“I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.”

— Anton Chekhov

On the Harmfulness of Tobacco (1886)

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Anton Chekhov 222

Russian dramatist, author and physician 1860–1904

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“Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest health threat that they face -- an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by multimillion dollar marketing campaigns. I challenge Congress -- let's pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will improve public health, protect our tobacco farmers and change the way tobacco companies do business forever. Let's do what it takes to bring teen smoking down. Let's raise the price of cigarettes by up to $1.50 a pack over the next 10 years with penalties on the tobacco industry if it keeps marketing to our children.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

1998 State of the Union Address (January 27, 1998)
1990s

“For thy sake, tobacco, I
Would do anything but die.”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

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“Tobacco is my favorite vegetable.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Interview on the Today Show NBC (1993).

“The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer-causing substances than tobacco.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Taped statement (August 1979); Reagan is on record as opposing legalization of Marijuana: "I also want to applaud you for helping the people of Oregon fight a misguided minority that would legalize marijuana. That would be the worst possible message to send to our young people." Speech http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/073086a.htm (30 July 1986); Reagan's son Michael has disputed the fervor of his opposition: "Of course Dad was for legalization. … He wasn't crazy, he didn't want his kids in jail!"
"Reagan's Marijuana Comments Cause Stir" (11 May 2002) http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/11/12343.shtml
1970s
Context: The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer-causing substances than tobacco. And if that isn’t enough it leads to bronchitis and emphysema. If adults want to take such chances that is their business. But surely the communications media … should let four million youngsters know what they are risking.

“One topic that has only recently begun to attract attention is the Nazi anti-tobacco movement. Germany had the world's strongest anti-smoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race. Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists pointed out that whereas Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all fond of tobacco, the three major fascist leaders of Europe -- Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco -- were all non-smokers”

Robert N. Proctor (1954) American historian

Robert N. Proctor, " The anti-tobacco campaign of the Nazis: a little known aspect of public health in Germany, 1933-45 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2352989/pdf/bmj00571-0040.pdf." BMJ: British Medical Journal 313.7070 (1996): 1450.

“One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere, with little difficulty. It might not be easily marketable by major corporations. Tobacco is quite another story.”

Noam Chomsky book Deterring Democracy

Deterring Democracy, 1992 https://web.archive.org/web/20000603124454/http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/dd/dd-c04-s05.html.
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994

“This very night I am going to leave off Tobacco!”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

Surely there must be some other world in which this unconquerable purpose shall be realized.
Letter to Thomas Manning (December 26, 1815)

“All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools.”

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) English dramatist, poet and translator

Remark attributed to Marlowe from the testimony of Richard Baines, a government informer, in 1593.
Disputed

“In legislation we all do a lot of swapping tobacco across the lines.”

Joseph Gurney Cannon (1836–1926) American politician

Referring to a practice during the Civil War, quoted in a tribute to Cannon on his retirement; reported in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).

“Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.”

George Eliot book Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda (1876)

“I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.”

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Anton Chekhov 222

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