History
The use of tobacco in cigarette form is a relatively recent invention, becoming increasingly popular after the Crimean War. This was helped by the development of certain types of tobaccos that are suitable for cigarette use. During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of cigarettes started to become widely known and severe health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets.
The advent of the Internet revealed the prevalence of capnolagnia, a sexual fetish in which one gains gratification from watching others smoke, usually women smoking cigarettes.
Online cigarette stores
Online stores have recently appeared that offer foreign cigarettes to internet buyers. As many jurisdictions place high taxes on tobacco sales, these could be seen as an effort to avoid paying duty or taxes.
Some online cigarette stores exist to sell tax-free cigarettes inside ones own country of residence as well. The legality of these stores is being questioned currently in the United States. Federal lawmakers contend that these stores are clear tax evasions. Recently in Michigan, several online stores have been subpoenaed by the state for the names and addresses of customers. The state has reportedly been sending out fines for each package purchased, contending tax evasion over Michigans $2-a-pack law.
This same action has also taken place in Wisconsin after the Wisconsin Department of Revenue received a list of several thousand buyers in that state from an online cigarette merchant. However, the effort to collect on the taxes from the listed residents was stopped by order of Governor Jim Doyle a few days later.
Slang terms for cigarettes
Cigarettes have accumulated a variety of nicknames such as smokes, butts, square (from the shape of the box), cigs, ciggies, stogs, stogies, snouts, tabs (especially in NE England), loosey (a single cigarette), bogeys, boges, darts, straights (for factory rolled ones), dugans (especially in NYC), hairy rags, hausersticks, jacks, grits and fags (the term fag is used more commonly in the United Kingdom; in the United States and Canada, it is primarily a derogatory term for a male homosexual). Cigarettes have also attracted somewhat fatalistic nicknames related to their effect on the smokers health, such as coffin nails, cancer sticks, gaspers or even black lungs in terms of the smoker. In Australia, cigarettes are sometimes called Doogans or Durries. A relatively new term emerged with the release of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones after a main character was offered a death stick in a nightclub. Cigarettes are also known in New Zealand as rollies for the self-rolled cigarettes and tailies for the factory rolled.
