Calling all smokers...

Smoking is disgusting. The stench of it reeks throughout your house, your clothes, your hair, your car and yourself. Having a cigarette between your fingers causes yellowing of the skin and nails, and is hardly a form of attraction.

I recently went into the supermarket the other day to inquire about the e-cigarette, advertised to look and taste like a real one, without the harmful side effects of smoking tobacco. I found that it costs $90NZD and has more warnings on the box than an actual packet of cigarettes....

"Do not use the e-cigarette if you suffer from...."

"Do not use for longer than you would a normal cigarette...."

"Do not use if you are pregnant, breasfeeding..."

"Do not use if you are under the age..."

And then it just gets better. The e-cigarette that costs so much just to help smokers quit, actually ends up costing about the same as a packet of smokes! It comes with refills of the gas (that imitates the smoke which you actually inhale) which cost $20NZD a packet! What an incentive to quit! I don't think so.

I laughed at the supermarket cashier when she told me all of this and proceeded to walk out the door. What a con that was. We'll probably find out that the inhalants are addictive next.

People that are addicted to smoking I find quite often say that they enjoy it. But they don't, really. When the nicotine levels in your blood drop below the minimum, the smoker goes through withdrawal symptoms and picks up another smoke to bring them back up. The smoker does not smoke because he/she enjoys it, they smoke because they do not enjoy the withdrawal symptoms.

It goes around in a vicious cycle, often ending in disease and/or death. Yet we continue to smoke, thinking that this won't happen to us, we can always quit when we get older, or thinking that we will be one of the few people that live to survive smoking cigarettes.

I'm sorry to say that I am one of those people. I have tried quitting, and would like to say that I was unsuccessful because I didn't actually want to quit, I 'enjoyed' smoking. Well I don't. But I've put it in the 'too-hard box' for now, and am continuing to walk the tight-rope of too-much or too-little nicotine.

There needs to be more motivation for smokers to quit, because putting the price up on addiction WILL NOT HELP. 

Why Quit? A helpful cold turkey website.
New Zealand information on quitting smoking