This essay was originally sent as our February 2026 Full Moon newsletter.
Did you do Dry January? I didn't! And I probably never will. I don't drink that much to begin with, but while I understand the urge to want to be a bit healthier after the indulgences of the holidays, I reject this whole restrict-pleasures-while-not-getting-sunlight-and-being-cold-and-inside-all-the-time time of year.
Smoking cigarettes is on the rise, especially among young people. Current times are isolating and infuriating and expensive and sometimes it all just makes you want a fucking cigarette. It’s not surprising to me. I think this shift in the zeitgeist is also, in part, the result of a very real collective fatigue on restriction.
Yes, maybe in a perfect world we’d all be living on our own homesteads, eating homegrown food and wearing handknit clothes made with wool from our sheep, but most of us live in cities don’t we? (and don’t even get me started on the herbalist-on-herbalist judgment I get at events when I mention I live in Chicago) - it can all be a lot to handle! And now I can’t allow myself to enjoy a glass of wine or a cheeky little cigarette after my shift? Not even on my days off?
Harm reduction has always been a core value of Puff Herbals. Let’s reduce harm, not self-deny. Yes you need to take care of yourself and be mindful of treats turning into habits or worse, but I’m here to say a cigarette - and yes I do mean a tobacco one - here and there is not the end of the world. You don’t fail as a person.
Yes, we sell herbal cigarettes. But our whole thing is holistic hedonism. Pleasure doesn’t need to be earned by suffering first.
That’s the space herbal cigs were always meant to occupy for me: not a moral high ground, just another option.
Winter is hard enough without turning every pleasure into a moral test. Enjoy yourselves out there.
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