I swore I wouldn't get on this particular soapbox. I have never smoked and completely fail to understand the desire to light up . You know as well as I do that it is a dirty, filthy habit. You know as well as I do that is unhealthy and expensive. And you know as well as I do that every puff you take shortens your life.
While scanning my Facebook page this morning I saw a post from someone who is on their fourth day cigarette free. I wish her all the luck in the world and she will need it. Cigarette manufacturers are not stupid. They know that fewer people are choosing to light up so they continue to make cigarettes more addictive by using additives. In the long run it is a losing proposition. They are selling a product that kills their shrinking constituency.
The medical and social costs of cigarette addiction are staggering. Second hand smoke wreaks havoc on others, especially vulnerable children. The environmental damage from cigarettes carelessly tossed out car windows, left to leech their chemicals into the groundwater is frightening.
But truly what is most damaging is the personal damage cigarettes cause. I am running out of fingers on which to count the personal losses I can attribute to smoking addiction, including my father and four brothers. After leaving my brother's funeral last week, I noticed two young men walking down the street cigarettes in hand. It took all the strength I had to not pull over and rip the cigarettes from their hands. If they think it looks cool, they are wrong. It looks incredibly stupid in the face of what we know. It looks like planned suicide. It looks like the ignorance of youth who think they are invincible.
I don't know what words will convince smokers to stop. The financial outlay for the privilege of killing yourself slowly and painfully would be enough for me. The phrase "kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray" might give one pause. Pictures of diseased lungs or smokers wasting away from cancer might shock you. Watching someone drag an oxygen tank around should give you pause. Maybe vanity is important to you. There's a reason certain wrinkles are called smoker's lines. And have you ever stopped to consider how much you have spent on cigarettes over the years and what you could do with that money if you still had it? There are no magic words, so all I can say is PLEASE STOP. Do whatever you have to do to kick the habit. Don't leave your loved ones wishing for one more day to spend with you.
