I stand by my theory that pipe-smokers are thinkers. The very act lends itself to contemplation, reflection, and quietness. It shuts the mouth (something most people never get very good at) and opens the mind. It doesn't automatically mean every pipe-smoker is a wise person, but he has a better chance of becoming one with the hobby.
Perhaps it's that thinkers tend to be attracted to smoking a pipe in the first place.
A U.S. Surgeon Generals report from back in the day found that pipe smokers who inhale, have the same life expectancy as a non-smoker.
[This is easily explained by the fact that pipe tobacco has no added nasty chemicals, unlike cigarettes that have a staggering 300 to 600 added chemicals. Tobacco is not the cause of most smoking related disease but rather, it's the foul added chemicals that are to blame]
Pipe smokers who don't inhale the report found, had a life expectancy three years beyond that of a non-smoker.
On the face of it that seems counterintuitive but I believe there's an obvious explanation.
Pipe smokers who don't inhale, generally speaking, tend to only smoke one or two bowls a day when they have the time to sit back and relax.
Puffing on a pipe while sitting back is quite meditative.
The benefits of daily meditation are well known, a practice that I've followed for over thirty years.
As a teacher of meditation I use many different methods and am often told that some of the more traditional methods are 'boring'.
Yes well that just means that they've tried techniques that are usually a bit advanced for a newbie.
In that case I advise for them to find an enjoyable way to relax.
One guy I met as an example, complained that he knew that he needed to address his stress but found traditional meditative techniques unsatisfactory.
Upon further questioning I found that he enjoyed fishing. He couldn't care less if he caught a fish or not, he just really enjoyed sitting in nature by a body of water dangling a line.
The look on his face was priceless when I asked him "Don't you realise that you've already found
your way to relax and destress?" [Which is the point of meditation]
Sitting on a porch while puffing on a pipe while quietly watching nature, sunset or the night sky is a perfect way to relax and destress from a days activities.
For this reason alone, pipe tobacco needs to be tax free as an encouragement to help smokers choose a far better habit than an addiction to stinkn cigarettes [that had me by the testicles for 35 years]