Thus the real reason for the push to control cigarettes. Higher taxes, smoking bans, etc. are not designed to help the non-smokers. No. This is all a trend to make it easier for nicotine addicts to someday buy the safe FDA approved sources of the drug (at a higher price of course).

Think about it. The tobacco companies had too big a monopoly on nicotine sales, so the agenda was to pave the road and open the market a bit. No one will buy nicotine based drugs for what ails them if they can just light up anytime with the same effect.

This is also the same reason ephedra has been limited and controlled as well in the US, so that the markets can open for less effective, cheaper and more profitable alternatives can take it's place. Forget about the war on methamphetamine - it had nothing to do with it besides a convenient reason.

The general public have been given false pretenses so that large corporations can make more money.

Even though they currently restrict cigarettes, if given the choice, people will still want to smoke them then swallow some nicotine supplement or whatever. The only way to make sure that they get a lot of people to buy their products is to completely ban cigarettes. And, do you honestly think the US (or any other country for that matter) will ever be able to completely ban cigarettes? They may restrict them as much as possible, but they know that if they completely ban them then it will be prohibition all over again. Except people will be creating cigarettes illegally instead of booze.

[edit on 22-6-2007 by Saturn]

As with most medications currently on the market there are both positive and negetive side-effects of taking those medications. Just because Nicotine has been found to help alleviate certain medical conditions and can be used as an effective pain reliever does not mean there are no side-effects to it as well. Nicotine, even for some of the beneficial purposes it serves, has also been found to worsen or bring about certain other conditions including: Heart Disease, Temporomandibular Joint Disease, Diabetes, Liver and Kidney Diseases, and Stomach Ulcers but to name a few. Another common problem is that Nicotine is highly addictive, and oftentimes patients will begin to overdose on medications with Nicotine and bring about the effects from the drug. It essentially triggers certain receptors in the brains neuron cells to release a higher rate of Dopamine into the brain thus creating the sense of "need", and creates a similar feeling of pleasure that Cocaine and Heroine produce. On top of that, Nicotine does not have to be smoked to see it trigger this need in humans.

Nicotine binds to certain nerve cell receptors commonly known as Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors. There are an abundance of Nicotinic Receptors and their specific functions are varied but the common problem with Nicotine is that it particularly binds to these receptors and prohibits the thought process of the brain. By increasing the flow between these receptors it also increase the amount of the horomone Adrenaline which causes heart rate to increase from the direct effect on a subjects blood pressure, and kicks up the amount of Glucose found in the blood. Now, this is not to say that Nicotine based medications cannot serve a purpose. For example, a fairly new medication known as ABT-418 has been tested and researched, and what they found is that it lessens the symptoms of ADHD.

One thing to remember about Cigarettes in particular is that the Nicotine they contain is merely one of the many ingredients in their products. Just do a google search and see how much information there is about the "other" ingredients in Cigarettes, and Nicotine barely touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the harmful ingredients contained in brand name Cigarettes such as Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, etc. My problem isn't necessarily with the Tobacco and Nicotine themselves, but instead with the hundreds of other products that are found in Tobacco based products in the modern age. It is my own proposition that effective medications will one day be found without the harmful side effects that come with Nicotine based medications, and medical researchers are currently testing and doing trials on such medications.

-Interesting side note that some people do not know- Nicotine was one of the first effective Insecticides developed by humans, and was cultivated directly from the Tobacco plant.