Brent Lowe
Staff Reporter
The sale of Clove cigarettes is prohibited in Maryland, but what are they and why have they been seen so consistently on campus?
Clove cigarettes are essentially just cigarettes. The only difference is the addition of cloves, a type of spice that comes from trees found in and around Indonesia. This spice gives cloves their distinctive smell, flavor and feel as they are smoked, says Wikipedia.
Maryland state law says that no cigarettes containing cloves may be bought, sold, given or otherwise distributed in this state [Maryland Code, Criminal Law, 10-106], but why? What does this spice do that regular cigarettes don’t do already?
Well, www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov says that burning cloves causes the release of a chemical called eugenol, which can cause a diminished gag reflex, which can then lead to more serious health effects such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
Because of these risks, three states have outlawed the sale of cloves: Utah, New Mexico, and of course Maryland, though Utah is the only state where smoking them is illegal, according to clovecigarettes.org.
Many McDaniel students live outside Maryland and some smoked cloves in their home states. But when they got here they were unwilling to give up their habit.
“I drive an hour to Pennsylvania to get mine,” says junior Rachel Sanchez, “I just like the taste.”
Despite clove cigarettes having this spice, they still have just as much nicotine in them as regular cigarettes; certain brands can even contain more, according to the Carroll County Health Department. This made some believe the flavor of cloves was to be an attempt to draw children into smoking, which lead to a senate bill in 2003 to try (and fail) to make cloves illegal nationwide, and not just in certain states.
“There is no safe cigarette,” says Clinician Physician Assistant Joan M. Lusby “The tobacco companies are taking advantage of the fact most people don’t know about cloves and think they’re natural.”
As a P.A, Mrs. Lusby wishes more people would take advantage of the school’s anti-smoking grant, which helps students to participate in a Stop Smoking program and offers free classes to help quite.
Much debate surrounds the issue of clove legality in Maryland, will it ever be finalized or will students continue to drive miles wasting time and gas? Time will tell, and until then it seems cloves will continue to exist on campus and this country as a whole.