Archive -> August 29, 2007

Cigarette smoker = drug addict

Cigarettes are poisonous intoxicants...They are composed of tobacco and nicotine. Tobacco is the most powerful stimulant and addictive plants known. The active ingredient, nicotine, is one of the most toxic drugs. The average cigarette contains enough nicotine to kill several people. When the smoke of a cigarette is inhaled, it delivers nicotine to the brain within seven seconds, which is faster than the time it takes heroin to travel to the brain. While in the lungs seventy to ninety percent of the inhaled compounds of the cigarette smoke is retained and only twenty to thirty percent is exhaled. Nicotine affects a person’s mood, learning, alertness and ability to concentrate and perform. It is harder to break the habit of smoking cigarettes than it is to stop using heroin or alcohol. Smokers can develop a variety of diseases like lung cancer, heart disease, bronchitis, and emphysema. Chewing-tobacco and snuff (finely powdered tobacco) also contain very high doses of nicotine.

Excerpted from 360 Questions To Ask The Orthodox Sunni Muslims by Dr. Malachi Z. York