February 7, 2025

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Are Native Smokes a Healthier Alternative to Commercial Cigarettes?

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Native smokes play crucial cultural roles for most tribes. People use them as offerings for traditional and ceremonial purposes.

On the other hand, the commercial tobacco sector is known for targeting Indigenous or native people with their marketing strategies, taking advantage of icons and imagery to promote behaviours that go against native people’s beliefs.

So, buying native smokes and leaving commercial products, such as chewing tobacco, cigarettes, and vape pens, in the past is a perfect way for native people to improve their overall health.

Native Smokes

Most indigenous people use native smoke as sacred. They are used in the following ways:

  • Carry prayers in the spiritual world
  • Gift elders, serving as a symbol of respect and gratitude
  • Use it as a medicine because of its healing properties
  • Give offerings to Mother Earth

Commercial Tobacco

Commercial tobacco, like smokeless or spit tobacco and cigarettes, is completely different from native tobacco. Most harmful chemicals, such as nicotine, are added to commercial properties during manufacturing.

Some of those products make nicotine addictive. With time, using them is very dangerous to our overall health. Apart from causing COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), it also causes lung cancer.

Key Differences

Before you go for any cigarette product from an online or nearby shop, you need to know the difference between native and commercial tobacco products. You can make an informed decision by knowing and understanding the differences between the two. Although native smokes aren’t necessarily better than commercial products, it depends on one’s goals while considering the following factors:

  • Effects: This depends on how much chemical or nicotine you can take. However, the commercial or native tobacco you use can also come into play. Some varieties are stronger than others.
  • Chemical content: Both have nicotine. However, more substances are found in commercial products as they are produced and grown using additives, fertilizers, and pesticides. So, read the product labels to look at the chemical content.
  • Aroma: Commercial tobacco products contain additives, which give them a unique aroma, unlike products consisting of native tobacco. This means commercial products constantly produce various flavours.

Quitting Commercial Products

Using commercial tobacco is one of the preventable causes of death in Canada. Whether chewed or smoked, they cause stroke, cancer, and heart disease.

By stopping to use commercial tobacco, you will add more years to your life. You can also keep other people around you healthy by limiting exposure to second-hand smoke.

Is Native Smoke Better?

Some proponents argue that native smokes are less harmful because of their perceived additive-free and natural composition. However, you will need to consider the following:

1. Addiction Potential

Like other tobacco products, native cigarettes have nicotine, which is an addictive substance. Users can become cigarette-dependent, making it difficult to stop or perpetuate health risks linked with smoking.

2.  Smoking-Related Illnesses

Smoking, no matter the cigarette type, greatly increases the risks of getting different health complications and diseases. Even if traditional cigarettes were to have fewer additives, the key harmful tobacco components remain, thus putting smokers at considerable risk.

In conclusion, compared to commercial tobacco, which contains a lot of chemicals and additives, native smoke is much safer. But like other tobacco products, native smoke can also be addictive. So, if you must use it, consult your healthcare provider to advise you further.

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