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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

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