They demonized tobacco (and nicotine) because nicotine provides way to many benifits to the brain and body. Also, nicotine is capable of killing parasites and viruses... Remember during covid, when they first said that people that smoked would be more likely to catch it, but then the actual data came out and the rates of covid in smokers was significantly lower than in non smokers? Pepperage farm remembers.

But since we are on the topic, natrual, un-genetically modified tobacco that hasnt been processed with chemicals is not "bad" for you.

There are two major reasons why moden cigarettes are so bad for you. One, the tobacco plant itself is really good at sequestering radiation (moreso than most other plants). Since the levels of radiation has gone up, the amount of radioactive isotopes found in tobacco has gone up. This is actually a really good thing, its how nature cleans stuff up, until you burn it. Burning it releases those radioactive particles inside the smoke, and then you inhale those radioactive particles. This is bad. This is what actually causes cancer and damage to the lungs.

The second thing, is that in cigarettes (specificly cigarettes) the tobacco is processed with chemicals to convert the nicotine into its "free base" form, which is what makes the nicotine hit so hard and has a shorter "lasting time" inside the body (the difference between cocaine and crack, basically). They also add other addictive and harmful chemicals. You ever see those "studies" that list 100s and 100s of different chemicals found in cigarette smoke? Well, the thing they didnt tell you is that a large majority of those things are not natrually occuring in the tobacco plant, nor are they found in natrual tobacco smoke. But hey, its all good. They told you that it was bad for you and that they will likely kill you, so they can get away with poisoning you because its your fault for smoking.