I Am NOT Putting That in My Mouth!!

I Am NOT Putting That in My Mouth!!
Now that I have your attention ...

Cigarettes Hit $7 a Pack in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) - City smokers here began paying more than $7 a pack for many major cigarette brands Monday as New York began collecting a new tax expected to bring an additional $111 million over the next year.

"Smoke 'em up, Jonny!"*
HAHAHAHA. Good. They should make that a national price. I hate cigarettes. My mother smoked for years, and I had chronic friggin bronchitis as a child. Now I have asthma. My grandfather died of lung cancer that spread to the brain. So, yes, I'm bitter. (And YES, I knnow, I have been known to put one of those things in my mouth after waaaaayy too much to drink.) Smoking is uncool, uncouth, uncivilized and downright stupid. Yeah, I have a lot of friends who smoke. I wish they wouldn't as I'd like to have them around for a while. But if they choose to be stupid, then I plan on making a lot of money off them in 20 years when they are coughing up a lung. ;)
But seriously, smokers, if you KNOW it's bad for you, why do you continue to do it? Don't give me "It's a bad habit and I want to quit, really." Because if you wanted to quit, you would. There are patches, pills, gum, hypnosis, 12-step programs, you name it.
"It's not that easy, Laura!" Well, nothing is. But what about taking little bitty eensy weensy baby steps, like cutting back from 2 packs a day to 1.5 to1 to .5 to 0? What about getting a lung Xray to scare the shit out of you? What about the thought of dragging around an oxygen tank like a dog on a leash during your golden years? What about the fact that kissing smokers is like licking an ashtray?!?! (yes, my wife is an ex-smoker.) Your breath is TERRIBLE!! Your teeth are yellow, and you get wrinkles and lines around your mouth. Soooo not attractive.

Smoking Fact Sheet
Here are a few nuggets for you to chew on:

• Cigarettes contain at least 63 distinct cancer-causing chemicals. YUMMY!!
  
• Smoking is directly responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases and causes most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. THANKS, EVERYONE!!! REALLY!! LOVE YA!!
  
• Secondhand smoke involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers from other people's cigarettes is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a known human (Group A) carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers. KEEP PUTTING ME AT RISK, PLEASE!!! I DO'T HAVE ENOUGHT TO WORRY ABOUT!!
  
• Approximately 22.3 million American women are smokers. Current female smokers aged 35 years or older are 12 times more likely to die prematurely from lung cancer than nonsmoking females. More American women die annually from lung cancer than any other type of cancer; for example, lung cancer will cause an estimated 67,600 female deaths in 2000, compared with 40,800 estimated female deaths caused by breast cancer.
  

Quit Today with Freedom From Smoking

So, what the hell are you waiting for???

The life you save could be your own.

* Bender, "The Breakfast Club"

Posted by LA at July 02, 2002 03:47 PM