Hi Christine,
I agree with most of what you say about addiction in general and tobacco in particular.
"the price of cigarettes discriminates against the increasingly low income group of people who buys them.
Yes, it is interesting how this habit seems increasingly more prevalent among the lower income groups, with notable exceptions. Most of the yuppies and more health conscious middle class have been able to give up cigarettes. Some have suggested a higher incidence of "hyperactivity disorders" among the poorer classes, for whatever reason, and that nicotine may exert a calming effect on them. They may unconsciously be taking the "poor man's Ritalin". Smoking is certainly prevalent among the imprisoned population.
The addiction has a psychological component as well, in that smokers have established a Pavlovian conditioning to associate smoking with all pleasurable events: a cigarette after meals, after sex, with a drink, while on the phone, etc. So even if the physical effects of addiction are controlled, with a nicotine patch, for example, the psychological addiction remains. Life seems emptier without that association with pleasurable events.
As an ex-smoker, I can attest to how hard it is to give up. Better never to get the habit.
Jack |
