Twelve years a non-smoker

[xela]

Today is the third quadrennial anniversary of my quitting smoking. I almost said "quitting smoking for the last time" but I know it doesn't do to get complacent about this addiction. February 29, 1996, was at least the 20^th time I'd quit smoking since I started at age 13, and the third time I've managed to stay off cigarettes for over a year. I am for the most part repelled by the smell of cigarette smoke and always was, yet still to this day, every once in a while when I walk past someone smoking, my nostrils will flare and I'll breathe in the smoke deeply before i even know what I'm doing.

It continues to astound me that this drug, which has no benefits and is a known killer of millions, is legal while something as innocuous and useful as marijuana can net someone growing it for his own use a 93-year prison sentence. Seems to me a sane society would be putting tobacco executives in jail.