To Smoke or Not to Smoke

I've seen little except for misery in my smoking friends and relatives: they end up short on basic necessities, get winded, cough, sicken and die. And they've sickened countless others. My uncle made a data accelerator the Army bought but all his genius couldn't stop the effects of secondhand smoke from when he was growing up. He died at 41 years of age.

There are plenty of other vices that can be easily substituted. I've had times when I envied being able to relieve stress with a quick drag, but I'm beating on my pancreas instead with 2 cups of coffee a day.

I can't see smokers as anything short of sociopathic for their disregard for others. Why do it?

You only have to go to the medical wards of some of the hospitals to see what damage smoking does to people's bodies. It is so easy to go out and buy cigarettes, but it isn't as easy to rid your body of the damage that they leave after someone has smoked for many years. Sometimes, even a few months can do enough irreputable damage that can make a person's life a misery.

I cannot understand why the younger generation in our world these days are taking up smoking. Yes, years ago their parents may have smoked at their age, but at that time, there wasn't all the knowledge about the effects of smoking on our bodies that there is today. Even pregnant woman, who smoked back in the early years, were ignorant about the effects their smoking was having on their unborn child. It really makes me sad to see a heavily pregnant woman with a cigarette hanging from her fingers. She would have been better off buying something nice for her baby, that was coming soon, than spending the money on a packet of cigarettes. The price they charge for them these days is a lot more than it was in years gone by, so she may not have been able afford them, but she just had to have them because she couldn't stop, even for the sake of her unborn child.

You ask , "is it really worth paying for these cigarettes" and I say to you "when you are putting your life as well as another's at great risk, it is better to leave them off your shopping list altogether, when you consider the consequences of what is involved when you take up this dreadful and life destroying habit. BB

Agreeing to what LittleDove22 said...

I am completely against smoking and if you smoke, you are just killing yourself. Why pay a significant amount of hard earned cash money just to kill yourself.

If you have an addiction from the good ol' days, then that's just completely unfortuante in todays economy. But, if you want to save the lives of you and your family... and your country for that matter... do us all a favor and stop smoking.

On that note, if you made yourself addicted, knowing that you would become addicted, then you have extremely low self-esteem and need to seek help right away.

You'll love yourself ten times more if you quit - guaranteed.

Smoking is a waste of money, time and poisons your body. The only real purpose it serves is lining the pockets of the corporations that make them. Why become a slave for RJReynolds, handing over your money... keep reading →

I am so glad to see all these great answers against smoking. I was there for the final days of my uncle's battle with lung cancer. He hadn't smoked in years but it caught up with him anyway. It was a horrible feeling watching him trying to breathe but unable to take even the shallowest breath. I get so frustrated with people who just refuse to get it.

In the city I live in you can't walk down the street downtown without inhaling someone else's smoke.

Recently, The New York times reported, that "Louis C. Camilleri, the chairman of Philip Morris International, noted that profits rose from a range of price increases, even as sales of cigarette units were virtually flat. Highlighting figures previously released, Mr. Camilleri said the company’s revenue was up 6.6 percent last year, to $25.7 billion, excluding excise taxes."

Nice, talk about reaping the rewards of ill-gotten gains. rrgh.

Couldn't agree with you more! Hate it. How can you not? Have people smelt it? Urgh. You can spot a female smoker from a mile away...