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.

Comments

[siderea]

Pssst. That which is opened must be closed. Please fix your HTML. You're missing the close quote on your font size attribute.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Oops. Fixed; thanks.

I know better, but every once in a while I skip the preview step for a short entry....

I didn't know you were a smoker!

[pwaa.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't have guessed that of you. But I didn't know you when you were thirteen.

As for marijuana, it has many of the same issues as tobacco when it's smoked, in terms of causing various lung diseases. Tobacco has benefits in that it's a stimulant, much like coffee, though arguably marijuana's anti-nausea and other properties are more useful. (I've never tried either.)

As for a sane society putting tobacco executives in jail: the people in charge of the country are getting *lots* of funding from the tobacco industry, and it's a huge boon to our economy - these days we sell mostly overseas, due to the anti-smoking movement here in the U.S. - so there is (economic) logic behind allowing them to get away with it.

Mind you I'm just about as anti-tobacco as people get; I've actually ended friendships over finding out that people I knew smoked - but I'm just saying, it's not completely black and white. I'd love a tobacco-free society, but it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Re: I didn't know you were a smoker!

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I'd quit by the time I met you. And even if I hadn't, you might not have known: For the last three or four years that I smoked, I was telling everyone (even my girlfriend when I had one) that I'd quit. I actually had quit for about six months starting in late 1992, and was so embarrassed to have started up again that I didn't want anyone to know. That entire last few years I smoked my consumption was chaotic. I'd need a fix, and buy a pack; then I'd have the pack and end up smoking it over the next few days. Then I'd quit again, for a week or ten days or once even three months. Every cigarette I had during that time was smoked as stealthily as if I'd been shooting up, and I would always wash my hands and use mouthwash and otherwise try to cover the smell. It was utterly stupid. Chemical dependency is a terrible thing, and (hearkening back to my point above) the fact that this known killer, possibly the single most addictive drug known, is perfectly legal, while lengthy prison terms are meted out for a a substance like marijuana, that nearly all of its users can use or leave alone at will, is obscene.

[kareila]

You know, it's not about how long or short it is; it's about how much markup you use, and you've got quite a bit in there.

[danj17.livejournal.com]

congrats -- twelve years is a long time, especially for someone who started that early and quit that many times. given your quit date, i was at least acquainted with you in those last couple of years, but no, i never knew you were a smoker at the time..

so, as someone with some success at both, which is harder? quitting smoking, or losing 100 pounds?

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

which is harder? quitting smoking, or losing 100 pounds?

Quitting smoking, hands down. I'm not sure it's ever even occurred to me to compare them. The thing about cigarettes, that it took me a lot of failed attempts to really truly understand, is that a single slip-up can ruin you. If I have a bad day and stuff my face, I feel stupid — and then the next day I put it behind me. If I were to have a bad day and smoke a cigarette, my experience is that the next day will be just as bad until I have another. Alcoholics in AA will tell you "I cannot have just one drink"; it's the same story for me with cigarettes. The only food that has an even remotely similar character for me is chocolate. But it's a couple of orders of magnitude less so: if I have chocolate around, I'll eat it til I run out, but I've never gone out in a driving snow storm to get a Snickers.