Smoking, drinking, gambling, and other vices.

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world! I’ve done it a thousand times.” Of course, this is an old joke that illustrates how difficult it is to ditch some bad habits— smoking, drinking, gambling, and other vices.

The quote has been attributed to American author and humorist Mark Twain, although some would trace its beginnings to writers such as W. C. Fields and Harris Dickson, even Anonymous. Well, its origin is not as important as the truth it tells about the struggle of any smoker who wants to kick the habit for good.

I have been a smoker for almost 33 years. I never counted the number of times I tried to quit, nor did I keep track of my reasons for trying. The author, who has been smoking for almost 33 years, can no longer remember the number of times he tried to quit the habit.  Karelia cigarettes.

The last time I tried—with the help of the smoking cessation program at the Philippine General Hospital—was on February 24, 2014, my quit date. I succeeded for two weeks. But I’m still willing to set other quit dates, convinced that real success can only come once.

I have the most urgent of reasons to be kicking the habit, more than anyone in my family and my non-smoking circle of friends. I have this irksome cough every morning, which they don’t have, and sometimes I feel a shortness of breath that they have never experienced.

Some time ago, two co-workers approached me to say they can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke around me as I enter the newsroom every morning. One of them requested to be transferred far from where I was seated. The request was granted, and my smoking continued.

As for other consequences, well, I have been fined twice for smoking and littering. Also, most of my tardiness at work is due to smoking. I linger outside the office as I squeeze in a few last puffs before the hell of a non-smoking environment.

Perhaps more than anyone else, we smokers are aware of the effects of smoking— bad breath, dirty teeth, gum infection, smoker’s cough, lung cancer, and a host of diseases caused by tar, nicotine, and dozens of harmful chemicals found in every cigarette.

I am aware that 20 minutes after quitting, my heart rate and blood pressure will drop. I was told that 12 hours after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in my blood will drop to normal and that two weeks to three months after quitting, circulation improves and my lung function increases.

Moreover, I learned that one to nine months after quitting, coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) start to regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

We can easily find online a long list of health benefits over time, from the moment a smoker quits the habit to several years on.

I am convinced that I must stop smoking, but I just can’t. In my case, it goes beyond logic, and I know addiction is always illogical. I have been through therapy sessions and counseling that led me to quit for a while. But still, I go back to smoking.

Thousands of smokers, however, have succeeded in kicking the habit through sheer willpower. They decided to quit just like that. I envy them.

I guess people like me deserve a harsher environment. Smoking should be made difficult for us.

In one of my sessions at the PGH, the doctor told me: “Make the act of smoking difficult, it might work for you.” For instance, he said, “If you are right-handed, use your left hand when you smoke.” Also, he said buying a brand I dislike might also help.

None of these techniques worked. Once, I even tried puncturing my cigarettes with a needle. The smoking experience becomes nastier as the number of holes in the butt increases. But this did not work either.

Stricter laws against smoking might work for me. If government would make it a little less than a crime, so much the better.

In the ‘80s, we could smoke while in a jeepney. No one would complain. Now we can’t do that anymore without getting ostracized. When the smoking ban in PUVs became widespread, it translated into four less sticks of cigarettes a day for me.

Maybe the government must strictly implement the sin tax law. Honestly, during the law's first year, I felt that it was working. I might succeed in quitting if a stick of cigarette already costs P10.

But I feel I must stop smoking for good soonest, before it will have the chance to stop me. I know for sure it will stop me without a warning.

Gauloises Cigarettes Relocated To Poland From France

Gauloises Cigarettes Relocated To Poland From France

Fewer Northland teens now smoke

Fewer Northland Year 10 students are trying smoking, figures show.
In 2013, over 75 per cent of 14 to 15-year-old students in the Northland District Health Board area said they were never smokers, up from 63 per cent the year before, Action on Smoking and Health's (ASH) Year 10 smoking survey found.
The number of student who considered themselves regular smokers had dropped from 9.4 per cent to 7.62 per cent. However, slightly more students smoked daily, at 4.85 per cent up from 4.6 per cent.
In March ASH announced a nationwide drop in youth smoking rates, with only 3.2 per cent of pupils in the 14 to 15-year-old age group smoking daily last year, compared to 4.1 per cent in 2012.
Manaia Primary Health Organisation respiratory nurse specialist-educator Sue Armstrong said the results were encouraging, particularly considering Northland's high Maori population.
"We know through statistics a very high percentage of Maori do smoke."
Maori women in particular tended to be smokers and were also usually the main caregivers in families, she said.
For teenagers, the likelihood of them "picking up ciggies" was much higher if their parents smoked.
ASH director Stephanie Erick said while it was great to see youth daily smoking decreasing nationwide, it was important to be mindful of "smoking inequalities" such as Maori daily smoking rates which remained higher at 8.5 per cent, but had dropped from 30.3 per cent in the first survey in 1999.
Quitline chief executive Paula Snowden said Quitline was thrilled to see the continued decline in youth smoking rates in the ASH survey.
Achieving the Government's goal of Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal was a two pronged attack: preventing young people starting smoking and helping addicted smokers to break their addiction, she said.
"The ASH survey tells us we are making great progress in reducing uptake with 14-15 year olds, and Census 2013 tells us that we are also making progress in getting people to quit, with smoking prevalence falling from 20.7 per cent prevalence in 2006 to 15.1 per cent in 2013.
"Today, there are half as many smokers aged 15 to 19 compared to 2006."
She was pleased the decline was seen across all groups. The results highlighted the fact fewer people were starting to smoke and more people were quitting, which was testimony to the effectiveness of the Government's tobacco control policies, she said.

Two Teenagers Arrested For Marijuana Possesion

Two Teenagers Arrested For Marijuana Possesion

Officially Permited Cannabis In More and More States

Officially Permited Cannabis In More and More States

Challenge the cigarette advertising

The High Court returned to the stage because it had to make decisions whether the state laws can be used to challenge the cigarette advertising. The Supreme Court has opened its 2008-2009 term with a very important case. Many justices were skeptical about the efforts made by the three Maine smokers to challenge the parent company of Philip Morris under state law. Phillip Morris in one of the best tobacco companies from the entire world.
Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy said he can not accept the position of the attorney for the smokers in that case.
Opening its business on the traditional first Monday of October, the court heard the cigarette advertising arguments while anti-abortion demonstrators rallied outside. Justices let stand without comment a lower court decision’s ordering Arizona to issue “choose life” license plates to those who wish them.
The “choose life” decision underscored the aging court’s political importance to both presidential candidates, either of whom could tip the court’s balance by appointing new justices. The business case heard Monday, on the other hand, epitomized the court’s more prosaic but commercially important work.
The issue in Altria Group v. Good is pre-emption: whether a federal cigarette-labeling law blocks state lawsuits charging deceptive practices. The stakes are high, and not just for an industry that spends upwards of $15 billion annually on advertising. Big business, in general, prefers dealing with one uniform law instead of 50 different state laws.
“If you’re going to conduct a national advertising campaign, you can’t do it based on what a jury might decide in Des Moines compared to what a jury might decide in Atlanta,” former Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the court.
Olson represents Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris. Stephanie Good, a Bangor resident who reports smoking one pack of Marlboro Lights every two or three days, joined two others in suing Altria under a state law that prohibits “deceptive acts or practices.” The smokers contend Marlboro Lights advertising tricked consumers into thinking “low tar and nicotine” cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes.
The Maine residents say the tobacco company knew smokers would compensate for the low tar and nicotine by drawing more deeply on the “light” cigarettes and thereby inhale a full complement of the dangerous and addictive chemicals.
“The Maine statute is not targeted at cigarette smoking,” attorney David Frederick told the court. “It’s targeted at deception.”
This is the crucial distinction. The federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act explicitly precludes states from imposing any advertising requirements “based on smoking or health.” Frederick was trying to convince the court that the smokers’ lawsuit had everything to do with false advertising and nothing to do with health.
Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito all joined in pressing Frederick hard. Even Associate Justice David Souter, not always a Roberts ally, was skeptical.
“Ultimately, you are proving a point that depends on the relationship between smoking and health,” Souter said, in what could be a fatal blow for the Maine smokers’ case.

Health warnings about the danger of smoking tobacco

Health warnings about thedanger of smoking tobacco have been existent for four hundred years. It all started with Fang Yizhi in China and King James I in England, both in the 17th century.

In 1960’s cigarette packs for the first time carried health warnings following the reports about smoking in the USA and UK. Those first warning were not so strong, that is why there had to be done more about that issue. Canadian warnings are the most contemporaneous and represent the most vivid in the entire world. They are a good example for other countries, like Brazil.

Even though there are some health warnings on the packs in some countries, they are not unequivocal or universal. Sometimes they are not even necessary. There are warnings which are not in the local language and not at all tobacco products.

A few reports were conducted in Canada and Australia. They suggest that plain packaging could increase believability and prominence of health warnings. In a plain packaging is no logo, no use of color or graphic design. There is only a cigarette pack with the brand name on it.

Health authorities recommend that on the cigarette packages should not be put the nicotine and tar levels, because they mislead the consumers. It is a difference between the smoking machines and people. Everyone has their own habit of smoking and the tendency for smokers to compensate to get more nicotine.

Other health authorities suggest that there should be better presented the situation how they really smoking. And this information to be included on the pack of cigarettes in a different section, for example: toxic constituents. This section would also include carbon monoxide exposure and the levels of carcinogens.