Smokers suck.

Yes smokers suck. When I say suck, I am not referring to the act of applying a vacuum with the mouth to a lit cigarette with the intent of drawing in a generous lung full of tobacco smoke. No, I am being blunt and purposely unclinical trying to bring some attention to some of the distasteful things that smokers do. My ultimate goal is to persuade a smoker who is thinking about quitting to actually give it a shot. What have you got to lose except an addiction that may kill ya. If you are a militant smoker or are offended by ex-smokers who expound on the evils of smoking, please click here or here. Read no further. This page contains material that may tick you off. Please don't bother to flame me. I have given you fair warning as to the content of this page. (As if you hadn't guessed by the title anyways)

1. They Smell Bad. Not only do the burning cigarettes themselves stink, but also the person who smokes tend to have a stale cigarette odor about them. The odor clings to the clothes, hair, hands, cars and homes. If you smoke around your kids, they smell too. Usually the smoker doesn't notice it. I never noticed the way smokers smell till after I quit smoking. Now I can smell it on a smoker ten feet away. It is truly amazing, that people who are otherwise fussy about the way they are groomed, dressed or present themselves, will allow themselves to stink. Gee.. you would almost think that they are addicts or something.
2. They Litter. Smokers have a tendency of discarding their cigarette butts on the ground, or tossing them out the window of the car. Hey, I've done it, and have seen cops do it. After all who wants to have a smelly old cigarette butt in their pocket or car? I have seen people crush a cigarette butt out with their foot on the ground when there was a "butt can" right beside them. I have seen people toss lit butts away with out a concern for littering or the possibility of starting a fire. Now these are the same folks who would never throw a paper cup or anything else on the ground. With cigarette smokers, there seems to be a mind set that it is OK to dispose of them in this way. Smokers toss them without giving a second thought about it. Not only do cigarette butts look hideous laying on the ground but it also costs money to pick them up. Cigarette butts don't seem to decompose very fast either. The archeologists of the future are going to find a lot of butts in their excavations. I bet that if smokers weren't addicts they wouldn't litter the sidewalks, beaches and public places of the world.
3. They Pollute the Air. Smokers are so caught up in their addiction that they usually are not that concerned about the consequences to other people. Hey, us folks who choose not to smoke don't appreciate having to breath your second hand smoke. It not only is an air pollutant, It also makes me smell like an ashtray when you smoke in my vicinity. I try to be understanding, after all I have subjected other people to my second hand smoke myself. Is it a coincidence that my youngest son's occasional asthma attacks disappeared after I stopped smoking? Nope, no coincidence, my addiction contributed to my son's problems. I was so close to the forest I couldn't see the trees. I would like to apologize to everybody who I have offended with my smoke in the past, and to my family who put up with and still loved me when I was hopelessly addicted to cigarettes. Now that I have gotten off cigarettes, I realize what an inconsiderate -BLEEP- I was.
4. They Cough, Hawk Things Up and Spit. Did you ever hear the story about the man who was 99 years old and smoked 2 packs of Camels a day? A national morning TV talk show wanted him to come on the show and do a morning interview. They offered him a large sum of money, but he said he couldn't. When asked why he wouldn't accept the all expense paid invitation to speak on how he lived to be such a ripe old age while smoking so many cigarettes, he replied. "I don't stop coughing till noon time"
   1. Who else but an addict would put up with a habit that makes your lungs rattle and cough like that. It is bad enough that you cough and sputter, but, what about the folks who have to listen to you do it. What about the germs you spew every time you expectorate or cough. Hey, I can understand if you got a cold or allergy, but cigarette hacking and coughing can be prevented. It is self inflicted. It can be cured.... Quit smoking. Within a week of quitting I noticed my coughing and throat clearing episodes decrease substantially. It feels so good to take a breath and not feel and hear my lungs rattling. I don't get out of breath so easy either. As a matter of fact, I now get an exhilarating "rush" sometimes, by simply pulling in a deep breath of fresh Maine air. It sure beats a deep breath of a hot chemical cocktail of noxious fumes. You have to be an ex-cigarette addict to appreciate it fully.
5. They Start Fires. Cigarettes are a major source of both forest and residential fires. Millions of dollars worth of property and hundreds of lives are lost every year due to smoking related fires. It is not enough that the smoker burn themselves up or is overcome by smoke. Oh no, the smoker has to take innocent people with them. Their carelessness displaces and ruins the lives of people in the same apartment building. It endangers the lives of the firefighters who try to save or recover victims and property. Another way that smokers cause fires is to leave matches and lighters laying around for kids to pick up and play with. I bet that each and every one of the smokers who contributed to an accidental fire has said, it will never happen to me. If you are a cigarette addict, your chances of having something bad happen to you or a loved one increase substantially.
6. They Burden Society With High Health Insurance Costs. One of the most sickening aspects of smoking is that it has a way of affecting and costing those who choose not to smoke. My Health insurance premiums are outrageously high in part due to the health problems of smokers and their refusal to get a grip on their life and quit this unhealthy habit. When you are a young smoker you have no sense of mortality, you think you are going to live forever. You may think that you will quit later in life, perhaps for your 30th or 40th birthday. It may seem so far away, so, why worry about it now. You might say, "Yeah, so what if I have a heart attack, emphysema or lung cancer at 55, that's old age. 55 is over the hill, life's over any ways, I might as well live the life I want now and worry about it later". Well let me tell ya, If you do live to the ripe old age of 55, chances are you will have wished you had quit earlier. You will probably look older than you are. Your breathing will not be what it should be. Your breaths will be shorter and quicker, just sitting still, saying nothing about when you may be doing an aerobic activity that stresses your heart. You will tire easily and be prone to heart attacks and stroke. Your chance of getting a mouth, lung or throat cancer are darn good if you haven't got it by age 55. Health care for sick smokers is expensive. The types of illness cigarettes give smokers are quite serious. Not only is dealing with the immediate effect of the chronic symptoms expensive (not even counting the ambulance ride), but the ongoing therapy, treatments and drugs cost a fortune. Accessories like oxygen machines or tanks, inhalers, wheelchairs and walkers are a pretty penny. Did I mention that you might require some home health care workers to come help you after the hospital is done with you. Isn't it ironic that you end up paying such a high price for the consequences of an addiction that costs so much to support. Well , I guess it was fun while it lasted, eh?
7. They Smoke While Pregnant. This has got to be one of the most graphic examples of how addicted someone can be to a substance. It is very well documented by much research that cigarette smoking is harmful to the unborn child. Yet the power of the addiction can make an otherwise caring and intelligent woman ignore the strong maternal instincts to create a healthy environment in the womb for her child. I feel so sorry for a woman who can't or won't quit smoking while carrying a child.
8. They Smoke While on Welfare. It kind of annoys me that my hard earned tax dollars are supporting millions of smoking habits. There ought to be a law against smokers on the public dole. It is sickening to see someone with a carton of Marlboros at the supermarket check-outs paying for their food with food stamps. They can't always pay the bills every month. They sometimes have to do without some things. But some how they always manage to scrounge up the cash to smoke cigarettes. Are us tax payers being a bit overly generous with our welfare support for smokers? Then, after they get sick we are going to pay again. I guess cigarette addicts can swallow a lot of pride to keep supplied.
9. They Flame People Opposed to Smoking in Public. Yes , I know you will find this hard to believe... I have been flamed by some smokers who disagree with my thoughts and opinions on smoking. Instead of a thoughtful and intellectually stimulating debate on the smoking issues, some smokers tend to get defensive and down right abusive. Hey lighten up will ya. You are giving smokers a bad name. Instead of getting mad, sit down, fire up a cig and dream up some good reasons why people should smoke and why you wouldn't mind if your kids took up the habit. Rationally weigh the pros and cons of smoking, so you can respond to nonsmokers without getting mad. Try to look at things from a nonsmokers perspective, so you can say, I understand the way you feel, but..... Having been a smoker for the better part of 27 years, I can see your point of view. I've walked a mile for a Camel. I have felt the pleasure of a smoke and drinking or having a cig after making whoopee. I have felt inconvenienced by not always being able to smoke when that urge to light up hit me. I know your concerns and your pain in regard to this issue. I have been there -done it. I also know that there is nothing worse than an ex-smoker preaching to smokers about their foul habit. It must seem like a former hell raiser-party animal turned preacher, returning to the old neighborhood and telling his old drinking buddies they are gonna go to hell if they don't repent. But, as a former smoker, who has finally cleaned the nicotine out of my veins, I now realize that my thought process was clouded by the chemical addiction of the nicotine on my brain. If you wasn't an addict, you wouldn't be flaming and telling off wannabe do gooders like myself.