Cigarettes are evil.
What is evil?
"Evil is movement towards void," said (memorably) the novelist Don Delillo.
In the context of cigarettes, evil is intending to push users towards the void — to sicken or kill them.
But how can a naturally occuring substance, a venerable plant such as tobacco, express malice?
Here's how — by taking over the body's machinery, and using it against us.
Not unlike HIV, if you think about it. A fascinating study (and science fiction-esque video) detail the process, but the central point is that nicotine acts as a "pharmacological chaperone" to assemble nicotine receptors, and make them "more abundant" in the brain.
Here's a visualization of this process in close-up — video available]
To hardwire us for more addiction, even as it is addicting us. That's evil in physical form.
Update: as if to prove the point beyond dispute, a study by the Massachusetts public health agency released in January showed that many cigarette-makers steadily increased the level of nicotine in their cigarettes in the last decade or so –by about 15%.
Consciously plotting to addict users to a substance that causes cancer and disease. That's evil.
Kit Stolz 