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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Quitting?



Dan Damas

            Coming up with something that other people haven’t already thought of to talk about in a government class blog takes longer than writing the blog itself, but when you find something that you truly believe, it will stand out compared to everyone else.

I smoke cigarettes and I still think it is a bad thing. Correction, I KNOW it is a bad thing. No one except the government and tobacco companies know what is in those “cancer sticks”. On every pack it says “smoking causes emphysema, lung cancer, and may complicate pregnancy” or some variation of plentiful Surgeon General’s Warnings. I’m not saying the government should make it illegal to smoke cigarettes, but take out the rat poison and mumbo jumbo chemicals for “flavor” or whatever it does besides kill you slowly.

According to Care2.com, “Some ingredients are added for flavor, but research has shown that the key purpose of using additives is to improve tobacco’s potency resulting in increased addictiveness–and the additives they choose to use are dreadful.” Addiction is a horrible thing; knowing that you have a crutch that you have to lean on or you will not be a very pleasant person to be around is not a good thing to think about all day. Every hour of the day a cigarette smoker usually is thinking “cigarette time”. 

Regular cigarette smokers lives are based on having a cigarette between or after everything they do. Get up, smoke a cigarette, eat something, smoke another, go to school, go home, smoke a cigarette, eat something, smoke another, go to work, smoke one on the way to work, smoke one on your break, smoke one after work, smoke one before bed and most likely smokers are around other smokers and when a smoker sees another smoker smoke something, it makes them want one too.

Quitting really stinks, though; it turns your day into a normal sounding day: get up, eat something, go to school, go home, eat something, go to work, go home, and finally go to sleep. Some people go cold turkey, some use Nicorette gum, some use nicotine patches. “Needless to say, all other attempts at quitting brought me back to smoking within a day or two.  I think the longest I ever went without smoking was 2 days and that was when I was deathly sick, not even while I was attempting to quit” (Quitting).

Breyer, Melissa. "The Shocking Ingredients in Cigarettes | Care2 Healthy Living." Care2 - largest online community for healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare.. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-shocking-ingredients-in-cigarettes.html>.

"Quitting Smoking Sucks | For Your Brentertainment." For Your Brentertainment. N.p., 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://foryourbrentertainment.wordpress.com/tag/quitting-smoking-sucks/>.

9 comments:

  1. Even though I have never smoked anything, I heard so many people say that it is hard to quit. My Aunt for example had tried to quit once and then she couldn't take it anymore and relapsed. This is hard to see because I know what the consequences will be for her if she doesn't quit. At least she tried again at quitting and it has been over a year now that she has never smoked,according to my knowledge. Smoking also costs a lot of money for people and my Aunt doesn't even have much money in the first place. Since she has quit, she hasn't had to worry about buying cigarettes which she could spend her money on something else.

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  2. I am a very pro-choice type of person. I think that everyone should be able to make their own decisions without the government telling them they can't do something. Though the government should force decisions on people I feel it is their responsibility to inform us what is in what we eat or in this case smoke and what would be the possible effects. You can see how the government takes this responsibility very seriously with required nutrition facts, medicine labels, and the warning on cigerette boxes. But I do agree that the government should force tabbaco manufacters to get rid of the poisons in tabbaco and force them to have healthier substitutes. The government already maintains food quality, why wouldn't they maintain tabbaco quality?
    -Clark

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  3. I don't think the government should make smoking illegal, but I do agree that they should make it illegal to put some of the more lethal chemicals into them.At least it is clearly labeled on the box what will happen to you if you choose to do it. You already know what's coming for you when you do it.The government regulates a lot of other things, but for some reason they don't really get involved with how cigarettes are manufactured. I think that is people's personal responsibility to choose what they want to do with their own body and their life. If they choose to kill them self slowly by smoking, that is their choice.

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  4. I think that smoking cigarettes is a really sad thing. Everyone knows that it is absolutely terrible for you, but, a high percent of the population is addicted and it's incredibly hard to quit and counter an addiction like this. However, even though it is bad for your health, I do not think that it would be right for the government to put a stop to all tobacco products. It is a persons choice as to if they want to smoke or not. In order to quit something like this, you have to be in the correct mind set. You are your problem, and you're also your solution. So, in conclusion, I think that the government should not ban tobacco products.

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  5. Although smoking is extremely harmful to your body I do not believe that they should be illegal. I agree with Clark that the choice is up to the individual to harm there body or not by smoking. I do believe that if they put the ingredients or contents of the cigarette that less people would smoke just due to the fear factor of the realization of what you are putting in your lungs. I know many people that smoke and it’s hard to see some of the tolls that it takes on their bodies and how harshly it can destroy your lungs.

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  6. Many people are going to hate my opinion on this, but I believe the manufacturing of tobacco products should not be allowed because they do absolutely no benefit to your body. Some people think that they relax you but the only reason why people become relaxed is because their addiction is being fed, in fact smoking constricts blood vessels and causes dehydration which can cause great stress to the body over time. This does not mean there should be a ban on alcohol because small amounts of alcohol have been proven to help relaxation and sleeping patterns without negatively affecting the body. Also smoking causes cancer and heart disease which causes peoples insurance to go up even if they don’t use these products because they have to pay for everyone else’s medical bills even if they have never touched a tobacco product in their life.

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  7. Like many of you I believe that the manufactre and distribution of tobacco related products should not be illegal due to many factors. First off, the choice to inhale the crude cancerous chemicals that are in a cigarattes are purely based on that person and their choice to do so. If one wants to do so they shouldn't be stopped from it because that is their life style choice and ultimatly no one or nothing should stop that other than themselves. Second, tobacco manufactoring and distribution brings in alot of work for the citizens in this country which then betters the employment rate which then will lower the deficit in our country.

    Evan Birkes

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  8. Although it is really bad for your health, I believe that tobacco distribution and manufacturing should not be illegal. If a person wants to smoke or not, that's their choice. People shouldn't be stopped from what they choose to do. I do agree with everyone else that the government should make tobacco manufacters get rid of the poisons in tobacco and instead have them have healthier substitutes.

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