Tobacco, Killer Through Time (6)

Since the start of tobacco distribution to the present day, this business has weakened the lives and cultures of many innocent people due to merciless greed. When tobacco farming was in its infancy at the discovery of the Virginia colony, it was and expensive product, which meant large amounts of money for farmers. As they began to grow more, they killed Indians and took out their villages in order to have more lands to farm, which would give them more money. Wars started because of the invasion of Indian land, and massive slaughtering happened, all because of tobacco farming. As servants left, slaves came in to work on these plantations, and the cruelties that happened to slaves demoralized, disabled, and even killed them. Now, the processes of growing and maintaining tobacco doesn't exploit the workers or kill off people, instead the distribution of tobacco does. Large tobacco companies lie constantly about their products, in order to get a larger market. They manipulate the product in order to almost force people into buying more after the first try, due to many addictive substances now contained within cigarettes. They make promises to improve PR, but these promises end up tainted, put off, or completely ignored. Not only promises are ignored, but evidence as well. Tobacco companies only post the fatal facts of smoking when pressed to by law. Documentaries, websites, and articles that display the risks of smoking are put down or discredited by the large tobacco companies, which increase sales, and therefore disabilities and fatalities. Back then, like now, no one is preventing the rampage of tobacco companies in the market, where they drain funds and lives from many people every day. An example of this is my grandpa. He was ensnared in the greedy clutches of the tobacco companies. He smoked, like many others, and the companies triumphed over them. He died of lung cancer before I was even ten, and actually might have lived if the tobacco companies hadn't kept the fatal information of their products. From the English colonies of Virginia, to the modern homes of many citizens, tobacco has killed cultures and damaged families.