Tobackoff! #5 : Dissuasion

THIS ISN'T A CRUSADE !
For the brief period of time that "Tobackoff!" was a page on Facebook, I got a lot of flak for the putative "crusade" that I was conducting. I was genuinely amused. I understand why some people feel this way - but I need to correct the impression, it's important.

If you smoke, it will eventually kill you: believe that. The only way in which it can NOT kill you, is if something else (or someONE else ...:-p) kills you first.

So if you're going to do something deliberately in spite of knowing that it is likely to cut your life short, the least I can do for you is to inundate you with reminiscences so that you can take an informed decision. And I'm not playing sides, either: if you want to quit, there's stuff here telling you about what it's like; if you want to smoke, there's stuff here telling you about what THAT is like, too.

Choice is a wonderful thing - and choice is what you have a right to exercise, every day of your life. My objective is simply to point that out to you.

IS AUSTRALIA GOING TO BE THE WORLD'S FIRST SMOKE-FREE COUNTRY ?

Oh, it just might happen. Australia has already enacted legislations to ban smoking to the point of practically outlawing it. The government runs a quit-smoking website and a slew of helplines and rehab centres.

And as if that's not enough, here's what is going to happen in just a couple of months:

1. Smoking ANYwhere in public wil...l be completely banned - you can't even smoke on the road. If you want to light up, you'll need to do it in your own back yard - if, that is, your neighbour allows you to.

2. Cigarettes will no longer be packaged according to the specs of the manufacturer: all smokes will be sold in a dirty green pack, with the name of the brand / manufacturer written in one corner, almost the way you address an envelope.

Australia, long viewed by the Third World as a land of plenty, has clearly decided to permanently remove tobacco from its plenitude !

What do you think - will any other country go as close ?

CIRCLE OF NICOTINE

Much more than the stained teeth, the morning cough, the yellow fingers or the loss of stamina, I think what first got me thinking about quitting smoking was a very simple demo that a fellow smoker gave me. You can try it yourself, it’s simple but very effective:

1. Have a clean white handkerchief at hand

2. Light up a cigarette

3. Take a drag – do NOT inhale, keep the smoke in your mouth

4. Hold the handkerchief to your mouth, open and expel the smoke through the kerchief

5. Take a look at what is left on the kerchief – a muddy-coloured circle of nicotine

6. Now repeat the process in other clean areas of the kerchief

7. Try rinsing the kerchief under running water…….the stains won’t come off

8. Give a thought to the effect of doing this ten times a day, every day, with the same kerchief

Remember, that’s just ONE cigarette. And that’s just a FEW drags. Through a FILTERED cigarette.

And the stuff doesn’t come off the lungs that easily, people. Have you tried to take the oil off the exhaust fan in your kitchen ? The problem is very similar.

It’s just not worth it.