JH63

Posted March 11, 2021 

 I've spent the last couple of days watching the Big Tobacco video's and the Marlboro video again and I've read the Alan Carr book tree times.  Got me to thinking back to when I was young and first started smoking.  My first memories of smoking were some friends and me riding our bicycles about a mile to a little country store for cigarettes. This was about 1970 or 71 cigarettes were 28 cents a pack.

We often pooled our money and shared the pack or two as we rode our bikes the rest of the day.  I also remember stealing cigarettes from my mother.  She never missed one or two out of her packs from time to time.  I say packs because for some reason she smoked both Belair's and Salem's.  She died young of lung cancer!

Even when I was in the Army, they put a little box of four cigarettes in each C-ration.  That was twelve stale cigarettes a day. But plenty enough to keep me hooked.

Well I'll get on with it!

Did the tobacco companies put profits ahead of my health? Yes

Did tobacco companies add chemicals to the cigarettes to make sure I would stay hooked? Yes

Did the tobacco companies know that cigarettes were killing people long before I started smoking? Yes

Does our government, still to this day, allow the sell of tobacco products because of the lobbyist money and the money they get from the ever increasing sales tax, claiming that the increases are to get people to quit smoking? Yes

I never thought of myself as a victim. I can remember telling people that "nobody twisted my arm to smoke" and that "I'm responsible for the damage I've done to my health".  Well I'm starting to think differently about that. Even If I do have to take some responsibility for my situation,  I was surely deceived to say the least.

This change in thinking may or may not help me as I continue to try and Quit. But it can't hurt!

Sorry about the long winded Post!

Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/15311-do-you-feel-like-a-victim/