--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 25 number: 1 published: 1921-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cigarettes and Opium," *Improvement Era* 25, no. 1 (November 1921): 69.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2501unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2501unse start_page: 69 end_page: 69 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2501unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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.