Give the butt the boot

A thought sprung to our minds one evening at a Metro station when we saw one of the many Government advertisements stating ‘are you spending your hard earned money to buy your own death?’ and it strucka nerve.

Later, when exiting another station, Metrolife saw a couple of people with a signboard imploring people to help raise funds for cancer patients and a donation box standing mere paces away from a tiny stall selling cigarettes and other tobacco items.

We stood there for about ten minutes or so but in those ten minutes; only two people went to the box and dropped a few coins while a large chunk of the dispersing crowd turned a blind eye to the box but not the stall. It got us thinking deep. Do such advertisements really leave an indelible mark on the people? We doubt it. No matter how high the price, those with a ‘craving’ will shell out the cash to satisfy their nicotine urge. Even when a page from the book of consequences stares at them, right in the face.

Surely there must be alternatives to sating the nicotine yen, reducing the perniciousness that comes with it.

The main carcinogens that cause emphysema and other respiratory obstructions caused by smoking are primarily because of the element of paper.

The standard paper used by the cigarette manufacturers of the day is not good at all for the lungs with studies showing that the incineration of the paper plays a pivotal role in the development of respiratory problems. Add it to the tobacco that undergoes excessive chemical treatment and one has a killer formula on their hands.

Now, while we do not condone smoking, we can understand that for some it is not an option anymore and we do not judge. For all those individuals, here are a couple of alternatives to help them nick the nicotine and kick the carcinogens.

For starters, try buying tobacco pouches and rolling your own cigarettes with hemp leaves as opposed to cigarette paper. Not only is it a better alternative, seeing as the paper is naturally derived, but also it can go a long way for the environment too. 

Research has proved that if the world switched to hemp over regular paper, 48 per cent of the worldwide forest cover destroyed each year can be preserved instead.
In addition, the tobacco in pouches has a lower nicotine content and has not been put through the mill as much as their commercially successful counterparts. As a result,
one ends up smoking lessertobacco to satiate the need for nicotine.

Another alternative can be smoking a pipe. While there are many a variant available in the market,  a traditional Iranian Medwakh Pipe is a good option. It is a hand crafted instrument that comes with a bio-filter that one can change at regular intervals and use traditional Dokha tobacco, which is a herbal substitute to the normal tobacco. The nicotine is more potent and unadulterated which all adds up to lesser consumption of tobacco while meeting the nicotine requirements one’s body may have grown to
have in time.