Should smokers bear the responsibility for the health risks of cigarette smoking?

No

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by Jill Jacks

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Smoking and smoking related issues have been the topic of the year and on the hot seat even longer. Why do people continue to live such unhealthy lifestyles and do irreparable harm to themselves? There is no reasonable answer. People do what they do. They are imperfect, making big and small mistakes all the live long day. Smoking is but one of our sad and foolish choices in this life. I hate to reiterate, as that would make me sound like a non-smoker, but I shall: Smoking is but one of our sad and foolish choices in life.

There isn't a doctor out there who will recommend smoking, tell you that it is safe, and that it won't cause cancer. At one point in time the risk factors associated with smoking may not have been understood or known. They are now. A cigarette is a death stick. It is like playing with a stick of dynamite. One would have to search far and wide, throughout the land, to successfully find a smoker who is not currently aware of the risks associated with smoking. Does knowing the risks stop the behaviour?

Let's try a different tact. Why does a skier go out of bounds or a sky diver take that leap? Why is there street racing? Search the age groups that do these things. It won't come back perfectly but it will be suggestive of youth. What is out there? What looks like something new to try today? A lot of our mistakes come from youth. A time when no one is worth listening to because a youth knows it all already. At that age life is an experiment and an adventure. Who do teenagers take crystal meth when they know that it contains items like liquid plumber. They won't help mom and dad with it in the house when a sink clogs but they will put it in a cigarette, go figure.

Are cigarettes addictive overnight? No they are not. Does someone smoke one cigarette and then say well I've tried it and now I'm done with it? No they do not. Just like we don't ski once or drive the car too fast once, try one beer, one gin, one rye, or one rum. It is not how we as humans operate.

Listening to public outcry on smoking this past year I always get the same scary picture in my mind. A pack of do gooders going insane, fighting the cause. Don't get me wrong it is a good cause. It is worthy. I just don't like when the crusaders feel they are losing the battle they bring out the box of tryanny. If you don't change your ways you will pay for your own medical coverage, if you can't afford it you will see what it is like to die in agony and with no assistance. It's equivelant to the woman on the popular television show "Survivor" telling another player that she wouldn't give her a drink of water if she was lying in the gutter dying of thirst. When groups of people get on a bandwagon they lose sight of reality and more importantly compassion. I personally would be ashamed to take the stand that smokers bear responsibility for their own health risks. Smokers already do in the end. Believe me, I have seen it firsthand. I watched one of the people I loved most on this earth die from lung cancer. My compassion on this issue didn't come from that, nor did it hurt it.

Back to smoking being but one of our sad and often fatal errors. There are many ways to harm your health. The simple, obvious ones are overeating, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, over work. One of the biggest known health hazards out there is stress. Most of us wish we could get the stress out of our lives regardless of their cause. We can't all walk away from our jobs, or our families if those are the things that are causing our stress. Should the mother of a drug addicted child boldly and coldly terminate their relationship from this day forward? What about the stresses that come and go over the years of a marriage?

If we know the cause, and how to eliminate it, of health problems should we make a conscious effort to rectify it? Of course we should and when we are capable of it we do. For all of those crusaders out there for the cause, step back, take a deep breathe, be happy that you can do so, but also be proud. The statistics on smokers is changing drastically. If you didn't have a friend, co-worker, or family member who used to smoke and now doesn't I would be shocked. Education is in the schools about smoking and what damage it does. It all takes time which means patience.

Some years back they introduced Captain Click to school children. Captain Click taught children the importance of buckling up in the car. We were patient then. Seatbelt use went on the rise and is now more common than uncommon. It was a slow process and we didn't deny medical treatment to victims of car accidents on the basis of whether they were wearing a seatbelt or not. The rates of teenage smoking has dropped. It is a slow process and needs it's time to evolve. Great leaps have been made.

As humans we have many bad habits that are harmful to our health. It is not right to choose one of the many and punish it. Whenever we get on a cause bandwagon we need to look around once in awhile to see what we are doing. Banning smoking from public places was good. It kept secondhand smoke away from non-smokers and the inconvenience it caused smokers caused a huge increase in quitting. No harm, no foul. Take medical care away from people who work, live, and love just as much as any non-smoker is harm and is selfish. When we don't like something we tend to take a harder stand on it. It's also easier to do so when it is not affecting our lives. If you don't smoke, then it doesn't bother you what rules they make about it, and it is easier to be nastier when deciding the fate of those doing something you don't like. If you can look yourself in the mirror and say you haven't made any mistakes, haven't done anything harmful to your health in any way shape or form, never were the author of your own misfortune then by all means continue with your argument of taking away healthcare.

Hopefully everyone you ever cared about, ever loved is just as perfect as you because the next people to lose health care will be those who are obese, then those who don't exercise regularly, then those who drink coffee, those who don't drink water. That is some of the lighter fare. What of sexually transmitted diseases? Condoms have been around forever. Perhaps those with herpes, syphillis, and aids should also bear the responsibility for their own health care. Those who suffer from Type II diabetes is largely a lifestyle issue. In case it hasn't been clear human error is the cause of most health care issues. There will be no end to who won't be worthy of coverage.

Lastly channel your anger where it really belongs. Not on people who are addicted to smoking but on those got them addicted in the first place. What about at a Government that knows the harm and death toll yet still keeps it legalized. After all monetary greed is another one of our fatal human errors. I can't help but wonder how the question of whether smokers should bear the responsibility for their health risks comes up in a day and age when our laws don't seek for criminals to bear responsibility for their crimes. That is a hint for some of our crusaders to join a whole other bandwagon.

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