Writer's Block: Smoke screen
Dec. 1st, 2009 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theoldwolf[Error: unknown template qotd]
I began smoking in 1964, at the age of 13, as a bid for acceptance at the prep school I attended. Six years later, when I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was able to shake the habit, but not without much difficulty. I was an inveterate smoker, and was up to 3 packs a day, usually of the strongest things I could get my hands on - unfiltered Luckies™, Camels™, Pall Malls™, and - if I could get them - Players™ or Gauloises™. In spite of quitting at a young age, the damage to my still-developing lungs was irreparable.
Quitting was hell. I knew it was bad for me, and like so many others, I had tried numerous times to shake the demon. I gave up coffee at the same time, or I probably wouldn't have been able to do it, the two were so inseparably bonded. Finally, I used Nicoban gum, whose active ingredient was lobeline sulfate, banned by the FDA on Dec. 1, 1993. Whether or not it had any appreciable effect on the nicotine cravings, its primary action was to make my mouth feel like I had just chain-smoked a carton of cigarettes in the space of 10 minutes; with that, and the help of supportive friends around me, I succeeded.
After quitting, I became somewhat of an anti-smoking crusader for a while - Reader's Digest has long been anti-tobacco, and I collected past reprints and pins and buttons and educational materials, and shared my newfound freedom with others while at college. Then life's myriad details intruded, and I passed that torch to others.
Tobacco is an interesting weed. About 10 years ago I saw green tobacco growing for the first time, and examined the plant. The sap is very sticky, and it smells noxious. Native Americans have long used tobacco for ceremonial purposes, even though they struggle today with outright addiction; apparently, it has other beneficial uses - conventional wisdom, sacred texts and clinical trials indicate that applied topically it aids the reduction of bruising. And almost since the foundation of our nation, it's been big business, and therein lies the problem.
Despite local restrictions on where tobacco can be used, cultivation and consumption has always been entirely legal. Generations of families have grown it, businesses have processed and distributed it, and many people have put food on their tables as a result of the industry.
Notice the green pre-war package
Yet, as we know today - something which was not common knowledge back in the days when doctors were hawking cigarettes - tobacco is lethal, and the annual public and private health cost resulting from tobacco use is currently estimated at $96 Billion dollars1, although I suspect that the number is actually much higher when all ancillary costs are factored in.
Legal and lethal at the same time... not an easy dilemma. We've seen how well prohibition worked, and the societal prices of alcohol abuse are equally staggering. However, if the guy sitting next to you at the bar has five martinis, you're not affected directly - unless he happens to turn around and puke on you. One person smoking in an enclosed room can negatively impact the health of hundreds.
We now know enough about the lethality of direct and second-hand smoke that giving people the right to go about their business in public without being exposed to tobacco should be a no-brainer. In my country, tobacco use is dwindling as sin taxes rise, inconveniences increase, and educational programs pay dividends. I feel everything possible should be done to help smokers quit, but stigmatizing those who still smoke should not be part of the equation. I've always thought business owners should have the right to choose whether their establishments are tobacco-friendly or smoke-free, rather than having that choice legislated upon them.
Worldwide, it's not an easy problem. Even though American tobacco use is down, the business continues to thrive, as the tobacco industry markets its products to developing countries. China, in particular, suffers greatly, as 1/3 of its population are heavy smokers.
Solutions? From an administrative standpoint, we should continue to monitor the manufacturers to make sure they are not illegally manipulating nicotine content or developing marketing methods to appeal to children. I'd like to see tobacco go away altogether, but in a world of 6 billion plus people, where so much money is involved, that's not going to happen any time soon. Education, to me, seems like the only socially and economically acceptable answer - reducing global demand will gradually necessitate a reduction of supply, allowing those displaced by reduced industry to be absorbed into other areas. This will be a slow process, but well worth the continued effort.
1Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids Fact Sheet
I began smoking in 1964, at the age of 13, as a bid for acceptance at the prep school I attended. Six years later, when I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was able to shake the habit, but not without much difficulty. I was an inveterate smoker, and was up to 3 packs a day, usually of the strongest things I could get my hands on - unfiltered Luckies™, Camels™, Pall Malls™, and - if I could get them - Players™ or Gauloises™. In spite of quitting at a young age, the damage to my still-developing lungs was irreparable.
Quitting was hell. I knew it was bad for me, and like so many others, I had tried numerous times to shake the demon. I gave up coffee at the same time, or I probably wouldn't have been able to do it, the two were so inseparably bonded. Finally, I used Nicoban gum, whose active ingredient was lobeline sulfate, banned by the FDA on Dec. 1, 1993. Whether or not it had any appreciable effect on the nicotine cravings, its primary action was to make my mouth feel like I had just chain-smoked a carton of cigarettes in the space of 10 minutes; with that, and the help of supportive friends around me, I succeeded.
After quitting, I became somewhat of an anti-smoking crusader for a while - Reader's Digest has long been anti-tobacco, and I collected past reprints and pins and buttons and educational materials, and shared my newfound freedom with others while at college. Then life's myriad details intruded, and I passed that torch to others.
Tobacco is an interesting weed. About 10 years ago I saw green tobacco growing for the first time, and examined the plant. The sap is very sticky, and it smells noxious. Native Americans have long used tobacco for ceremonial purposes, even though they struggle today with outright addiction; apparently, it has other beneficial uses - conventional wisdom, sacred texts and clinical trials indicate that applied topically it aids the reduction of bruising. And almost since the foundation of our nation, it's been big business, and therein lies the problem.
Despite local restrictions on where tobacco can be used, cultivation and consumption has always been entirely legal. Generations of families have grown it, businesses have processed and distributed it, and many people have put food on their tables as a result of the industry.
Notice the green pre-war package
Yet, as we know today - something which was not common knowledge back in the days when doctors were hawking cigarettes - tobacco is lethal, and the annual public and private health cost resulting from tobacco use is currently estimated at $96 Billion dollars1, although I suspect that the number is actually much higher when all ancillary costs are factored in.
Legal and lethal at the same time... not an easy dilemma. We've seen how well prohibition worked, and the societal prices of alcohol abuse are equally staggering. However, if the guy sitting next to you at the bar has five martinis, you're not affected directly - unless he happens to turn around and puke on you. One person smoking in an enclosed room can negatively impact the health of hundreds.
We now know enough about the lethality of direct and second-hand smoke that giving people the right to go about their business in public without being exposed to tobacco should be a no-brainer. In my country, tobacco use is dwindling as sin taxes rise, inconveniences increase, and educational programs pay dividends. I feel everything possible should be done to help smokers quit, but stigmatizing those who still smoke should not be part of the equation. I've always thought business owners should have the right to choose whether their establishments are tobacco-friendly or smoke-free, rather than having that choice legislated upon them.
Worldwide, it's not an easy problem. Even though American tobacco use is down, the business continues to thrive, as the tobacco industry markets its products to developing countries. China, in particular, suffers greatly, as 1/3 of its population are heavy smokers.
Solutions? From an administrative standpoint, we should continue to monitor the manufacturers to make sure they are not illegally manipulating nicotine content or developing marketing methods to appeal to children. I'd like to see tobacco go away altogether, but in a world of 6 billion plus people, where so much money is involved, that's not going to happen any time soon. Education, to me, seems like the only socially and economically acceptable answer - reducing global demand will gradually necessitate a reduction of supply, allowing those displaced by reduced industry to be absorbed into other areas. This will be a slow process, but well worth the continued effort.
1Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids Fact Sheet
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 12:08 am (UTC)Apparently when there was an instance of plague (1600s?)near Eton the boys were allowed to smoke...
I suspect the smoke and stink were expected to protect against noxioux vapours, like nosegays...
and the smell of pipe or cigar tobacco can be quite pleasant.
Hey you! Rincething! Do yer smoke?
Nosssir! Filthy habit!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 03:12 am (UTC)My Wife smoked up until her first pregnancy, when she couldn't stand the smell and had to cold-turkey quit (during her first trimester, when she *already* felt like warmed-over death. She didn't take it up again afterwards, although my firstborn could easily have driven someone to smoking, drinking, and reading French poets aloud during her first three months.
So my firstborn's first good deed was getting her mother to stop smoking.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 03:37 am (UTC)I think we should either legalize marijuana or ban smoking tobacco. The status quo seems hypocritical.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 07:28 am (UTC)The process of sun-drying the tobacco allows natural sugars to form, while "toasting" it (as it was called back then) allowed no time for the natural sugars, so they had to add some back in.
However, like the greedy money-grabbers they are, they can't stand the thought of doing things the slow and proper way, and have to take shortcuts at every opportunity...
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 09:09 pm (UTC)It has been scientifically proven that environmental smoking has no impact at all on your health.
Read the 'Case–Control Study of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer in Europe' in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 90, No. 19, October 7, 1998. The research was commissioned by the WHO. Where... indeed, they officially deny the report.
Politicians are people who have turned lying and hypocrisy into a profession, always on the lookout for witches to burn to secure another term. Our democracies are hypocracies.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 12:14 am (UTC)