For many people smoking is a trend, or a way of attracting attention so people will think better of them, at least that is how the smoker feels. But in many cases in this corrupt day and age the smoker is an addict and is the dependent of the vicious drug nicotine. Nicotine is the most addictive drug in the world, and is abused by ignorant human beings through the use of cigarettes. Personally nicotine is my worse enemy and if were flesh and bones I would destroy it, because of the fact that is has taken my beloved father which I love more than anything in this world and turned him into an addict. This paper has helped turn the anger I had for my father because of his smoking, into pity and sorrow. For the fact that because of the paper I now have an understanding of why my father is addicted. What he feels and goes through every time he tries to quit and does not succeed why he can't quit, and lastly why de has become dependent of the life threatening drug nicotine.
             On his voyage to the Caribbean, Columbus discovered Indians smoking broad leaves of the tabaca plant in pipes and inhaling the smoke. Columbus took the plant back to Europe, and within fifty years people throughout cities of Europe were smoking. Use became so widespread by the 1600s that governments tried to ban or suppress the new habit. In 1604, King James I of England raged over "the filthy, stinking weed, tobacco"(1-94)
             While some condemned tobacco, others praised it for its supposed medicinal qualities. Doctors prescribed tobacco preparations to treat everything from cancer to dog bites. Seventeenth-century chemists were the first to understand the power of tobacco's active ingredient, nicotine. Experiments on animals showed some of the powerful effects. By the end of the century, tobacco was no longer considered a helpful medicine. But it was still widely smoked for pleasure and recreation. The numbers of smokers worldwide continued to gro...