Well, even though I can’t do anything to convince smokers to read further, I CAN encourage all non-smokers to do so, because this post is not only geared to help those who are addicted to nicotine to free themselves, it is also designed to enable you non-smokers to do the same for all the smokers in your lives.

NICOTINE – SOME UNCOMMON FACTS

First of all, nicotine is not merely an “addictive substance” – nor is it simply yet another “legal drug”. Nicotine is actually classified as a “Super-Toxin” – a poison that is drop for drop MORE LETHAL THAN RATTLESNAKE VENOM, and one that is three times deadlier than arsenic.

When a person inhales cigarette smoke, their lungs form overlapping layers of moisture inside their lungs in order to keep nicotine’s poison from entering the bloodstream. At the same time, logically, these same layers of moisture also keep oxygen molecules from entering the bloodstream as well. That is why smoking drastically diminishes a smoker’s lung capacity – their lungs literally cannot provide enough oxygen to their bodies. And yet this defense mechanism is very important for every smoker – because if their lungs did not prevent the absorption of the large doses of nicotine they are smoking, THEY WOULD BE DEAD AFTER SMOKING ONLY A FEW PACKS of cigarettes!

While most people are not aware of the information I just shared, almost every smoker these days IS aware that smoking causes cancer (of the 48,000+ chemicals in cigarette smoke, at least 69 are currently known to cause cancer) and that it causes premature death (with around 500,000 deaths attributed to smoking-related illnesses each year in the U.S. alone) … In fact, cigarette smoking is now the number one source of premature, preventable death in the world!

NICOTINE – THE ADDICTION & THE ADDICTS

So if folks already know how deadly cigarettes are, why are so many of us still smoking?

Well, for starters, SMOKERS ARE NOT “WEAK PEOPLE” … That’s right, you heard me say it. For any of us non-smokers to judge a smoker critically is a stretch to the very pinnacle of pride. You see, of all the physiological addictions available to humans, nicotine is tied with heroine as the one that is most difficult to break.

In Nature, nicotine is a potent insecticide that protects the leaves of tobacco plants. And yet in the human blood stream, it is insidiously destructive. Nicotine has a chemical signature that is so similar to the human neurotransmitter acetylcholine that, once inside the brain, it is allowed to control and increase the flow of more than 200 neuro-chemicals, most importantly dopamine, the neurotransmitter primarily responsible for our ability to perceive pleasure..

Also, most cigarette addicts became hooked early in their lives – many before they leave their teens. And what almost none of these children knew when they started smoking was how extremely addictive cigarettes are. Indeed, studies have shown that about 25% of today’s smokers started losing control over their smoking after just 3 to 4 cigarettes, with almost 50% of them losing that control after smoking only 5 to 9 cigs.

If we are non-smokers, it is time we stopped being critical of those who smoke. It is high-tie we started exuded massive amounts of Compassion for them instead.

And if you are smoker and are reading this now, it is time for you to stop being so hard on yourself as well. It is high-time that you started Caring for yourself the same way you care for those closest to you.

SMOKING – THE COLD, HARD TRUTH

And yet even though nicotine is so addictive, and even though our politicians still turn a cowardly eye to the “evil” that is the companies still producing cigarettes and encouraging us to smoke them, every smoker is still a conscious human being — every smoker still has the power to choose to quit. And every smoker who does not want to die a painful, premature death must at some point awaken to the fact that they & they alone are responsible for their plight – and that they & they alone can free themselves from their addiction (more on that in the next post) …

It is important for smokers and non-smokers alike to understand that one of the major psychological reasons why smokers continue to smoke is their patent lack of authentic Self-Respect. After all, it is impossible to deeply Respect yourself if you are regularly committing a slow suicide, which is exactly what smoking is.

“The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, and fairly honorable, form of suicide.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Of course, everyone has the right to live however they choose, and everyone also has the right to kill themselves. It might be disrespectful and unkind to their loved ones to do so, and yet it IS their life to do with as they wish, after all.

But the real awakener for smokers might very well have nothing at all to do with what is happening to them when they smoke, but rather what is happening to everyone around them as well.

And here is the point that is MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL THE REST: while we do have the right to kill ourselves, and while we do have the right to use whatever destructive addictions we wish to do so, we do not have the right to kill others in the process. And make no mistake, my Friends – that is exactly what smokers are doing to everyone around them whenever they choose to smoke.

Secondhand smoke contains most of the 69 cancer-causing compounds found in originally inhaled smoke. Even the EPA, notorious friend to many large toxin-producing corporations, has classified secondhand smoke as a carcinogen since 1992. And a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke were 25 percent more likely to have coronary heart diseases compared to nonsmokers not exposed to that smoke.

In essence, it is important for smokers and non-smokers alike to realize that smoking is not only suicide … SMOKING IS MURDER.

SMOKING – THE GOOD NEWS

Some powerfully effective tips for quitting if you are smoker will be shared in the next post, AND it is important that we remain positive now — despite this post’s somewhat sobering (and possibly saddening) revelations.

There IS Good news on your horizon if you are smoker. And that good news is that you now have the knowledge to empower yourself to let go of your addiction … The good news is that YOU CAN QUIT! Indeed, today there are more ex-smokers in the U.S. than smokers.

So, if you are a non-smoker, please CHOOSE TO REFUSE to enable the smokers in your life to harm yourself or others (and thereby deeply harm themselves). You don’t have to convince them to quit, you simply have to have the courage to ask them to stop smoking while in your presence – and be sure to do so with gentle Compassion for THEM, much more than any concern or worry for yourself.

And if you are a smoker and don’t want to quit for yourself, then at the very least please choose quit for your Loved Ones.

And avoid asking others around you if it is OK for you to smoke …

… you now know that it is not.