Let's Talk About Smoking

It's Day 8 of the plan to quit smoking, and the second day without any cigarettes at all, having stepped down sharply over the first 6 days.

Perversely enough, I've found that talking about smoking seems to help rather than make it more difficult.

So, some random observations:

1. What is it with these women (it's always women) who are able to only smoke during Happy Hour? Everyone's been at Happy Hour with one of these girls -- they smoke 17 cigarettes (all bummed of course) over four hours of drinking, then go back to their normal non-smoking lives and don't smoke again until two months later at Happy Hour again. WTF? Someone explain that one to Me. If I wasn't smoking, then smoked that many cigarettes in one night, I'd wake up addicted and pick right up the next day. Sigh.

2. There is one gigantic drawback to quitting smoking. And that is this: People Stink. When you smoke habitually, it dulls your sense of smell to some degree. Only when you stop smoking do you realize that not being able to smell everything all the time is actually a blessing. It's a nasty stinky smelly world out there -- a smoking habit provides a nice little buffer, one that you don't appreciate until it's gone.

3. A little research tells Me that in the early 1960s, a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas cost just about the same: 28 cents. There is something quietly romantic about that little factoid.

4. To be honest, I will miss smoking a lot. I understand all the reasons there are to quit, and I know that quitting is absolutely the right thing to do. But I was never a social smoker. I wasn't someone who smoked to have something in My hand. I love it. Certain cigarettes . . . that first one in the morning, the one after a good meal, the one after great sex . . . they're soooooo good. There's no describing them. They can make smoking the moral equivalent of shooting heroin, they can tax it half out of existence, they can restrict it and restrict it and restrict it, they can marginalize smokers all they want, but a lot of people smoke and keep smoking not solely because they're addicted.

5. I do worry about what happens when the pointy-heads do finally make smoking illegal. There are three big issues I see:
A. How will government make up the lost tax revenue? Be prepared to pay a lot more in gasoline and alcohol taxes.
B. Prohibition transformed organized crime groups from local crews that operated neighborhood by neighborhood into global powerhouses who were then able to increase their wealth geometrically again with narcotics. In more recent times the War on Drugs has enriched the cartels beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It's Rule #1: Supply appears in response to demand. Making cigarettes illegal doesn't lessen the demand, and there are plenty of people willing to supply them without having to worry about legal restrictions, quality control, etc. And then the government gets no tax revenues and still has the health-care costs.
C. The tobacco industry employs a lot of Americans. I don't know if the international market will be enough to keep the US tobacco industry going. It's important to remember that even industries we don't like contribute greatly to the economy.

6. OK, very quick very corny very necessary pep talk. If you think you can't quit -- you absolutely can. I know I can, and I am. You can too. Really. I don't have any magic answers but anyone who wants to know how I'm going about it can e-mail and I'll gladly share.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I needed that.

(My tanks to tasha for helping Me develop some of the ideas in this post.) KAHTATUS.