Smoking

I have recently decided to attempt to give up smoking. Currently I have around 1/4 of a 12.5 gram packet of Amber Leaf left, which will probably go up in smoke by the end of tomorrow. I am going to test my willpower, if it last 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 years, 3 decades, or 3 hours then I will have discovered alot about myself. I have told a fairly large amount of people of what I intend to do, hopefully by telling people it will give me more determination to quit (if I end up smoking again after an hour I'm going to look like a bit of a plum, and no one likes to look like a plum!). Also, if they are the good friends that I expect them to be, they will help and support me, even though 2 of my best friends are smokers, one smokes around 15 to 20 a day.

Every day that goes past I can feel myself coughing up more and more shit from my lungs. It's disgusting. I end up having to spit it out, sometimes in the most awkward of places. These can range from my bedroom windowsill, to empty cups and bowls (parents get pretty annoyed with that), and in worst case scenarios, bus floors. It feels disgusting and it is disgusting, but the fact that I cough it up means it is not supposed to be in my body. I can feel cigarrettes killing me.

There is something that also bothers me about being addicted to a something I don't need. I just googled the origins of tobacco, and according to this, the idea of smoking tobacco originated from 'Aboriginal peoples throughout the Americas cultivating tobacco for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. ' - trust the Americans for coming up with something else to kill people with. However, the point is, before the idea of smoking came along humans were doing just fine. Let's be honest, tobacco itself is a fairly crap excuse for a drug. Sure it can relax you, and yea, it can feel fucking awesome smoking a cigarette skating down a huge hill, but there are plenty of other drugs that give a lot more bang for your buck. I think that the fact that tobacco gives such a small effect on us means we think that it must be ok to consume large amounts of it every day. Let's be honest, at the end of a stressful day, what's going to relax you more, a cigarette or a huge spliff (some people are obviously going to have some split opinions on that one). The people who govern us obviously saw the opportunity for a money making scandal which brings me onto my next point.

The following paragraph is based on this, I just kind of summed it up for you incase you're one of those people who finds tables with numbers in fairly confusing (it's ok you're not stupid! ...much)

From 1990 to 1991, the amount of money the government in the UK made on cigarette taxes was 6.8 billion pounds. This continued to rise until 1997 to 1998, where it peaked at 10.1 billion pounds made in one year from taxes alone. 1998 to 1999 saw it decrease to 10 billion, and then the following year (1999 to 2000) when the amount of money made on cigarette tax dropped to 7.5 billion pounds. I can only assume that this was either a large amount of people deciding that they didn't need cigarettes in their lives anymore, or the government lowered cigarette tax, probably a combination of the two. However, since the year 2000 the amount of money made on cigarette taxes has continued to rise again; last year 10 billion pounds was made on tobacco products. If you click on the link in the above mini-paragraph (is that a word?), and then on the link on left of that page named 'Consumer Expenditure', you will see that from 2000 onwards the amount of money people have spent on cigarettes have risen from 11.7 to 12.6 billion pounds.

The way I see it, tobacco is a fairly twisted cycle. The government is constantly raising the price of tobacco, I remember when a packet of Amber Leaf was £2.35! (now £2.65). Straight cigarettes are always on the rise, I mean remember when we were kids and you could buy a packet of Mayfair with some change you found on the floor (well, you still can really). Yet apparently the government wants us all to stop smoking, and litters us with stop smoking adverts throughout our day to day lives. There are also products which you can buy to actually help you quit smoking... I mean come on. You get withdrawal symptoms from most other drugs, ask a heroin addict how hard it is to give up and you'll be in for a treat (although finding one may be fairly tricky), MDMA I'm going to assume is the comedown, etc. When someone says they need a cigarette, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't shrivel up into a ball and die if they didn't have one. If the government really wanted us to stop smoking, they would make cigarettes illegal. The fact is they have raked in too much of our money for too long to ever make cigarettes illegal. I think it would be really interesting if everyone in the UK quit smoking at the same time, just to see what would happen. I can imagine alot of public services creaking under funding that came through tobacco going up in smoke (sorry, had to be done). Now that's what I'd call a credit crunch.

Who knows, maybe God put tobacco on this planet to kill off all the weak willed humans, slowly but surely. Only someone with a brain figured out a way to make a killing off of it.

I realise that this post has gone on for ever, and also that the use of italics has been getting slightly... ridiculous (okay, I'll stop), but I want to end with a story about my neighbour.
My neighbour George has been smoking since he was 13, and he has been diagnosed with emphysemia (in simple terms, basically his throat is fucked). He has recently attained one of those batmobiles that old people get when they can't walk anymore, because he can't walk to shop anymore to get his Richmond Superkings (I keep telling him to buy in bulk but he's greek and I don't think he understands me). He has been given a date on which he is expected to die, although the date keeps on coming and he keeps on living. As fucked as he is, me and my Dad both respect George because although he has effectively killed himself, he still smokes as many today as he did when he was 15, it's as almost as if he's trying to go up in smoke. If I was ever going to die through smoking, that's the way I would like to go, with my two fingers held high, cigarette hanging limply in between.

I've just thrown my remaining 1/4 packet of Amber Leaf in the bin. Outside. If anyone wants some free tobacco, you know where I live.

Less smoking more joking.

James