Do you find me sadistic?.

12:31 am, September 9, 2004

Hey man, you just look cool when you smoke. Everybody else does it.

Seriously, it's like making out with an ashtray.

It keeps me thin; I know as soon as I quit I'm gonna gain 20 pounds.

You know, you're killing yourself seven minutes at a time!

Well, those years I'm losing are the shitty ones at the end; those pissing-yourself-in-your-Depends, turn-your-body-over-so-you-don't-get-bedsores years. I don't want those years!

Yes, for every old woman who smokes three packs a day until she's 90 and dies from natural causes, there are tens of thousands dying of lung cancer all the time.

Wasn't it Andy Kaufman, among others who've contracted lung cancer without smoking a single day in their lives?

You can kill yourself all you want, but please take that away from me; I don't want to die from your smoke.

Japan, which has the highest level of smokers, also has the longest age expectancy. Different strokes for different folks, you can't call it concrete data when non-smokers working in bars and restaurants don't all die from second hand smoke. This is just a part of the anti-smoking agenda used to cloud the public's judgment.

If you gave the people the choice, with the truth, from square one and asked them if they'd smoke, I bet you they'd say no. I mean, who wants to inhale arsenic and lead and cyanide, no matter how trace the amounts.

You're wrong! People are gonna do it if they want to do it. You put more restrictions on it, you jack up the price, people are only gonna want them more. And, if you make them all safer, guess what. People are gonna seek out the shit that they used to get for five dollars a pack, even if they cost 20. You're never gonna stop the people who want to destroy their bodies; why do you think marijuana and coke and acid haven't gone away?

Big Tobacco has been lying to you for decades. They're the only regulators of what goes into cigarettes and until there's government regulation, millions will continue to die needlessly.

So, you're telling me you're taking Big Tobacco to court because now you have emphazima, even though you KNEW they were bad for you. How is that different than obese people taking McDonalds to court? The Surgeon General's Warning has been around since the '50s.

Big Tobacco spends a million dollars an hour, every day of every year on cigarette marketing. Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man may be gone, but they're far from forgotten.

Big Tobacco has already given hundreds of billions of dollars to the states for anti-smoking programs and yet only 5% of that money has ACTUALLY been spent on such programs (with the rest going to such useful causes as golf course sprinklers, hotel renovations, and tobacco-holding warehouses, among others). Blame the states for the state of tobacco-prevention.

Without regulation, the government has made it easier for the public to get the product that kills you than the anti-nicotine-addiction products that could help save lives.

Nicotine is no worse for you than caffeine in coffee.

70% of smokers smoke light cigarettes thinking they're safer for you. There is no scientific evidence to back this up; the same rates of lung cancer and heart disease occur in people who smoke lights as they do with regulars.

It's too late for me, I've already been sucked in, so what's the point?

To go along with my last point, in the '50s and '60s, the Tobacco Industry introduced filters on cigarettes, touting them as "safer" than those without. The filters were made from asbestos. Similar lies are being spread today with cigarette companies creating "safer" cigarettes, though since we don't actually know what's going in these supposed pseudo-carb-free versions of the old pasta sticks, nothing can be confirmed and only the people buying them pay the price. This can only bring about a larger new base of smokers who've been deceived once again.

I can quit whenever I want.

Think of the old lady with the hole in her throat and tell me you want to live like that.

You just can't talk to some people. It's like these Republicans and Democrats towing the party line; they won't listen to the grey.

Current Mood: Watching Peter Jennings condemn smoking and Big Tobacco for an hour. Yes, I see the irony.
Current Music: The Luniz - I Got 5 On It