By Desmond Elliott  

When pre-pubescent youths light their first smoke, I wonder how many realise they are at the beginning of a Silent Death Sentence? If only at the initial moment when they cough and splutter after that first drag on the cigarette, why on earth don’t they then stop before taking that second, dizzy draw which leads to addiction? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could show them a smoker gasping for his breath as he battles emphysema?

Only then would we have a chance of saving the misery and the harsh reality of drug addiction. Because that’s what follows; after the second and third puff of that first cigarette and ultimately that first packet as their life of misery begins.

Obviously, the initial effect of nicotine is excitement, a blood rush, the euphoria……but then what?

Unfortunately, once addiction clicks in this is it, there is no choice but(t) to donate 10-20% of your future income not to the Salvation Army or a church, the smoker has a new dependant. From this moment forward the smoker has signed up for a life sentence, made a promise to give a large portion of all future income to a Tobacco Company. The skeleton in the cupboard here is peer group pressure, it is a catastrophic.

Unfortunately, the lower socio economic group seek the notoriety, the power of being noticed, a sense of belonging, the sense of power; taking up smoking is still most prevalent among this group.

Pre-pubescent girls especially, if we could make them understand that kissing and intimacy with “a living ash tray” is not the greatest turn-on. “It’s Ok! We both smoke so we won’t notice!” We agree to donate 20-30% of our income for our short life, to give this money to one company, the Tobacco Company.

“It’s OK! We earn our money, I work at Woolies and my boyfriend has a job labouring on building site we can afford it. When the children arrive they will naturally get used to poverty.” Mum and Dad need their smokes. Wow!

Not a pretty story, but it’s repeated across society. This relationship is doomed to poverty and hardship from the beginning and why, because somewhere the family, the school, society, everyone let these people down.

Call it freedom of choice, call it what you like. It does not help us explain the failures. Research shows that if we could remove cigarettes from society we could also manage the alcohol problem.

The two drugs work hand-in-hand, the issue is compounded. Nicotine a depressant and Alcohol a stimulant, a perfect partnership, it works a treat and has done so for a century or more, gradually polluting and destroying two of the crucial body processes – the cardio and pulmonary systems.

I am no angel, at 14 years of age, I was sent to board with my grandparents to attended high school. My Grandfather was a chain smoker, a 60 a day man, very quickly I became a passive smoker and the progression was to smoking.

When I was 31 years of age, two days before Christmas in 1981, we visited my grandfather in hospital, as we left he turned off his oxygen as he bid us fair well. His battle with emphysema was over, he whispered to me before I left the room. “Son it’s just too hard, I can’t do this anymore”. That was the end of his wonderful life.

I experienced the highs and the lows of smoking. I tried very hard to “give up” smoking over the following years. Fortunately, as fate would have it at the age of 35, I was advised by my GP to give up smoking, while I was still healthy and could make a full recovery, this visit was crucial, closely followed by a job offer from Mobil as an oil technology representative. The job came with one provision, for safety reasons I could have the job if I did not smoke. I had a decision to make and very quickly!

Cold turkey is not nice, I do not recommend it as a way to have fun, the irritability, the headaches but within three weeks I was a non-smoker. Fortunately, the smell of cigarette smoke helped me through the agony. I developed a hate for cigarette smoke where a whiff would make me feel quite ill. Someone was looking over my shoulder – giving me a helping hand. Not everyone is this lucky or has the will power.

I thank my lucky stars that I had this life changing (saving) experience back then. Twenty eight years have now passed and I still admit the urge to have a smoke when I have a glass of beer, usually when I am suffering from stress. However, the smell of cigarette smoke still makes me feel ill. A wonderful deterrent.

What is the answer to this age old habit – education, counselling or prohibition?

I recently met a sales representative working for a Tobacco Company. He proudly announced he had been working for the company for 34 years. Distributing cigarettes. Of course he was elated, as a non-smoker with a job with this level of permanency, how could he respond otherwise. I was disgusted, and made my feelings known. I think he had heard a similar story many times but I repeated it again. He was proud to share with me that he had put three children through private school and university on his salary, and none of them had taken up smoking.

He looked a little sheepish when I explained that this was fine, I reminded him that he had denied dozens of other children the same privilege by supplying cigarettes to families who could not afford an education for their children because of the drugs he pushed. The freedom to earn an honest living versus the moral responsibility to keep the community safe, there is a fine line here.

Of course, his reaction was, “If I don’t promote cigarettes someone else will, what about the shops”, he said. “They actually sell the product; Not me”. There is a social and moral dilemma, screwed if you do and screwed if you don’t.

The problem goes even deeper. Governments have tried for 25 years to educate people on the danger and health risks related to smoking. A difficult process, how can you convince youth that something they enjoy now is going to be a death sentence in 30-40 years’ time. During this time governments have tried changing the laws to make it more difficult to access cigarettes, outlawing smoking in the work place and public areas almost resorting to confining smoking to special rooms and favouring prohibition, all of this has only changed the statistics a few percent.

America proved in the 1940’s, prohibition does not work, there will always be someone who will prey on the weak, prohibition only sends the problem underground. The Tax from cigarettes is as addictive to governments as nicotine is for the smoker.

We have a no win situation. Governments complain about the high cost of smoking on society – the health and economic issues, but they are reluctant to ban it completely because they have learned to rely on the tax revenue. I think the dilemma is with us for the long haul. Unfortunately, the young in our lower socio economic regions are the most vulnerable, they find it hardest to understand the dangers of smoking, the issue comes down to education.

What of the effects of smoking? As we grow older and smokers around us start showing the long term effects of smoking, the real pain and suffering begins; when time is running out and they play out their life sentence.

Recently I met a wonderful man, a journalist. Yes! he was a smoker”. Like most journalists he spends the late hours tapping out stories to make the deadline to get that story into the paper. Their trusty friend, the cigarette helps them get through the task, collecting thoughts as a story comes together, a cigarette extends the sleepless hours on the job. I was most distressed to hear he had a life expectancy of only two more years. At the ripe age of sixty four. His daughter at 25 years, is about to embark on her new career path. He may not live long enough to see his first grandchild, depressing isn’t it.

This is the price he pays for taking the first puff all those years ago. Why did he take that first puff? An adult, his father, told him at an early age that if he ever caught him smoking he would ‘kill him’. Of course his father, who was very strict, didn’t really mean that literally but in a typical teenage reaction his curiosity was aroused and he had to try it.

It represented freedom and rebellion – a normal teenage pursuit. He believes that had his father shoved a cigarette in his mouth at the time he would have found that it made him ill. This would have removed curiosity and the influence of peer group pressure at that time. He would have made an informed choice and never indulged in this dreadful habit. Governments like parents need to understand that simply telling children not to do something is not enough – often it simply stokes the fires of teenager curiosity.

Prohibition has a similar response as they found in the US – the price of alcohol doubled but so did consumption and ultimately the policy was terminated. The sale of ‘chop chop’ or illegal tobacco continues to rise in Australia due to the government’s high tax policy and now plain packaging will also add to the mix of incentives to get into the ‘chop chop’ industry.

In turn this will continue to reduce the tax revenue gained by the government from the sale of tobacco and increase the costs of policing of what is in effect, the addition of yet another ‘illegal’ substance’ that has to be eradicated by law enforcers.

Who takes responsibility to solve this problem for future generations? Yes! We are responsible for our choices, but with smoking the responsibility goes higher. If someone knowingly manufactures and sells an addictive drug with known health risks, should they not take responsibility or suffer the consequences.

Our journalist explained how even though he has a death sentence – emphysema. The power of the drug – Nicotine, is more powerful than his passion to live. He finds it difficult (if not impossible) to give up smoking. What a depressing thought, you know your life has been shortened, you want to stop this curse but the curse itself is more powerful than your mind – this is addiction at its best (worst).

At what point should the perpetrator of this addiction take responsibility? If Tobacco Companies cannot come to terms with the fact that they are causing this pain and suffering then we should load the burden of the pain and suffering back on them.

No one would like to see the introduction of ‘the Smoking House Law’, the subject at the heart of “Garcia’s Smoking House” (https://www.theissue.com.au/?p=61 well worth the read), as it reveals the consequences when governments, as they are doing in Australia, continue to reduce society to a “nanny state”; removing our freedom of choice completely and the right to take responsibility for the decisions we make.

Is it fair to pass the poison chalice directly to the smoker? Do we condemn this man because he lacked will power to say no as he took the first puff all those years ago? After all, he was but a child at the time when he made that fatal decision.

Don’t blame the Tobacco companies or ban fancy packet advertising – just make them accountable for the hospitalisation of the addicted smoker with a death sentence and present a compensation claim for every smoker whose life is shortened. This would be a positive way to sell the message.

We as a society should not tolerate this behaviour. Maybe such a penalty would change the colour of the Tobacco Companies brief in the courts and bring about a time for some serious investment in a solution. Only then as they fight for financial survival will they understand they are blatantly poisoning 20% of the population for profit.

Making Tobacco companies more accountable would be more effective than putting cigarettes in plain packaging. Drug addicts don’t care about packaging they are only interested in the contents of the pack. Brown paper will do just fine.

 

Please note: The views and opinions expressed above are those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher; www.theissue.com.au