolescents seldom comes alone by itself, it is more like a combination of multiple factors.

   Also,the advertisements about cigarette has changed a lot during time.Before, the images on handbills were focused on tobacco itself(for example, a bundle of fine tobacco surrounded by sunshine, or an image of a dozen cigarettes). Nowadays such advertisement is hard to see. Most time manufacturers would focus on the culture signal that the advertisement can convey with it (the culture, value, history and dignity).Sometimes the direct image of cigarette may not even appear in the advertisement. The cognitive meaning of tobacco(or cigarette) is becoming more and more detached from the object itself.Instead, it is becoming a culture symbol. Maybe this can be considered as another reason for why people would smoke(to fit in, to show personal identity and taste etc.).And such appended meaning can be very attractive to young people,since they are at a special period of their life and they are eager to assert their identity and personality through various channels.

source:Ali ,Khatidja. ADOLESCENT SMOKING CESSATION: THE INFLUENCE OF PEERS. 2011,UMI Number: 3485874

#3 : a little non-scholarly book I've enjoyed

    I've read a very interesting little book that is edited more than a century ago:Pipe and pouch, the smokers own book of poetry. And I've enjoyed it profoundly.
   This is not what one would call a "scholarly book", but I do have learned a lot from it. A person who doesn't smoke can never understand the joy that smoking brings. It is easy to collect scientific data and do control-group experiments, but what smoking really brings to smokers can never be precisely assessed. Now the technology is developing faster and faster, our transportation and communication is also becoming faster and faster, but the distance between people is growing larger and larger. It is no one's fault, it is how things work out. Individuals are growing more and more lonely in this world with a great abundance of material, meanwhile the vanity of heart is becoming more and more intolerable. Cigarette has become the loyal sole company for them. It is normal that different people have different attitudes toward smoking, since human is a very ambivalent species and tobacco is a very ambivalent plant(like I mentioned in blog#2). When these two come together, a clear and logical conclusion just cannot be made. However, this is forever a monodrama. No matter what we say and think about tobacco, it just stays silent. Stay silent when it is lying under the sun with its green leaves or when it is burned into ash in red sparkles."What care I for the weather? Though winter greeze, or summer broil. We rest us from the days of toil, my Pipe and I together."(Hermann Rave 69)

Knight, Joseph, b. 1845.Pipe and pouch, the smokers own book of poetry. Boston: Joseph Knight company, 1895. Print

#2:Some conjecture on why tobacco is not banned based on National Health Statistic Reports

     This document,National Health Statistic Reports, gives us a detailed list about the smoking and drinking condition of people in different ages. No doubt, smoking has become a big potential health problem all around the world today. Someone may pose a question like this: well, since smoking is so harmful and causes so many disease, why don't we simply forbid it? I think there are two main reasons for the existence of tobacco : first, the component of tobacco is “lucky”, it can stimulant one’s brain, but not as poisonous as other drugs. It can make smokers become addictive, but not as harmful as drugs. It is cheap and easy to carry, and it has made a great contribution to the tax. Neither the smokers nor the government wants to lose it, so they both make a concession(the consumers pay a higher price and the government charges a higher tax). The second reason is that people always need something to comfort themself, since not everything in their life is rosy. The cost of a packet of cigarette and some side effects sometimes are better than a homicide or suicide----after all, not everyone is good at dealing with pressure and depression in their life.

source:

Cheryl D. Fryar, M.S.P.H.; Mercy C. Merino, B.S.; Rosemarie Hirsch, M.D., M.P.H.; and Kathryn S. Porter, M.D., M.S. National Health Statistic Reports.1999-2004.2

#1:Different Aspects on Tobacco

   At this time, my blog would focus on tobacco itself and its effects on this society(media, culture, people's behaviour(especially women and young people). I'm going to introduce some basic knowledge about tobacco, since I believe it's essential to get a basic recognition about the thing I'm researching on before going into other aspects.

    In before, tobacco was mainly used as a medicine, and it had been highly glorified. For a moment it was hard to find a disease that the “holy herb” couldn’t cure. The earliest using method of tobacco is called “drink smoke”. The use of smoke to treat disease is not unique though, ancient Creeks used to burn dried colt’s feet for treating asthma. But by that time, not too long after Columbus just discovered the New World, everything in the New World had an extra attraction to them. They were eager about discovering new species that can bring great fortune to their homeland and make a big change of their lives. Thus they had magnified the effects of tobacco subliminaly. The fetish of tobacco at that time has more or less to do with such mentality.
  
    During that time, the value of tobacco was mainly focused on its material benefits. As time goes by,the usage is more and more focused on spiritual and aesthetic fields. People use it for inspiration; they use it as a token of their own personality and social status; they use it as a gift or simply hold a cigarette to pose for a nice picture. Ironically, when the superstitions about tobacco is broken and all its harmful chemical elements have been discovered and published, the usage of tobacco has been levered to a more “sublime” level.Our further research will continue from here in my later blogs. 

Below is some basic information I summerized about tobacco for those who may interested:

 The origin and domestication of tobacco:

1.Tobacco is part of the results of Columbus Exchange,a gift from the New World.The earliest record of tobacco is from Columbus' Journal, on October15, 1492:"I found a man alone in a canoe...He had food and water and some dry leaves which must be a thing very much appreciated among them,because they have already brought me some of them as a present at San Salvador..."(Brooks,1952,p.11).

2. At the beginning of 17th century, tobacco has become a major money crop of Virginia,
Maryland and sections of North Caroline. It soon spread to England as a "paid duty to the Crown".
(Robert,1938).

3.The name"tobacco" was first documented by a Bishop, Bartolome de Las Casas:"These muskets,as we will call them,they call tobacco(tabacos)..."(Brooks 32). The scientific title of the genus(Nicotiana) is named after Jean Nicot,a French Ambassador to Portugal.(Lehman Brothers,1955)

4.The leaves Columbus saw were Nicotiana rustica, whose smoke is harsh; the modern tobacco with a far more milder taste is Nicotiana tabacum, was brought to Haiti from Yucatan.(Lehman Brothers,1955,p.10)


  The transplantation and dissemination of tobacco:

l.In 16th century, courtiers and learned people in Spain,Portugal and France have already
adopted smoking for relaxation,they also used the leaf for treating ailments.

2.In about 1560, Jean Nicot ,a French Ambassador to Portugal, highly promoted the medical effectsof tobacco and sent it to King FrancisⅡ.

3.Large amount of tobacco had been shipped to England : in 1617,the number is 20,000 pounds; in 1698, 40,000,000 pounds ; during 1771-1775, the number has reached 102,000,000 pounds( Robert,1938).

  The production of tobacco:

l.Since the cultivation of tobacco is "high labor requirements,but low capital outlay",the farms tend to be many and samll(Lehman Brothers,1955,p.32).After the leaves are cured(dried in a barn), they were shipped to market in hogshead and sale at auction. Later most of the leaves are made into tobacco for medical use.

2.As the development of technology and mass use of machine,small growers are disappearing while larger corporations come into place(Mann,1975).The development of transportation , storage and tobacco processing forge a stronger tie between growers and manufactures. Most of tobacco is made into cigars and cigarettes.Also, more and more manufacture processes(sweating, dipping, boiling licorice etc.) are added in order to accommodate to the various tastes of consumers.

main sources:

Lehman Brothers. About tobacco. [n.p.] 1955.

Brooks, Jerome E.The mighty leaf; tobacco through the centuries. Boston: Little, Brown 1952.
 
Robert, Joseph C.The tobacco kingdom. Durham, N. C: Print,Duke University Press, 1938

Lehman Brothers. About tobacco.Print [n.p.] 1955.

Mann, Charles Kellogg, 1934-, Tobacco : the ants and the elephants. Salt Lake City : Print,Olympus Pub. Co., 1975

Some interesting Blog URLs:

1 http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/ : contains various topics of tobacco and organized by date; very easy to read.

2 http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/ : a great blog that call on people to smoke less cigarettes and with data base that concerning tobacco related diseases.

3 http://www.talkingtobacco.com/tobacco-blog/: a blog that focuses on tobacco products and news.