Smoking kills

I'm not about to lecture as to how smoking can kill. Everybody knows that, and more importantly, every smoker knows that.

I was watching Oprah today and it was the episode featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz illustrating what smoking does to your heart and lungs with some high tech videos and preserved samples. I like the fact that he merely presented the facts without preaching from a holier-than-thou position. I'm a non-smoker, and I tend to be holier-than-thou with smokers because the smoke is offensive to me.

On that Oprah episode, a video was shown where a mother who was a smoker was being chastised by her very young daughter about her addiction. She was asking why did Mom have to smoke? Mom replies that she just couldn't stop. Kid fires back, "Why can't you just stop? That's ridiculous!" Then, Dr. Oz relates how for every 4 cigarettes one smokes, the second-hand smoke is equivalent to one stick inhaled by someone around the smoker.

That's just alarming and horrible, in no uncertain terms.

That's why I'm going to be even more holier-than-thou.

In the building where I live, there's a girl in her 20's who I often catch smoking in the elevator where it's obviously against the rules. So that makes her just f***ing obnoxious. How messed up is this moron that she can't wait til she gets outside or in her own condo beofre she lights up? But now I won't be polite to her anymore, because I will not put up with inhaling 25-freaking-percent of that stick in her fingers. And since she's already voluntarily accelerating her date with the Grim Reaper, I honestly hope she either stops or just dies soon so she'll stop bothering innocent bystanders with her bad habit.

Sure, go call me a smoker basher, whatever, I don't care. I care about my health and that of my loved ones. It doesn't make me a bad person. The smoker is the drug addict, after all.

The point is, I know quitting smoking is not easy. No bad habit is easy to kick, especially when it involves an addiction to a drug. And like it or not, nicotine is a drug. So I hope the smoker that wants to quit, gets the right help, and has the right kind of family and friends to aid him or her. Because you can't do it alone. But please try.