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I wonder why there isn't as much outrage for smoking marijuana. It causes damage to the brain and shrinks it over time.
Even if it did not, there is still lung damage in chronic weed smokers over time....Look at Bob Marley...
Our lungs are not designed to handle that kind of smoke daily.....lungs are filters, nothing more or less, and they get clogged up over time with any kind of smoke. Not to mention junk up the blood stream.
Simply, smoke of any type does not belong in the lungs...that's not the way they work. Same as clogging your intestines with massive amounts of junk food/toxins, along with your kidneys, per people that overeat crap food(obese folks)...
The problem with any campaign that is directed against smoking is that with many smokers you are dealing with the equivalent of hard core addicts. Hard core addicts don't respond to logic, education, or scare tactics. They want their "fix" and they will do what they have to do to get it. Even raising the price of cigarettes has its limits. People can always buy tobacco and than choose to roll their own if the price gets too high. Plus, you have states where tobacco is grown that despite all the science showing that cigarettes cause lung cancer still secretly wish they could go back to the days when millions of more people bought and used their product.
I can't speak to new smokers, young kids who make a terrible mistake and choose to smoke despite all the warnings you now get. However, older smokers who still insist on lighting up are largely hard core addicts. Getting this group to quit may well near prove to be impossible.
Indeed...
Self-Destruction has only one On/Off switch, and that is solely controlled by the owner of that aforesaid self..
I think that those would be geared towards newer smokers.....
If someone is so far gone that they see aging in their faces, and have trouble breathing, walking, everyday activities, yet still smoke, no pictures will make a difference.
A good one is seeing a pic, for younger women and some younger men, of how much older they will look in 20-30 years, with truck-stop waitress lip wrinkles and crows-feet, or, for guys, with hangy jowls and a pallid complexion..
Seeing pics of their own selves like that down the line, just look wise, should be enough to stop most young folks.....but not all.....some will continue thru the wrinkles and paunches, till it is more than cosmetic, and they can't walk a block, let alone run, without sitting down to rest, and have a chronic, painful hack...
Then again, some smokers have been known to smoke on their deathbed, and beg for a smoke as they are dying(a sad last request I should say)...
My smoker friends in Canada definitely looked at the packs as a "collect them all" sort of thing. It's shocking at first but the shock wears off.
The shock wears off of everything....
My great aunt was a head nurse for years, and said that, after time, no "bleeders" alarmed her in the ER. Same with war......
To a point, though......
In war, you have so many with chronic stress syndrome, same with many in police/med work.
Per simple pics, short of varying them over time, sure smokers get used to it......
I have a far better idea.....having the people in those commercials with no voicebox go to schools and explain how glamorous smoking is. Same with colleges.
I realize that they were debating doing this in the USA, but I did not realize that Canada has already started putting scare pictures on Cigs, per Cancer AND other maladies, all from smoking....
I have no idea if this has cut down on cig purchases in Canada, but I would imagine it would work here in the USA......Imagine taking a long drag and concentrating on looking at these pics at the same time...
Good for Canada, per these public service pics......
The body is essentially a delicate reed....amazing the abuse we voluntarily submit it to, from over/bad eating, stress, lack of sleep, drugs, you name it....
I quit smoking many years ago, but these pics make me want to respect my body more....so sad how we destroy ourselves knowingly....like suicide on the installment plan...
My God......
Are these shocking enough? Not enough?......How do you think this would play in the USA?
Those photos don't bother me a bit, I have an Auto Immune Liver Disease that is not curable, smoking is the only vice I have left but no matter what I will die anyway from something.
It may be a car accident, a tree falling on me, the Liver Disease, the smoking or a bus may run over me, the end result is no matter how I treat my body I will die anyway.
Before anyone says it, the Auto Immunce Liver Disease was not caused by smoking.
There is no known cause and no known cure for this disease and there is one medication that may or may not help sort of control the disease but you have a 50% chance that it won't work for you.
while I think smoking is the most disgustingist things one can do, I dont think the packaging is going to do a thing.
Here in brooklyn NY, people are still smoking, teens are still smoking, even at 12 dollars a package, can you even imagine? what a waste of money....but they are, I see it everyday.
most of my relatives, with the exception of me, sister, cousins , all the adults smoked, all day every day....not one ever had any of the effects of any of those pictures. All my smoking relatives lived into thier 80's, none had holes in them, none had a tongue, and so on.
So while I am a smoke hater, I honestly do not believe for everyone these things happen.
Since they want to do away with it so bad, why not make the tobacco companies stop making them?. But they wont, there is way too much money involved in cigs.
Now if everyone magically stopped smoking, and no one bought cigs, what would they do, tax milk?
I think the pictures are ridiculous.
Night, while genetics varies, a lifelong smoker, over many years, on average, is almost guaranteed to at least get Emphysema, if nothing else. Your relatives are lucky, and obviously had great genes.
Each body reacts in its own way to cig smoke. I would hate to smoke for a lifetime betting that I had good genes and it was "probably" okay, because no one related had anything bad happen. There are always exceptions as well...I actually have several Aunts who died from lung cancer that never smoked. Go figure...could have been air pollution, second hand smoke, who knows?
We just have averages to work with..on average, a person who daily fills her lungs up with smoke for 40-50 years will age prematurely(that alone should be enough, per vanity), will have trouble breathing, which will get worse, and have a fair chance of getting lung cancer..
Odds are worse for lifelong chewers.....ex pro baseball players have a huge rate of oral/throat cancer..
Everyone in those commercials is young enough to be my child. "My wife was only 30 years old". "I am only 40 years old". Well, I am 66 years old. I am not dead yet, nor do I look like that 40 year old woman.
I will leave you with what a Nurse once said to me at a work physical when she saw that I smoked. "Don't you realize that the YOUNG can die too from smoking?" I couldn't stop laughing when she said that. She was furious at my laughing until she got a clue and looked at my date of birth. I was just short of 60 years old.
"Well, maybe NOT", she then said. Thank you for the compliment on my age. lol Repeating the scripted speeches does not always apply.
Consider yourself lucky/blessed.....Genetics and bodies vary. That being said, no one would smoke, in their right mind, while pregnant. That alone speaks volumes.
We can def get too anal about healthy things. I can't say I have the best diet myself, per junk food.
It all comes down to this...regardless of genes and physicals, we only have one body. Per playing the odds, would bode us all well to keep it in the best possible care we can.
For most people, ingesting and filling your lungs up with tar and nicotine daily for a lifetime would not be playing those odds terribly well, and would def be at the bottom of the betting "tote board" if their personal health was bet on in Vegas long-term....
Those photos don't bother me a bit, I have an Auto Immune Liver Disease that is not curable, smoking is the only vice I have left but no matter what I will die anyway from something.
It may be a car accident, a tree falling on me, the Liver Disease, the smoking or a bus may run over me, the end result is no matter how I treat my body I will die anyway.
Before anyone says it, the Auto Immunce Liver Disease was not caused by smoking.
There is no known cause and no known cure for this disease and there is one medication that may or may not help sort of control the disease but you have a 50% chance that it won't work for you.
Could you get a liver transplant, or someone to donate a part of theirs for you?
I can understand what you say.
I wish you all the hope I can muster....never give up..ever..
Consider yourself lucky/blessed.....Genetics and bodies vary. That being said, no one would smoke, in their right mind, while pregnant. That alone speaks volumes.
We can def get too anal about healthy things. I can't say I have the best diet myself, per junk food.
It all comes down to this...regardless of genes and physicals, we only have one body. Per playing the odds, would bode us all well to keep it in the best possible care we can.
For most people, ingesting and filling your lungs up with tar and nicotine daily for a lifetime would not be playing those odds terribly well, and would def be at the bottom of the betting "tote board" if their personal health was bet on in Vegas long-term....
My point being that once you reach a certain age, dying is going to happen sooner rather than later of some cause or another. Do you think 70 or 80 year olds should be forced into a stop smoking program too? Absurd. If they have lived that long, leave them alone and let them live out the rest of their lives with whatever gives them enjoyment. However, the fanatic anti-smoking brigade would put them too in some program for their health and so they won't die?
My point being that once you reach a certain age, dying is going to happen sooner rather than later of some cause or another. Do you think 70 or 80 year olds should be forced into a stop smoking program too? Absurd. If they have lived that long, leave them alone and let them live out the rest of their lives with whatever gives them enjoyment. However, the fanatic anti-smoking brigade would put them too in some program for their health and so they won't die?
Fine, as long as they are not forcing others to breathe in their cigarette smoke. No smoking in apartment buildings, any public places, etc.
Everybody tries to blame their smoking habit on somebody or some thing. Just quit and stop making excuses. Smokers already know the "graphic truth", yet continue smoking anyway. Yes, it's hard to quit, but it's not impossible. I did it after 40 years of smoking 2 -3 packs a day. There's no excuse. Tobacco stinks. It's dangerous. It's expensive. It's no longer socially acceptable. Quit! There is zero reason to keep smoking. It does nothing positive.
I don't see anyone on this thread or anywhere else blaming others for their smoking habit. I like to joke that I absolutely loathed smoking (which is true) & then an exchange student from New Zealand stayed with us for a few months in high school & she got me smoking. I shake my fist at her now, lol. Obviously the reality of it is that it's my own fault that I started smoking & got hooked. It's an addiction, just like any other addiction & it is extremely hard to quit. Is smoking stupid? Sure but like I said, it's an addiction & addictions are no indicator of intelligence at all. I know what it's like so I do not judge others for their smoking or alcohol addiction or what have you. One day I will quit for good but until then, making fun, insulting, scoffing, harassing people about quitting does no good & is a waste of time.
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"My wife was only 30 years old". "I am only 40 years old". Well, I am 66 years old. I am not dead yet, nor do I look like that 40 year old woman. 
