I'm sorry, Holly, I just am not following your logic at all. First, do you actually believe smoking is not quite harmful? Does the very act of fiercely sucking hot, poisonous smoke down your throat and into your lungs repeatedly, day after day, seem like it could possibly be good for you, or the people around you?
Until I can understand your rationale better, it escapes me why you think anyone is spoon-feeding the masses with what may well prove to be scare propaganda, and that's why I seem to keep asking the same question. Sorry!! I have never encountered anyone who quit smoking and didn't feel a whole lot better very quickly, and certainly we can observe from the way most smokers look and act--their prematurely wrinkled skin, their pallor, and their hacking coughs--that this is not a health ritual.
Tobacco companies are no more sinister than any other private enterprise? Do all other private enterprises send out their executives to repeatedly lie under oath, and do they all destroy incriminating documents? Microsoft maybe, and a few others, may be that sinister, but certainly not the majority, I believe.
Incidentally, Holly, there was a segment on the CBS evening news tonight about a new program at the Mayo Clinic which is having some success at helping people quit smoking. The statistics cited in the segment were that 69% of all American adults who smoke want to quit, but only 25% of that number ever do. The Mayo Clinic program is an inpatient stay for a week, using medications to help with withdrawal, and much heavier counseling than outpatient programs typically provide. They are claiming a 43% permanent recovery rate.
One of the people shown on the segment was a thirty-six-year-old woman who smokes four packs a day, has emphysema, and is so ill from smoking that she may lose her legs soon because there are no more surgeries that can be done to save them. She was sitting there chain smoking while she helped her small daughter with her homework!!! She was a failure of the Mayo Clinic program.
There is another segment on tomorrow night's news. They are definitely talking about the new prescription drug to help smokers quit, the name of which continues to escape me. The main thrust of the series is that tobacco's victims are drug addicts, and must be helped more intensively to overcome their addictions.
Today I found a pamphlet which someone reading this may find helpful, incidentally. There is a free California state program, for its residents, which is a joint effort between the state Health Service and the staff at University of California at San Diego's Cancer Center. You can call 1-800-7-NO BUTTS six days a week, and talk to a counselor about designing a personalized program to help you quit, including referrals. Materials packets are also available for people who are ready to quit but want to do it on their own. This program is claiming to double the number of successful quitters!!!!! |
