The Power of Pure Poppycock

alder you are still a todie

Has anyone tallied the total drug use, pre and post nicotine wars? I would venture to guess that counting sleeping pills, viagra, caffein, marijuana, beta blockers and all the rest, we are far more drugged up than ever before. So there just may have been a transferral, not a cure?
As an aside, in economic terms, a quick terminus is preferrable to decades of lingering and imposing on doctors. It may even be preferrable to a slowly, irresistibly decreasing quality of life.

You wrote: The ads???sometimes even the same ad???made patently self-contradictory claims, that cigarettes were both calming and stimulating to "the nerves."

Are you aware that several scientific studies on the effects of nicotine have born this out? As unusual as it sounds, nicotine seems to provide a mental and/or physical boost when needed, whilst at other times, helps one calm down and relax. It's part of the reason that it is so addicting, the brain actually seems to get from nicotine, what effect it desires at the given moment the drug is consumed.