Thread: Smoking
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Old 2008-05-24, 01:37   Link #86
TinyRedLeaf
Moving in circles
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
What makes smoking a particularly pernicious habit is that it's more than a mere psychological addiction. It's also a physical addiction to nicotine. I once had a colleague who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and we kept encouraging him to drop the habit. Eventually he tried cold turkey...and I ended up feeling sorry for him. He came to work looking like a broken man, nose dribbling, eyes bloodshot and generally looking very, very miserable. He tried to ameliorate the symptoms with nictone patches and a nicotine inhaler, but the craving overcame his resolve and he eventually went back to smoking. Heavily.

Yes, it's true, smokers are responsible for their own health. If they choose to smoke themselves to lung or throat cancer, that's their choice to make, and not for non-smokers to condemn. Bear in mind that many other people grow addicted to alcohol and other physical substances as well. So, if we're really concerned about other people's health, we should go around "banning" those substances too. Of course, we know where that would lead.

But nicotine addiction makes the issue more complicated. We now know that it is a highly addictive substance, so in a sense, it is true to say that Big Tobacco is actively selling a product that effectively binds customers to them. Big Tobacco doesn't even have to try very hard to advertise cigarettes - they already have a horde of "loyal" puffers, who are likely to attract even more smokers through peer pressure. Seen from this angle, it's hard not to see this as an unethical business that needs to be heavily controlled, if not outright destroyed.

So, the discussion comes full circle. Smoking creates avoidable health risks. However, tobacco companies will continue selling cigarettes as long as consumers are addicted to them. To solve one problem (health risks), you necessarily need to stop as many people from picking up the habit or encouraging more to drop the addiction. Hence the anti-smoking legislation and peer pressure to stop smoking.

If smokers don't like the nagging, well, sure we can't force you to listen. But it'll also be very wrong for us to stop trying.

Personally, I strongly dislike the smell of cigarette smoke and I find many smokers to be very inconsiderate, not caring how they blow second-hand smoke into people walking behind them. I've never tried cigarettes and never intend to, but I've tried smoking weed and cigars. Weed, because it's university and it's supposed to be non-addictive (well, it's certainly non-addictive in my case - I've never tried again after I've graduated).

Cigars because, hmm, strangely enough, cigar smoke smells alot better than cigarettes. I don't know why that is the case, especially considering how cigars pack a far heavier punch than cigarettes. In any case, I tried because it was college and because my housemate received a box of big, fat Havana cigars from his girlfriend's dad. Once again, I've almost not touched cigars again after I've graduated. The last time I tried, it was with cheap, nasty cigars, mixed with lots of whisky drinking ('twas a stag party; 'nuff said). I crashed out so badly that I've not been tempted to try again.
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