Sixteen Years

[xela]

Today marks the 4^th anniversary of my quitting smoking for the last of many times. I mostly hate the damned things now, and I favor every flavor of prohibiting smoking in places non-smokers breathe. Yet still sometimes, when I catch a whiff of smoke, I find the sentence forming in my brain — Could you spare one of those?

There is no better emblem of the failure of our political system than the fact that this highly addictive, frequently fatal, and always health-damaging drug is not only legal, but government subsidized, while our prisons are overflowing with people whose "crime" involved a vastly more innocuous substance.

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Well done! KOKO (Keep On Keeping On), brother.

I agree about the weed.

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

I struggle with this too, and it's been a lot longer for me than four years. Hugs and solidarity!

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid my little nerdy joke (4th anniversary on Feb 29th) caught you out. Sorry about that.

[pwaa.livejournal.com]

You are a brave soldier, my friend. Hear, hear!

We have made progress. It irks me to no end to realize that my mother's roommate when she was at the hospital after giving birth to me was allowed to smoke IN THE ROOM. The first thing my newborn lungs got to breathe was cigarette smoke, even though neither of my parents were ever smokers. It makes me so angry!

My parents used to send me to nearby tables at restaurants when I was a toddler in order to have me ask for them not to smoke, since I was allergic. (I wasn't deathly allergic, but having a cute toddler ask was generally more effective than having the adults do it.) They called me their "secret weapon." I am so glad my kids will never have to be used that way as smoking is no longer allowed in restaurants (at least, around here) at all.

I do realize that the reason more laws haven't been enacted preventing the sale of tobacco products in the first place is because tobacco brings in a lot of revenue towards politicians and government, and although I hate the tobacco industry with all my heart, I recognize that smoking is a choice, and don't object if people really want to be smokers, as long as they understand the risks and don't make anyone else (including their own children) smell it, ever. Of course, if they truly understand the risks, I don't think anyone would want to start something that's so hard to stop and is so detrimental to their health and all-consuming of their lives - which is why for decades the tobacco industry has made every effort to hide the truth about their products.