Chicago Anti - Smoking Brigade
The anti - smoking brigade are all over the television in Chicago again. The American Lung Association in partnership with every rabid anti smoker in the city is asking for assistance in pressuring our aldermen to adopt a city wide public smoking ban.
For any other kind of addict we have compassion. We set up programs to help them. In some cases their addiction is called a disability and they collect social security. We say alcoholics have a disease. But smokers for some reason, are pariah, evil, scum of the earth.
I think it's the second hand smoke. Smoking bans weren't even a pipe dream for the anti smoking brigade before the second hand smoke reports. Then all of a sudden that guy at the bar or in the restaurant who was lightning up, wasn't just a smelly annoyance, but rather a foul killer of children. Suddenly every non smoker got a serious case of the not in my back yard mentality. These are rabid no good niks out to destroy our way of life and our health.
One must add ignorance of addiction and withdrawal to this. People who have never been regular smokers just don't get it. Worse yet are people who may have tried a cigarette a time or two and thinks that the fact that they aren't addicts means that addiction is over blown. I cant count the number of times I've heard people say, "Why don't you just quit?" Because I'm addicted you moron.
Over the ten years I smoked I tried to quit a couple dozen times. Sure some of those attempts were half hearted at best, but even the times I was most determined to quit I eventually went back. The method that worked for my was part luck. After my mother had her heart attack I flew out to Idaho (where she had been vacationing at the time it occurred) to help her through her recovery until she was well enough to fly home. We were staying at my aunts house which is in heavily wooded area in the mountains. I wasn't allowed to smoke on her property as It was feared that I might start a forest fire or something (never mind that I used to spend my summers working in West Michigan forests smoking every day over a carpet of pine needles and managed to avoid burning the place down) so I had to hike a couple miles to a clearing if I wanted a smoke.
After two miles of mountain hiking an overweight Midwesterner who smokes isn't really wanting a cigarette. He wants oxygen.
By the time we left Idaho I was down to two cigarettes a day. Prior to that I had a pack and a half a day habit. When I got home I didn't buy another pack. I was miserable and had that feeling where my skin did not feel like my own, but that was perhaps the least amount of physical withdrawal I'd ever experienced. My mind was busy with either day to day care of my mother or plugged into video games.
It's been over three years now.
I think about this smoking band and the complete lack of compassion for smokers bothers me. We don't set up provisions for smokers to have bars or restaurants. We just tell them that they can not be in a social setting and smoke.
If bars were smoke free I could probably go back to bartending. I can stand behind a bar and not drink. (My problems come in when I'm sitting on the other side). I can not stand in a smoke filled bar and not want a cigarette. Every time I've been in a bar or at a wedding with and open bar, over the last three years, I've stolen peoples cigarettes. For the next two weeks after each event I'd get that little thought in the back of my mind that maybe I should go out and buy a pack of smokes. More than a week working behind a bar and I'd be back to having a couple packs of Marlboro Ultra Lights on me and a Zippo in the watch pocket on my jeans (they fit perfectly). With a smoking ban I could be making some pretty decent cash in almost no time. Sure I never worked in a bar where I had to make any fancy drinks and I'd either have to study the bartenders bible or get myself in one of those schools, but I'm a smart personable guy so landing a bar job wouldn't be too difficult an endeavor (being big helps owners like to think of people my size as a sort of deterrence to problems). Wouldn't the Illinois Student Assistance Commission be happy to hear from me. Hey I got some cash for y'all!
That aside, I'd like to give every person who says, "Why don't you just quit." Just one good shot of heroin. Let em walk away from that without getting a little more compassion.
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For any other kind of addict we have compassion. We set up programs to help them. In some cases their addiction is called a disability and they collect social security. We say alcoholics have a disease. But smokers for some reason, are pariah, evil, scum of the earth.
I think it's the second hand smoke. Smoking bans weren't even a pipe dream for the anti smoking brigade before the second hand smoke reports. Then all of a sudden that guy at the bar or in the restaurant who was lightning up, wasn't just a smelly annoyance, but rather a foul killer of children. Suddenly every non smoker got a serious case of the not in my back yard mentality. These are rabid no good niks out to destroy our way of life and our health.
One must add ignorance of addiction and withdrawal to this. People who have never been regular smokers just don't get it. Worse yet are people who may have tried a cigarette a time or two and thinks that the fact that they aren't addicts means that addiction is over blown. I cant count the number of times I've heard people say, "Why don't you just quit?" Because I'm addicted you moron.
Over the ten years I smoked I tried to quit a couple dozen times. Sure some of those attempts were half hearted at best, but even the times I was most determined to quit I eventually went back. The method that worked for my was part luck. After my mother had her heart attack I flew out to Idaho (where she had been vacationing at the time it occurred) to help her through her recovery until she was well enough to fly home. We were staying at my aunts house which is in heavily wooded area in the mountains. I wasn't allowed to smoke on her property as It was feared that I might start a forest fire or something (never mind that I used to spend my summers working in West Michigan forests smoking every day over a carpet of pine needles and managed to avoid burning the place down) so I had to hike a couple miles to a clearing if I wanted a smoke.
After two miles of mountain hiking an overweight Midwesterner who smokes isn't really wanting a cigarette. He wants oxygen.
By the time we left Idaho I was down to two cigarettes a day. Prior to that I had a pack and a half a day habit. When I got home I didn't buy another pack. I was miserable and had that feeling where my skin did not feel like my own, but that was perhaps the least amount of physical withdrawal I'd ever experienced. My mind was busy with either day to day care of my mother or plugged into video games.
It's been over three years now.
I think about this smoking band and the complete lack of compassion for smokers bothers me. We don't set up provisions for smokers to have bars or restaurants. We just tell them that they can not be in a social setting and smoke.
If bars were smoke free I could probably go back to bartending. I can stand behind a bar and not drink. (My problems come in when I'm sitting on the other side). I can not stand in a smoke filled bar and not want a cigarette. Every time I've been in a bar or at a wedding with and open bar, over the last three years, I've stolen peoples cigarettes. For the next two weeks after each event I'd get that little thought in the back of my mind that maybe I should go out and buy a pack of smokes. More than a week working behind a bar and I'd be back to having a couple packs of Marlboro Ultra Lights on me and a Zippo in the watch pocket on my jeans (they fit perfectly). With a smoking ban I could be making some pretty decent cash in almost no time. Sure I never worked in a bar where I had to make any fancy drinks and I'd either have to study the bartenders bible or get myself in one of those schools, but I'm a smart personable guy so landing a bar job wouldn't be too difficult an endeavor (being big helps owners like to think of people my size as a sort of deterrence to problems). Wouldn't the Illinois Student Assistance Commission be happy to hear from me. Hey I got some cash for y'all!
That aside, I'd like to give every person who says, "Why don't you just quit." Just one good shot of heroin. Let em walk away from that without getting a little more compassion.
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posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 12:56 AM
2 Comments:
Well put.
But I still need to quit.
Portugese Nova -- Hmm be kida hard if your tpmym doesnt quit too. A team effort perhaps.
Sweet Potato -- Addiction dependance and abuse is just to hard to explain to some people. Every one wants to get into the balme thing ... why did you start. That really isn't relevant. It's how do I stop thats important and am I ready and willing to stop thats important.
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