Do Smokers Have a Choice

One thing I hear a lot in my line of work are smokers saying it was their choice to smoke. Their right, their privilege, and their choice to smoke. But I wonder about that. Yes, it was their decision to pick up that first cigarette and light it. No question. They probably had to go through a stage where they had to learn how to inhale, coughed a bit (or a lot), and then finally got addicted to the nicotine. The nicotine is physically addicting. It's not just that it makes you feel good mentally, but there are specific receptors that it attaches to and a whole bunch other other things happen. Specific cells start craving nicotine and that's what causes the addiction. The addiction has been compared to heroin and cocaine addictions, just as hard to quit. Of course for some people it's easy, for most quiting takes about 10 attempts, replacement therapies, and counseling or friends. Quiting cigarettes can be hard work.

I can see why someone who has been smoking for a while would want to continue smoking. The side effects take years to develop in the majority of cases, it does make people feel good, and they are addicted. To make things harder, there are no guarantees when it comes to health. Smoking increase your chances of getting sick. Greatly increases them. You are 19 times more likely to get lung cancer when you smoke then when you don't. Smokers are at risk for emphysema, several different types of cancers, asthma, and other diseases. But again, your chances are only increased - getting sick is not a guarantee. Not all smokers are going to get sick. There are some that will smoke cigarettes on their 100th birthday and yell "Told ya so." The majority are going to die young, but there will always be the weirdos (in statistical terms, the outliers) that people will use as examples of why smoking isn't bad.

On the flip side, there will be those that get sick even if they haven't smoked or drank and worked out on a regular basis. Lung cancer does occur in normally health people. Being an angel does not keep you from getting sick (didn't work for me obviously. Guess I have to change that angel act. Any suggestions on a new role? :-) ).

Okay, so someone who smokes will probably continue to smoke. But why do people start, especially since most people know that smoking is usually really bad for you? Well, it's the teenagers and young adults who start. Under 24 years olds is the most popular group. Of course the Tobacco Industry is going to say they do not target those people, but I can promise you, if they depended on 30 year olds to start smoking and support their business, they wouldn't be around.

What gets kids to start smoking? Well, to state the obvious, they think its cool (and let's face it, what teenager really thinks about their health). Do you remember those candy cigarettes? It was gum in the shape of a cigarette and when you blew on it, "smoke" came out? I do. I thought they were so cool. I thought it was neat to see that smoke come out of the cigarette. How sad is it that a little girl thought smoke was really cool. What part of pulling smoke into my lungs did I think was cool even at that young of an age. Go figure. Why didn't I take up smoking then? Who knows? Parents? My brother (he smoked and since I wanted to be better then him, I didn't)? Friends? Can't quite tell you what influence me, although I am sure my brother was a big factor.

Nowadays, promoting the idea that smoking is cool is what the cigarette companies spend over 400 million dollars on a year. They support cool artists, green clothing makers, indie bands, etc. They give money to arts groups, music groups, YMCA, rappers, djs, several sports groups, famous actors, and bull riders (guess where I am going on Saturday). They align themselves with the up and coming new and different artists. I wanted the new and different thing as a kid. Did any of you? They throw free parties to those in the know, and those in the know are on the tobacco industry's mailing list and website. At the parties tobacco workers give out free tobacco (remember the addictive part of nicotine), and tons of gifts like free make-overs, jewels for your phone, fake tattoos and jewelery, and lots of other stuff. They really make themselves look nice, hip, up-to-date and fabulous. One place they even had female human buffet (a female model with food piled on her). What kid is going to resist that?

If you are pounded with 400 million dollars worth of advertising designed to convince you smoking is cool and very little money spent on the opposite, do people really have a choice deciding to smoke? What subconscious decisions are being made? What part of them choosing to smoke is really their choice and what part is manipulation? And once the decision has been made, well then, they're hooked for a long time to come.

And what kind of country are we when we know how harmful cigarettes and chewing tobacco are to the majority of people, we know the health care costs associated with it, we know how addictive it is, we know how hard it is to quit, and we still allow free sampling of it? That's what drug dealers do and we allow it by law and allow companies to spend money selling it (thereby promoting false impressions of the product) all in the name of free speech? What is free speech when only the people with money are heard (but that is a question for another time).

So do smoker really choose to smoke? I don't know. Do you?