Big Tobacco to smokers: Bend over

That's how the tobacco companies can do it. My great-aunt (RIP) smoked even after she was using an oxygen tank.. She'd use the tank, take off the nose piece, smoke a cigarette, then put in back on. Absolutely horrid.

 

According to the article, the price increases have led to decreases in smoking in the past, though I haven't actually seen the research on that. You do make a good point regarding how all companies handle tax increases, though I find it a bit more distasteful in this case given the parasitic relationship between tobacco companies and their customers/addicts.

Beef, we're always going to have people like your friend's mom. They are just beyond help.

budcrew, that is horrible. I hope this doesn't sound insensitive about your great aunt, but addiction is a terrible thing.

 

It absolutely is. Most of my family on both sides, my mom's and my dad, smoke. Luckily, I don't at all, so I haven't dealt with it (my parents don't smoke either).
Another addiction story: My dad's mother (so my grandmother, obviously) had stopped smoking for a little while as she got older. But then, my parents, brother and myself would go over to her house, and it would smell like cigarette smoke. One day, it was extremely potent, but she would never been seen smoking, so we couldn't completely call her out on it... until we found an ashtray with a lit cigarette sitting underneath her couch that my dad uncovered.

We also think that my uncle was the one buying the cigarettes for her, since she couldn't get around as well later in life because of a broken hip some years back.

She died in 2001, and while she passed on due to a heart issue, I know damn well that starting smoking again was one of the many reasons she died when she did. (it gets quite dusty in here when I think about her.)

Cigarettes are a horrible addiction, and if the administration or Big Tobacco or a combination of both will jack up the prices of cigarettes to get people to try to quit that way... i say keep taxing it.

 

If I'm not mistaken, smoking in the U.S. is down in the past couple of years, but it has exploded overseas in places like China. Just a question: If the tax increases are successful and it leads to more people quitting cigarettes, where does the money for healthcare come from?

 

Some saddly are absolutely beyond help, but from what I have observed (and there is nothing scientific about it) money has very little to do with people quitting for good, they may give it the ol' college try when they feel the strain on their pocket book, but they almost always come back to it. Usually it takes some kind of profound revelation in their life to get them to quit. For some it is being diagnosed with cancer or one of the many other terminal diseases caused by smoking. For some it is watching as someone close goes through life with a smoking -caused disease. Some it is part of an overall change in life style. My dad quit cold turkey after 15 years when my mom got pregnant with my older sister.

Just my 2 cents.

 

All the money the system saves by not having to take care of smokers.

 

I honestly belive they look at as a form of population control.

One of my favourite stories coming out of the 2004 games in Greece was one of the chinese cigarette companies brought on their gold medal hurdler (?) as spokesman, speaking about the virtues and the great quality of life associated with smoking.

 

Raising the price on cigarettes is not going to make those of us that are truly addicted to it quit smoking. At least in my experience with myself and other smokers I know.

It has been mentioned on this thread that it is an addiction. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to man. Why can't the extra money be used to implement some addiction recovery programs? We have all sorts of programs in place to help people break their addiction to other drugs. Why not nicotine? Just because a some people are able to quit cold turkey doesn't mean that the majority of smokers can do it this way. I know that I can't.

Nothing has ever really been done or implemented that has ever caused a significant amount of people to quit smoking. Quite frankly, I have always believed that there should be some sort of rehab program for smokers to be able to go to for the detox period and withdrawl symptoms that comes when a heavy smoker does make the decision to quit.

 

I am sorry for your losses, budcrew.

I definitely understand how sad and frustrating it is.

My grandmother on my father's side smoked her entire adult life and died from lung cancer in her 30s, when my father was only 13. He had started smoking when he was 12. I don't know if he really understood the connection, but her death didn't stop him.

I remember when my grandmother on my mother's side got cancer, he told me how hard a time he had being around her because of the way he had lost his mother. It was then that I realized he was terrified that cancer was going to get him, too. But he still couldn't quit.

He was 52 when it finally got him. Lung cancer that had spread to the brain by the time they found it in May. My wife and I got married that July, and he was already so sick that he barely made it through the ceremony standing, but he insisted on it. He couldn't walk on his own and he was covered in sweat by the end, but a couple of hours later, there he was making a speech at the reception as if nothing was wrong. Somehow, he lived until that December. I think it was pure stubbornness. The last time I saw him alive, he could have passed for a man in his 80s.

Dusty doesn't even begin to cover it.

My father made my older brother promise to quit. He called it his dying wish. Even that didn't work until my brother got sick a couple of years ago (nothing cigarette related, so far as we can tell). He nearly died and spent over a week in intensive care. As far as I know, he hasn't started up again. I hope he isn't just hiding it. At least none of his kids smoke.

Four years ago, we lost my father-in-law to cancer. Another life-long smoker. That was when I found out there is a high rate of bladder cancer among smokers. I don't think I have ever seen Mrs. OOP as pissed off as she was to find out my mother-in-law had started up again, and trust me, I've seen her plenty pissed off a time or two.

So yes, I know some people will smoke no matter what. They are just hopeless. But some just need a push and maybe this will help. I prefer hoping because I am far too familiar with the alternative.

 

That's not a bad idea at all. I really hope you find our way to quit.

 

To the subject title, I say: Good.

Sorry for your losses, outofplace. My dad used to have stock in tobacco companies and the shit he'd hear at these board meetings would make my blood run cold. Shit like "Well, people are going to die anyway, we may as well make sure they find something they enjoy along the way."

 

Thank you, BYH.

And thank you for the quote, too. I'm going to email that one my mother-in-law. I'm not above trying to embarrass people into not smoking.