Not All They Are Cracked Up To Be (Herbal Cigarettes)

Member Name: Sarahjh

Product:	Herbal Cigarettes
Date:	17/12/08 (376 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The only advantage is no nicotine

Disadvantages: Still a health hazard

Each and every Herbal cigarette that I have ever tried has been...Well im struggling to find the right word... but maybe the only suitable word is awful!
I am sure that they are an acquired taste and if you smoked them regularly you would just accept them for what they are.
While most herbal cigarettes don't contain nicotine the majority of them do contain tar, although the tar levels seem to be lower than in a conventional cigarette. The tar in cigarette smoke coats the lungs like a chimney and increases the risk of bronchial disorders and lung cancer.


A herbal cigarette doesn't contain any nicotine, a highly addictive substance that stimulates the nervous system, of course once the nervous system recovers from the initial nicotine inhalation and starts to return to normal it then discovers its missing something...the nicotine! So the vicious cycle begins.


Now im not preaching to anyone because im a smoker myself. But I struggle to see that replacing an ordinary cigarette with a herbal cigarette can be good forward planning.
Surely it has to be all or nothing?


There's no such thing as a safe cigarette...right or wrong?
Any kind of cigarette containing tar and carbon monoxide represents a danger to our health.
Alternative cigarettes ( otherwise known as Herbal cigarettes) are becoming increasingly popular, especially among the younger generation.
The most popular are Bidis and Clove cigarettes.
Bidis are imported from Asia and India, they are available in just about every flavour that you can think of, from chocolate to mango. They can be bought extremely cheaply via the Internet, but it does seem that the manufacturers use child labour to produce the cigarettes.
Clove cigarettes emit dangerous chemicals when they burn, inhalation of clove oil can make you susceptible to lung infections or bronchitis or even pneumonia.
So neither of these seem very attractive alternatives.


It seems that Herbal cigarettes are favoured by actors, William B. Davis who plays the smoker in The X Files used to be a smoker, so rather than take up using nicotine again he chose to use herbal substitutes whilst filming.


Herbal cigarettes are widely available, if you have a look on EBay and Amazon you will see many different types, all offered very cheaply.
I have reservations, rightly or wrongly I think that you would just be trading one addiction for another.
Another thing that needs to be considered is the pungent smell that comes from the herbal cigarettes, my daughter was relaxing and enjoying her herbal smoke and was asked to leave the premises!
The hotel owner was convinced that she was smoking an illegal substance, of course she wasn't but it was embarrassing and that was the last time she ever smoked any herbal product in public.


As an average 20 herbal cigarettes will cost in the region of £2.20 so that is approximately half the cost of a packet of normal cigarettes but definitely not half of the health hazard.

Summary: Just substituting one for another.