Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 4/16/07 Section: Opinion

We all know smoking cigarettes is probably the dumbest thing one can do. So why do so many people start smoking and continue to smoke?

Well, coming from an experienced smoker like myself (about 10 years of experience) I would say it's part habitual, part comfort and mainly it's almost impossible to quit.

I've tried more than once to put the cancer sticks away for good, but I always find an excuse to start again. I get stressed out and want one. My friends are smoking at a party and I can't resist. I decide with a fellow friend that we'll quit together and one of us breaks the pact, which in turn makes the other fail.

Walking around Brookhaven College, I see tons of students like me getting their nicotine fix. I want to run up to all of them and scream, "Throw down your cigarettes and let's fight this Marlboro tyranny!"

They would probably look at me like I'd lost my mind, but that's nothing new in a day of my life. One thing for sure is cigarettes have been my one true friend, which is why I feel I can't quit. They've always been there for me.

I get nervous around a lot of people and whenever I feel flustered, a smoke always helps me out of that feeling.

When I'm studying for a test or doing homework and get stuck, it seems a cigarette break clears my mind.

The one thing that almost makes me want to quit is the price. I know the government thinks that raising the price of cigarettes will cut down on smokers, but the fact is people who are addicted don't care what it costs them.

When I started smoking, cigarettes cost at the most three dollars a pack. Now I can't find a pack less than five dollars. I mean they could be $20 a pack and people would still buy them.

Take heroin or cocaine addicts, those drugs affect much more than the pocket book and still thousands of people are addicted to them. I know that's an extreme comparison but cigarettes are drugs too. They're just legal drugs.

Something I don't understand is how our government can have legal drugs like cigarettes and alcohol ruining people's lives, but marijuana is looked at as one of the most dangerous drugs in the country.

Just look at how many people die each year of cigarette and alcohol related deaths and then look at the deaths of overdoses on pot. The number is ridiculously skewed. I'm not saying pot is a great thing and everyone should smoke it, but it's far less dangerous than alcohol and definitely cigarettes.

Continued...

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