6 Things Smokers and Non-Smokers can agree on.

When I wrote my post “To Smoke or Not to Smoke” I was expecting legions of smoke Nazi’s to attack me with hate filled comments. Instead I got thisguy7 leaving a respectful comment saying second hand smoke bothers him more losing body parts. (I hope I didn’t interpret that wrong.)
Having my irrational ranting countered by a thoughtful, respectful comment from a writer I respect just will not do. So I will fight back with a thought out researched post on the common ground both smokers and non-smokers share. That will teach you for being rational.
The research for this piece was originally done in the hour of clarity I had when I broke down and smoked a cigarette in the week I was trying to quit, followed up now in the time it takes to smoke a cigar. This makes it the most heavily researched post on the topic smoking that is available on the internet.

1) Those geeks on TV that blame the big tobacco companies for everything, don’t do squat to stop people from smoking.
Truth, the organization that do those ads, get $300 million dollars a year from the federal government to make and run anti-smoking ads. In order to keep receiving funding they have to get people to make anti-smoking an issue, so their ads target the extreme anti-smoking people by manipulating the truth or downright lying.
It’s the Hitler management style. “Rally the People, Give them something to do, and give them someone to blame.”
When a marketing campaign’s goal is to get people to support the marketing campaign, it should really look at what it’s trying to do.
In one of their latest ads they even accuse the tobacco companies of making flavored cigarettes as a way to market to kids, I’ll get to the real reason they are making flavored cigarettes later.

2) Tobacco is Addictive.
I don’t mean that in the DEA sense of, We told everyone Heroin is addictive and people stopped using Heroin and started using Crack. To get people to stop using Crack lets tell them it’s 5 times as addictive as Heroin. People stopped using Crack and started using Crystal Meth, lets tell them it’s 5 times as addictive as Crack. People stopped using Crystal Meth and started using Heroin, let’s tell them it’s 5 times as addictive as Crystal Meth.
I mean it as in when a smoker stops smoking, the brain rebels. It’s not a pretty sight when an articulate, intelligent man is reduced to a quivering, sobbing, emotional mess because he is having trouble getting his socks off or because he misses the Hair bands.
Instead of treating addictions for what they are, a biological reaction within the body that cause adverse effects during withdrawal. As a society we think of addiction as something to blame the addict for. We justify it by trivializing addictions by calling everything an addiction. For fluff pieces TV news loves to run reports on Shopping Addictions or Internet Addictions. Those aren’t addictions, addictions are when you punch yourself in the leg hard enough to leave a bruise in the vein hope that the pain will take away the throbbing, random, scrambled, thoughts that are going through your brain.

3) Keeping kids from smoking is a good idea.
If they don’t start, they don’t have to quit. But having spokespeople, that the Dungeons and Dragon Club would avoid because they don’t want to be associated with anyone that geeky, telling kids if they don’t smoke they can grow up to be just like them is not the way to do it.
Get firemen to tell them about burnt down houses, or Athletes (real ones not a 300 lbs guy who played on a community college team 20 years ago.) to tell them how smoking can stop you from pursuing their dreams. It’s a lot more effective use of the $300 million a year.

4) Some people don’t like second hand smoke.
It’s simple, anything that has been in someone’s body loses it’s appeal after it comes out. As Norm McDonald put it. “If I eat a Ham Sandwich, it could be the greatest ham sandwich on Earth, but when it comes out later, it’s Crap.”
Before the anti-smoking witch-hunt started and local governments started making bans in public places. Businesses took it on themselves to protect their bosses, I mean Customers. They had smoking and non-smoking sections, if people complained they increased the ventilation in the smoking areas. I know of one coffee house that opened two shops side by side one smoking one non-smoking. I am baffled as to how the government thinks the smoking café effected the non-smoking one.

5) Cigarette Smoke Stinks.
Even when I had gone 48 hours without a smoke and I broke down and lit one up to get a little bit of relief I thought about how nasty it smelt. The cigarette companies know that the smell of cigarettes stink and offend non-smokers. So they looked at the fact that non-smokers aren’t as offended by good cigars. The reason, they don’t smell as bad.
To make their customers fit into normal society Cigarette Companies started making flavored cigarettes. That way if a non-smoker had to walk by the smoking section, or work near a smoker who had just came back from a smoke and had the smell lingering on their clothes it wouldn’t be as offensive.
An effective solution to a real problem. Instead of commending the companies for taking responsible actions, the smoke nazi’s spent millions fighting it.

6) Cigarettes smoke is safer for the body than Bullets.
Chantix, the drug that is being advertised non-stop on TV as a way to stop smoking, acts by blocking the nicotine receptors in the brain. In some people it works to stop the withdrawal symptoms. In some it intensifies them. And in some cases it makes the symptoms permanent.
Side effects of Chantix include: potentially lethal heart rhythm disturbances, heart attacks, seizures, diabetes, and various psychiatric disturbances.
Those psychiatric disturbances include, reports of hostility or aggression, suicide, homicidal thoughts, paranoia, and hallucinations.
To read about some of the bizarre behavior that Chantix causes click here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071011/LIFE/710110354/-1/LIFE.
The worst part about Chantix is it doesn’t work, Its success rate is 20% vs 18% of people using a placebo, that’s within the range of statistical error.
So you’ve got a company marketing a drug that can cause the user to be gunned down in the street or shoot themselves that hasn’t been shown to work.

I hope my little post here will be a step towards helping the two groups, smokers and non-smoker get along a little better.