Smokers Have Nothing to lose but Lungs

Smokers of the world, arise! You have nothing to lose but your lungs and a world of pride to win. We are under siege. Everyone from state and federal governments to the fanatics have joined the attack. California hates us across the whole state, not even allowing us to sit in a tavern and enjoy a cigarette with friends.

Laws and prejudice are eliminating nicotine addicts even faster than cancer. From a block away former friends fan at the air for fear second hand smoke will reach them. In the work place, addicts have to stand in the cold winter or in the heat of summer, well away from the entrance, to taste the hot draw from a cigarette. You can't visit your Congressman in a public building and relax with that source of addiction the body craves. And the worst of former are three-pack a day smokers. A reformed smoker is worse than a reformed alcoholic.

There was a time when smoking was not only acceptable, it was expected. Movie stars and politicians advertised a particular brand. There were those who complained about the harmful effects. Their voice was drowned out and ridiculed. Now it's reversed. People go out of their way to let you know smoking is unacceptable.

At a large hall one day a man who had known the taste of tobacco followed me around while I enjoyed my Pall Mall. He kept saying how I shouldn't smoke and how it bothered him. After being polite as long as I could, I said, "You stay on that side of the room and I'll stay on this one. I won't bother you and you won't bother me."

Well meaning friends and more often strangers want to lecture me on smoking, how it ruins my health, how it's evil and the devil's concoction. Some even volunteer to pray for me. They recall how much better they felt after they quit. They no longer gasp for breath when they walk up steps. That morning cough to try to clear the lungs enough for a breath of air is gone.

Expressing my thanks after I can't take it any longer, I tell them they can't quit for me. I am the one who has to do it, and it would be easier if people would stop badgering me about it.

Some years ago I quit. Twice I went five days without a cigarette and started back. The third time I made it. At first, my head began to hurt as if fresh blood and oxygen were rushing into it. There seemed to be little pockets bursting in my skull. Food had a taste again and I had forgotten what it was like. The sense of smell began to return. Sometimes, unfortunately, I wished for a cigarette to avoid the odor. At night I dreamed about smoking. Several times I picked up the half opened pack of Pall Malls and was tempted, but I survived. Then I began to have no desire for nicotine and felt better than I had in a long time.

People would smoke and ask if it bothered me. "Not at all," I said. "Blow some my way. It smells good." But I didn't want one myself--until I made the mistake of lighting one and was soon back to three packs a day.

It's been harder to quit since then, even to slow down. Once I light up one the second and others become habitual. Over the years of sitting at a typewriter and writing, a burning cigarette became second nature. Most of the time I wasn't even aware I had one. As addicted I as I am to tobacco, there's no way I would ever try something stronger.

When cigarettes went from 25 cents to 35 cents a pack, I was outraged. Now that price is ten times that. If prices keep going up, it may like the old bootleg days of whisky. People may even be growing their own tobacco plants. Then, of course, the government will send their hit squads around in helicopters to cut them down. At least, no smoker has ever caused a fatality for SUI--Smoking Under the Influence. No one has robbed a store at gun point to support a smoking habit.

Even if you take the argument that tobacco has caused all the ills suffered by mankind, government has dropped the ball. With heavy penalties and taxes, which have been passed on to unfortunate smokers, billions of dollars have come in. On top of this, wildcat law suits by ambulance chasers have muddied the situation. When we smoke, we know the risks. Now someone who has looked at a cigarette ad can sue and collect millions. It would been simpler if government had just put the money aside in one central fund earmarked for medical help.

Americans are instinctively rebels. The more someone says we can't or shouldn't do something the more we buck and want to do it. It's not easy to quit smoking. Each smoker has to face and handle it himself. But it would be lots better--if governments and friends would stop trying to help.