Tales of a Former Smoker

Casinos say that the smoking ban will more than likely affect their business. Approximately twenty percent of Colorado residents are smokers. Bar owners ask appeals court to overturn state smoking ban. These are all headings of stories about the state wide smoking ban. Smoking is still an issue. The major majority voted for a smoking ban in recent years. There is still that twenty percent who feel they are being unfairly treated with the smoking bans. I have been on both sides of the issue. I was a smoker and quit many years before any smoking ban took effect.

I started smoking when I was in the eighth grade. Why did I start? I would speculate because of peer pressure. Every one I ran around with started smoking about the same time. It was cool! Many movie stars smoked. You would go to a movie and smoking was always featured. Fred Flinstone and Barney smoked and advertised for Winston cigarettes. Smoking was the thing to do if you wanted to be cool. My Dad smoked. The local parish priest smoked. Many neighbors smoked. This was all before the adverse effects of smoking were known. No one cared about the addictive effects of nicotine or the tar build up in your lungs. I remember when I first started smoking. You would inhale and suddenly become dizzy. I never got sick to my stomach. After a period of time the dizziness went away and the addiction to nicotine took over. You were hooked.

I smoked through high school and beyond. I was drafted into the army in 1964 and at that times most of the new recruits smoked. I recall the saying, "Smoke them if you have them". A cloud of smoke would rise from the company of troops where only a half a dozen or so did not smoke. The red butt can with an inch of water in the can lined the center of the barracks. Sometimes I think the cigarette was more important than bullets.

I was still smoking when I got out of the army and continued to smoke for a few more years. At that time there were no regulations about smoking. I would smoke one to two packs a day. That was when a pack was around twenty-five cents. I smoked everywhere. I would smoke in the grocery store checkout line. I smoked in the house and the car, throwing out the butts through the window. I was a rude ruthless smoker. I didn't care about anybody's rights. I stunk from cigarette smoke and my fingers would turn yellow from the tobacco-burning cigarette. Nicotine really had me hooked.

Here I was twenty-five and I would huff and puff going up a half of flight stairs. The effects of smoking were becoming known. I began to realize smoking was effecting my health. I decided that I wanted to live a long healthy life and continuing to smoke was going to hamper this desire. I decided to quit. For the next two to three years I must have quit two hundred times or more. I finally succeeded; I no longer am addicted to nicotine. It took me about a year before I did not have that nicotine urge. Two more years passed before the smell of smoke ceased to smell good and wanting to have just one cigarette. I knew if I had one I would be hooked again. Stopping smoking was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.

Where am I now? It has been forty years or more since I finally quit smoking. I speculate that if I did not quit smoking I would be dead from heart disease or lung cancer. In the late seventy's my father was having circulation problems in his right leg and his primary doctor referred him to a specialist. The first question the specialist asked my father was, "how long did you smoke?' We asked why he asked that and he responded by telling us that circulation problems in the legs are characteristic of smokers. Well, the specialist was not able to save my fathers leg and the last five years of his life was without his right leg. My father was seventy when this happened. I am sixty-five and I am hoping I am not going to continue the legacy of my father. I see people my age that is dependent on their oxygen tank. Seeing these people makes me very thankful that I can still breathe on my own. Maybe I quit soon enough in my life to bypass these bullets.

After reading this you may think, "he is really anti-smoking, he wants stronger no smoking laws." I don't really agree with the current smoking laws. In my opinion I feel that smoking or no smoking should be up to the individual business owner. If a business owner wants to cater to the twenty percent of the smoking population they become a smoking establishment. If they want to do business with the eighty percent of the non-smoking population you become a no-smoking establishment. Businesses are either smoking or no smoking, no combination establishments would be allowed. As a consumer I can elect to go the establishment I want to. Let the market forces determine whom you want to do business with.

In conclusion, I made a big mistake when I smoked that first cigarette. You become addicted to nicotine faster than you imagine. There is no easy way to quit once you become addicted. If you are young and considering smoking that cigarette, think twice and say no, it may save you a lot of pain and suffering.