Observations
of tobacco’s habit-forming nature date back centuries, although it
was not formally declared to be addictive by the U.S. Surgeon
General’s Office until the 1980s. In 1527, Bartolomé de las
Casas, a Spanish missionary, noted the habitual use of tobacco among
the Indians in South America, and their inability to stop. In
1604, King James I of Great Britain penned a pamphlet,
A Counterblaste to
Tobacco, in
which he condemned tobacco use for several reasons, including its
addictive property. He argued that tobacco was “bewitching” to
its users, who could no more go without it than they could go
without meat or sleep, and compared chronic users to alcoholics.
To combat the problem, the monarch raised the tax on tobacco imports
and banned domestic production (although it continued). In
1610, Sir Francis Bacon remarked, “The use of tobacco is growing
greatly and conquers men with a certain secret pleasure, so that
those who have become accustomed can hardly be restrained.”
In 1798, Dr. Benjamin Rush,
the noted American physician, emphasized the similarity between
habitual tobacco and alcohol use in his
Observations Upon
the Influence of the Habitual Use of Tobacco.
In 1828, two German medical students, Ludwig Reimann and Wilhelm
Heinrich, wrote dissertations on the effects of nicotine in which
both concluded that the ingredient found in tobacco was a “dangerous
poison.” Health reformers in the United States argued that
tobacco was poisonous and addictive. It is “the most deadly,
most noxious poison,” wrote Dr. Caleb Ticknor in 1836.
Leaders in the anti-tobacco
movement, such as Edward Hitchcock of Amherst College and the
Reverend George Trask, considered the substance to be as
habit-forming as alcohol and dangerous even when used in moderation.
On the latter point they countered arguments by those who insisted
that moderate use of tobacco by adult men was not harmful, and could
be beneficial. In 1853, Dr. William Alcott, in
The Physical and
Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury,
wrote of the “tobacco drunkard” and employed an analogy from the
then highly controversial topic of slavery: “Most emphatically
does tobacco enslave its votaries [i.e., users]… It is the uniform
testimony of those who have attempted to emancipate themselves from
their attachment and bondage to tobacco, that to break the chains in
which they are bound, requires the sternest efforts of reason,
conscience, and the will.” A humorous verse, “Tobacco
and I,” in
the July 9, 1859 issue of
Harper’s Weekly
states that “Old Nick”—i.e., the Devil—is in nicotine, and that the
author’s tobacco habit, “dulls the sense, defiles the breath/
Depraves the taste, depletes the purse;/ Poisons the very air with
death…”
The problem of the tobacco
habit (or, specifically, nicotine addiction) was reflected in the
advertisements in
Harper’s Weekly,
where various remedies were marketed over the years. Many of
these were probably “quack” cures whose promoters were more
interested in removing users’ money rather than their addiction.
Some products may have been concocted with sincere intent, but the
ingredients of all are difficult or impossible to discern. The
first tobacco-cure advertisement appeared in the issue of April 26,
1862, a time when many young men, particularly from the North, were
being exposed to the habit for the first time during their military
service in the Civil War. Tobacco was included in the rations
of both Union and Confederate servicemen. As they marched
across the South, Northerners developed a taste for the region’s
“Bright” tobacco, the mild and sweet taste of which encouraged
widespread use and inhaling when smoked. The text of the
first advertisement in April 1862
was simple and brief, but appealed directly to those who desired to
have their “craving for tobacco cured”; it was buried at the bottom
of a page which also included ads for artificial legs, guns, and
Confederate prison memoirs.
An advertisement in the
January 4, 1868 issue of
Harper’s Weekly
offered a free recipe for “A
New Cure: Tobacco Antidote,”
which had allegedly helped thousands kick the habit. A
different tactic was taken in an advertisement appearing the next
year, which emphasized a time-tested method of 60 years. The
text was overlaid with an attention-grabbing X,
supposedly trademarked, and warned against “humbug imitations.”
The mysterious mixture was marketed as created and distributed by
physicians and sold by “all druggists,” thus granting it the
apparent authority of medical experts.
In the 1880s,
Horsford’s Acid Phosphate
was advertised as toothpaste, as well as a cure for habitual
drinking and, here, tobacco use. The testimony of a physician
claimed that the product helped the nervous condition caused “by the
toxic action of tobacco.” The deadliness of the tobacco habit
was attested in an advertisement headline from the April 15, 1893
issue: “Don’t
Tobacco Spit or Smoke Your Life Away.”
It offered a booklet about No-To-Bac and provided a money-back
guarantee if not cured of the addiction. An
advertisement in the December 29, 1894 issue gave the user an easy
way out: “Don’t
Stop Tobacco: How to Cure Yourself While Using It.”
Marketed as a scientific product developed by a Berlin physician,
Baco-Curo purported to remove nicotine from the addict’s system
naturally, letting him continue using tobacco while eliminating
nicotine dependence.
Because of nicotine,
tobacco was often categorized with other drugs, particularly
narcotics. In 1885, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU) established a Department of Narcotics, which included
tobacco. Its top priority status was revealed in the 1887
annual report of the Kentucky WCTU, which handed out 9,000 pamphlets
on the dangers of tobacco, but just 100 on opium.
In the November 7, 1896
issue of
Harper’s Weekly,
an advertisement for the
Keeley Cure
held out hope for those suffering from alcohol, opium, or tobacco
addiction. Dr. Leslie E. Keeley founded the first Keeley
Institute in Dwight, Illinois, in 1879. By the end of the
century, there were 200 branches across the country and, as the ad
attested, the federal government had adopted its treatment in
veterans’ homes and seven state governments had endorsed its use.
Patients were injected with an undoubtedly ineffective solution
grandly called “Double Chloride of Gold” (a chemically impossible
compound). However, the Keeley Institute’s innovation of group
therapy was helpful to some and a precursor of methods adopted later
by Alcoholic Anonymous and other substance-abuse programs.
The most dramatic
advertisement for an anti-tobacco remedy is a full-page,
illustrated copy for No-To-Bac
in the April 11, 1896 issue of
Harper’s Weekly.
It features a center picture of King No-To-Bac, partially clad with
the armor and armaments of an ancient Roman warrior, standing
triumphantly on the slain corpse of Nicotine. Warning that
tobacco was at work on a user’s heart, nerves, manhood, and
lifespan, the product was promoted as a “Guaranteed Tobacco Habit
Cure.” Under the title “Coffin Nails,” a slang term for
cigarettes indicating their deadly nature, the three-column text
discussed the hazards of tobacco. It rejected the common
distinction made between excessive and moderate use. The ad’s
particular focus was the rising popularity of cigarettes among boys,
and it took a familiar nineteenth-century stance that tobacco was a
“gateway” drug, which encouraged the use of stronger substances,
such as alcohol, morphine, and narcotics, as well as criminal
behavior. The narrative ended with the words of a professional
cyclist (a new, wildly popular sport in the 1890s) and other
sportsmen explaining how smoking impaired athletic performance.
In that way, it anticipated public service announcements made today
by well-known athletes and other celebrities. The ad concluded
with four testimonials of the effectiveness of No-To-Bac, including
one customer who claimed the product cured him of the tobacco habit
after the Keeley treatment failed.
In the late-nineteenth
century, the mental or addictive effect of tobacco on its users was
noted in state court decisions, including
Carver v. the State
of Indiana
(1879),
The State of
Indiana v. Mueller (1881),
and The
State of Missouri v. Ohmer (1889).
In 1889, John Newport
Langley and William Dickinson discovered that nicotine selectively
blocks nerve impulses, thus demonstrating scientifically for the
first time that nicotine affects the nervous system. Although
not the focus of their research, the study opened the possibility
that nicotine interrupts brain mechanisms in a way that promotes
addiction.
As cigarettes become more
popular at the turn of the century, and their negative effects on
the behavior of smokers, such as nervousness and irritability, were
observed, some suspected that the tobacco in the product was mixed
with narcotics, such as opium or cocaine. An article, “Science
vs. Prejudice,”
in the February 5, 1898 issue of
Harper’s Weekly
reported on a conference of the Medico-Legal Society at which
cigarette smokers were reassured that the products contain only
tobacco. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, others numbered
nicotine itself among narcotics. Between 1889 and 1907, two
states declared cigarettes to be narcotic and four states banned
their sale. Nicotine was originally listed as an adulterated
drug under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 until lobbying by
tobacco companies resulted in its removal.
In the mid-twentieth
century, articles in medical journals, such as
The Lancet (1942)
and the
American Journal of Psychiatry (1963),
began to label tobacco use as addictive. However, the
groundbreaking Surgeon General’s Report of 1964, which identified
tobacco as cancer-causing, stopped short of calling it addictive.
The committee concluded that the “tobacco habit should be
characterized as an habituation rather than an addiction.”
Finally, in 1986, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that
smokeless tobacco was addictive, and in 1988, that nicotine was “a
powerfully addicting drug.” The latter was based on more than
2,000 scientific studies, which made it “clear that … cigarettes and
other form of tobacco are addicting and that actions of nicotine
provide the pharmacologic basis of tobacco addiction…” |
1)
July 9, 1859, p. 443, c. 3
verse, “Tobacco and I,” addiction, smoking, and women using snuff
2)
April 26, 1862, p. 272, c. 3
ad for curing the craving for tobacco [first such ad]
3)
January 4, 1868, p. 16, c. 1
ad, “A New Cure: Tobacco Antidote,” which “restores sufferers
from its deadly effects to robust health”
4)
February 13, 1869, p. 112, c. 3
ad, “Tobacco Antidote”
5)
October 4, 1884, p. 660, c. 1
ad, help against the toxic effect of tobacco
6)
April 15, 1893, p. 361, c. 1
ad, “Don’t Tobacco Spit or Smoke Your Life Away”
7)
December 29, 1894, p. 1251, c. 4
ad, “Don’t Stop Tobacco,” use “cure” while still using
8)
November 7, 1896, p. 1107, c. 3-4
illustrated ad for the Keeley Treatment
9)
April 11, 1896, p. 368
ad, “Coffin Nails,” full page, illustrated
10)
February 5, 1898, p. 143
news story, “Science vs. Prejudice” |