The United States government has, for some time, made efforts to reduce the use of tobacco in order to improve public health. These efforts have not succeeded at all. Why? For that same reason that women took to smoking and that men still smoke even though they know it is harmful. They will tell you, or you will see, that they resort to the cigarette, the cigar, or the pipe because it soothes their nerves, and they feel a need of achieving this result. The tobacco plant itself was used long ago in the antique period of both North and South America and on the other side of the world in the Near, Middle, and Far East. But tobacco was not the only plant they used. They had several others which have come down to us, such as the poppy plant and a certain mushroom. And from them modern knowledge has created chemical drugs. What does this mean? The stress which produces nervousness is more common among the moderns than it was among the ancients. What were, and are, all of them seeking? It was either relief for the ego or uplift of conscience or the attainment of the spiritual awakening.
-- Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 3 : The Origins of Illness > # 127
