Cigarettes and Opium

Cigarettes and Opium An English tobacco agent who has returned from China, tells with pride that the Chinese are giving up opium for cigarettes, saying: "Cigar- ettes are rapidly becoming moral uplifters in China!" The inference in- tended is that cigarette smoking is less harmful than opium smoking. Dr. Charles B. Towns, the drug specialist, who spent much time in China treating opium addicts, says: "The man who smokes opium moderately suffers no more physical deterioration than the man who inhales tobacco moderately. The excessive smoker of cigarettes experiences the same mental and physical disturbance, when deprived of them, that the opium smoker experiences when deprived of opium. The medical treatment necessary to bring about a physiological change in order to destroy the craving is the same." The fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization. No agency is more destructive of soul, mind and body, or more submersive of good morals, than the cigarette.