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SMOKERS

I just don't believe there are very many people who simply waited to start smoking until after they turned 21. The tobacco industry aims their ads blatantly at minors, very young minors.

The tobacco industry promotes smoking and it's "popularity" mostly through subliminal advertising. It's NOT just what you see advertised on billboards, in magazines, postings on convenient store windows, and ads on display. The subliminal messages are definitely aimed at kids, who are not of a grown mentality to resist such advertising. Smoking makes you look cool and sophisticated. Smoking will make you lose weight. Smoking will make you popular. Smoking is romanticized by the tobacco industry solely to sell cigarettes. They have lied about the dangers of smoking, just to make a profit. It doesn't matter to them that it's killing people.

What they don't say, is that it will ruin your health. Your skin will wrinkle and cobblestone at a very early age. Your hair will cease to shine, and become brittle and dry. Your breath will smell like a sewer. Your teeth will yellow, and your gums will start bleeding. You will have an addiction so strong that you will try to justify spending at least $40 per week to support your habit. You will have to hide to smoke. It will not bother you an iota that you already know all of this, plus the fact that the chemical additives in each cigarette are chemicals used to kill rodents, embalm the dead and dust crops for insects. You will be an outcast among a growing number of non-smokers. You will have heart attacks, emphysema, and/or lung cancer and die a miserable and painful death.

Our government pretends to support these smoking issues, when in all actuality, they sincerely don't want us to quit smoking at all. This would cut into revenue as well as put a huge number of people out of work. Any politician that would try to outlaw smoking, or lobby against the tobacco industry is at risk of sacrificing a huge number of voters, simply by putting so many jobs on the line at the tobacco factories. He / she would lose all the votes of the millions of workers in these factories.

I made the choice to start smoking when I was 14 years old, which is hardly the age of sound decisions. There were several times in my life that I made a decision to quit smoking. That resolve just never lasted very long. Eventually, all of my resolve dissolved and I started smoking again. My attitude was; I'll just smoke until I need an iron lung." Finally, at age 55, my doctor found a spot on my lung. I had half of that lung removed, went through chemotherapy and radiation. There was a certain amount of damage from the radiation; enough to become disabled. I also have the very early stages of emphysema. However, I am here to talk about the dangers of smoking, and needless to say, I've been a non-smoker for the past 5 years.

God bless the people who have never smoked! I salute them for their life-long stand against tobacco. However, they have no idea what it's like to be addicted to such a demanding vice. I've been told by someone very dear to me that quitting smoking is much harder to quit than cocaine. He managed to quit the cocaine, but is still smoking cigarettes.

NO! Smokers shouldn't have to bear all of the responsibility. The tobacco industry needs to start taking responsibility. There is nothing good about cigarettes, except that they are feathering the nests of people who work for the tobacco industry and the United States Government for pretending to do something about it.

Learn more about this author, Melissa Brown.
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