Tobacco is a plant that is typically made into cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco products. What is common to all these products is the drug "nicotine." Most people see tobacco products every day in use by respected people. Tobacco is everywhere, in books, magazines, on television and the movie screen. But before you think about lighting up, here are a few facts you should probably know:

• Nicotine is a drug that is as addictive if not more so than cocaine and heroin.
• Nicotine is a poison.
• One drop of pure nicotine would kill an average sized man.
• Cigarette smoke has more that 4,000 chemicals in it.
• Forty of those 4,000 chemicals are known carcinogens (they cause cancer.)
• One of the main ingredients in cigarettes is carbon monoxide, also known as car exhaust.
• Other chemicals include ammonia and arsenic which are found in toilet cleaners and rat poisons.
• Studies show that smokers lose 7 minutes off their life when they smoke a cigarette.
• More than 434,000 Americans die every year from diseases caused by tobacco. Thats nearly 1,200 people every day or 50 every hour. That means that one person dies almost every minute of every day due to a tobacco related disease.
• Smoking causes 87 percent of all lung cancer cases.
• Tobacco companies spend $16 million every day to advertise their product.
• Eighty percent of smokers started before they were 18 years old.
• Seventy percent of teens in America don't smoke.
• A pack a day habit would cost over 1000 dollars a year. Just think what else you could do with that money!
• Tobacco companies have sponsored rodeos, sporting events and car races even though most of those athletes don't use tobacco in any way shape or form.
• Second hand smoke kills about 53,000 people every year.
• Because of their size, smoking one cigar is like smoking 10 cigarettes.
• Cigar smokers are four to ten times more likely to suffer from cancer of the throat, larynx and esophagus than nonsmokers.
• About seventy percent of people who smoke wish they could quit.
• Smoking dulls your sense of taste and smell; however, once you quit, it only takes a few days to regain those senses.
• If they could do it over, 70 percent of young people who smoke say they wouldn't have even started.
• Half of all Americans who ever smoked have now quit.
• After quitting for five to ten years, a smoker's risk of heart disease and lung cancer returns to that of a normal, nonsmoking person.
• And the most important thing you should know is that YOU DON'T NEED IT!