ELi5: Why do cigarettes have so many toxic substances in them? Surely you don’t need rat poison to get high?

2.32K viewsBiologyOther

Not just rat poison, but so many of the ingredients just sound straight up unnecessary and also harmful. Why is there tar in cigarettes? Or arsenic? Formaldehyde? I get the tobacco and nicotine part but do you really need 1001 poisons in it???

EDIT: Thanks for answering! I was also curious on why cocaine needs cement powder and gasoline added in production. Snorting cement powder does not sound like a good idea. Then again, snorting cocaine is generally not considered a good idea… but still, why is there cement and gasoline in cocaine??

In: Biology

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s to stop it going mouldy because it’s sold damp. Also it adds weight… it’s sold by weight.

Tobacco plants also have a lot of stuff that causes other plants to become diseased. Don’t tend to your chilli plants after rolling a cigarette.

[Additive free tobaccos](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=additive+free+tobaccos&atb=v405-1&ia=web) have a lot less stuff in them. They are sold much less damp.

You are viewing 1 out of 15 answers, click here to view all answers.