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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Smoking Stuff

When I was in high school ... shaddup, it wasn't that long ago ... well, actually it was ... anyway, I remember the point at which I had a choice between smoking and not smoking.

It really was a point, rather than a process, because the first time someone offered me a cigarette, the thought crystalized in my mind that I didn't want anything to do with it.

The excuse I used ... and also for my refusal to smoke pot ... was that I was a runner and I wasn't going to do anything that would mess up my lungs.

The truth was I didn't want to smoke, I didn't think teens who smoked looked any older or mature, and in fact, they looked the reverse ... like poseurs. Grownup wannabes.

I carried a bit of a grudge about smoking into college, to the point where I lost all interest in a girl if she was a smoker ... assuming she had any interest in geeky me.

I've lost a few friends and coworkers to cancer, and have many friends who are helplessly addicted to its poison. Every single one of them would love to relive their own point where they made the decision to light up. Not one would make the same decision.

That's probably why I go after cigarette executives in my books. They willfully produce a product that addicts and kills when used as directed. They splash the smallest warnings allowed by law on the package, and only after threats by government.

They laugh off the many lawsuits against them by simply raising the prices that their addicted public pays without question. And, since they are killing off their customers, they have all kinds of tricky ways to snatch the attention of the next wave of young smokers.

There's a special place in hell reserved for cigarette executives, their lobbyists and the government politicians who took their money.

(that was harsh, Norm)

(Yeah, I know, but it had to be said).

Norm

www.normcowie.com

2 comments:

  1. Great stuff, Norm. I still won't date a guy who smokes. When you kiss, it's like licking an ashtray. Ick!

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  2. I made a lot of bad decisions when I was a kid, but none of those decisions still affect me to this day.

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