Smoking is not a sin. It is something that can have a tendency to harm health, depending on many factors. E.g., most people assume that pipe and cigar smoking is no different than cigarette smoking, and that light cigarette smoking and heavy cigarette smoking are the same. None of this is true. Cigar and pipe smokers, taken as statistically separate from non-smokers, have lower rates of heart disease than non-smokers. They run a slightly higher chance of mouth/throat cancer. They do not inhale the smoke, as the pleasure derives from the flavor of the tobacco, while the nicotine is aborbed through the lining of the mouth. There are benefits to tobacco as well as health problems. This is not politically correct to note, but it is true. It improves certain indices of cognitive perception, and certain health benefits also accrue (decreased liklihood of ulcerative colitis, e.g.). The Catholic Church has always considered tobacco a “good of the earth” to be used with moderation if it is used at all. The idea that it is intrinsically addictive has been generated by changing the criteria, so that these same criteria now can also apply to chocolates and coffee (that they have not been has to do with sociology, not with the criteria themselves). Assuming that all smoking is addictive is part of the progpaganda that has occluded reason on these matters. Physical addiction is something different than psychological overdependency, and the former requires that one need more and more of a substance to achieve the same effect, and that there be grave harm to the one who withdraws from use. That just isn’t true for the most part…
