Was tobacco/smoking generally recognized as addictive in the past?

[robert_columbia]

I was thinking about the time when smoking cigarettes was just “normal” in the US, say back in the 1940’s. Did people generally recognize it was addictive, even if they didn’t fully understand the pharmacology? I’m having difficulty believing that one could fail to perceive that something wasn’t right with tobacco use.

[Rhythmdvl]

…and when did the tobacco companies first find out/learn to manipulate nicotine?

[aldiboronti]

Almost from its first introduction into Europe there have been warnings of the dangers of tobacco, most famously King James I of England in his Counterblast to Tobacco, 1604.

“Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

James compared smokers with old drunkards and harlots: it was foolish of people to believe “if a man smoke himself to death with it (as many have done) then some other disease must bear the blame for that fault”. It was the same as if “old harlots thanked their harlotry for their many years that custom being healthful (say they) to the purging of the loins, but never had mind how many died of the pox in the flower of their youth, and so did old drunkards thought they prolonged their days by their swine like diet, but never remembered how many died drowned in drink before they be half old.”

Link

[Colibri]

The health risks of tobacco, and the difficulty of giving it up have been recognized for a long time.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.

Mark Twain, attributed

[Al_Bundy]

Cigarettes never existed without knowledge of the dangers. Sellers of drugs and fast food always look for ways to obscure the dangers. Cigarette makers used doctor’s statements and advertisements to make them sound healthy. Many doctors did smoke themselves. My dentist died of lung cancer at 45 from cigarettes. Millions of Chinese are not about to quit either. Human nature intervenes on reality.

[Lumpy]

Referring to cigarettes as “coffin nails” is at least as old as World War One, and possibly older.

[C.Montgomery_Burns]

The song “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)”, popular in the late 1940s, is about how smokers are constantly having to get another smoke.

[Hari_Seldon]

When I was a teenager (in the 50s) the mantra was that cigarettes were habit-forming (like, say, nail-biting) but not addictive. It is not clear to me what distinction was being made. Now that addiction as a chemical dependency is better understood, it has become clear that nicotine is a truly addictive substance. (But where does that leave nail-biting?)

[UltraVires]

I don’t have the cite, but Lewis and Clark entered in their diaries about how the men were “sore from want of tobacco” or some such thing. I’ll look it up…

[peledre]

@jtgain

I don’t have the cite, but Lewis and Clark entered in their diaries about how the men were “sore from want of tobacco” or some such thing. I’ll look it up…

I just got back from Spirit Mound near Vermillion, SD last weekend. It’s one of the few verified spots that we know L&C stood on. They were investigating rumors of midget “spirits” that supposedly occupied the area. No spirits were found

[Tom_Tildrum]

It was common back in the 70s for cigarette ads to show their tar and nicotine levels, and for several brands to advertise themselves as low-tar. I can’t imagine why anyone ever would have thought that these quantities were not within the control of the cigarette companies.