According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were a little over 300,000 deaths related to AIDS in 1997. That's like taking half the people in Baltimore county and making them disappear. Another 75,000 died from alcohol. In addition to that, 20,000 died from illegal drug use, and 25,000 died from motor vehicle crashes. But if you were to add those numbers up, they still wouldn't equal the amount of deaths that were related to tobacco. In fact, each year, smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires combined. Tobacco is a concern not only for the person that is smoking, but it also effects the population that is not a tobacco user by increasing medical costs and taxes, and increases the mortality rate with second hand smoke.

According to the United States Public Health Service, there are approximately 54 million Americans that smoke each year. The use of tobacco has easily become number one cause of death and concern in the United States. Smoking is directly linked to bronchitis; emphysema; coronary heart disease; cirrhoses of the liver; peripheral vascular disease; bladder cancer; peptic ulcers; lung cancer; lar

There are charlatans and tonic vendors who have toted several methods throughout history that have come up as the “sure cure” while others approved with the stamp of science. Which ones work? Why and how do they work?

Nicotine gum and patches are the latest and greatest solution science has had to offer to the smoking community in hopes of making the success rate inch its way upward. The ideas behind these methods or “replacement therapies” were to break the habit of smoking before you deal with the full brunt of the withdrawal from the drug itself. These products are now sold over the counter to anyone 18 years or older and come with instructions, calendar markers, support cassette tapes, and a positive planner for a smoke free life. Unfortunately, they range from $30 to $80 per week and are not supported by HMO’s. They also bring further complications in that prolonged use causes such side effects as increased risk of heart attack to insulin rejection. Despite the presence of nicotine, smokers still experience withdrawal symptoms and are still 45% more likely to cheat in the first week and 85% more likely to cheat by the second week, making the success rate only 10% to stop smoking for more than a single month. Another method of stopping is acupuncture, a Chinese holistic approach of using metal staples in and around the ear that actuate charkas that ease the withdrawal symptoms. There is no scientific evidence that has decided decisively how effective this method is. Hypnosis, or the sub-conscious suggestion of an outside party that uses a dream-like trance to convince his patients to stop, also has very little support or research in the scientific community. It is obvious this method has worked for many people, but is very expensive and cannot be quantified easily by researchers. There is another solution, not widely publicized, in testing right now. A company called Celanese has created a chemical that, when injected in the human body, intercepts nicotine before it gets to the brain. This drug, in effect, would force smokers to go through the withdrawal process once and then never again experience the effects of smoking, thusly eliminating the need for it. I could find no substantial information about the drug or when it would be available, but most reports indicate that it will probably not be much more effective than the methods available now. In conclusion, smoking is an extremely addictive habit that usually forms in the early teen years. We should be targeting our children from the time they enter elementary school to prepare them for this temptation and encourage them to steer clear of this problem. There is no su

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