You can email me garrymeiershow@garrymeier.com
or leave a text or voicemail at 773-888-2157

I saw some people smoking outside a building and I thought the first person who marketed cigarettes is brilliant. Was this person sitting around a campfire, got a cloud of smoke in his face and thought, “I have to come up with a portable method to this moment of enjoyment, it’s delightful.” Or was someone’s house on fire and when that smoke penetrated his/her lungs they immediately wondered, “I can’t believe how good this feels, how can I replicate this sensation without burning down the house?”

A little history; A Frenchman named Jean Nicot (from whose name the word nicotine derives) introduced tobacco to France in 1560 from Spain. Let’s skip ahead.
In 1879 W. Duke, Sons & Company entered into the cigarette business in this country and then 2 years later partnered with James Bonsack who had invented a cigarette rolling machine. Boom went the dynamite. Cigarette smoking really accelerated during both World Wars when our government gave soldiers cigs for free, very nize. Hell, doctors did ads for cigarettes, who knew the shit was bad for you. Finally in 1971 the gov banned ciggy ads on radio and television and also ruled that cigarette packages had to carry warnings such as: HOLY F..K SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU! and IF DRAWING SMOKE INTO YOUR LUNGS WAS GOOD FIREMEN WOULD LIVE TO 150!

But even with all those warnings people continue to smoke even as the price skyrockets. Here’s the bit, the reason the government doesn’t ban coffin nails altogether is because it loves the taxes that cancer sticks bring in. So remember, heroin..bad, cocaine…bad, meth…bad, cigarettes…eh. Hey I have a new campaign slogan for tobacco companies: Black Lungs Matter.

Gunga Galunga,
Garry