I Want a Fucking Cigarette!

I quit smoking on January 14th 2004. I've been on the 21mg patch ever since. So basically I just changed one habit for another. I put on a patch in the morning and I'm good for the day ... kind of.

I still find myself getting up every hour for something. What used to be a cigarette, now becomes food. I refer to cigarettes as the "hole in my soul that I fill with food". And it's not the nicotine addiction, because I'm still wearing the patch! There is still something missing, like I forgot to do something, or left my wallet at home, but it's not.

Smoking allowed me to take a break from life/work and step away from it. I could think differently and often came up with new ideas after taking a smoke break.

And lately I've been thinking, is smoking really that bad? I know, I quit for my health so I could be around to watch my son grow up and all that bullshit, but is all the hype true?

Not so much. Last year, big tobacco spent about $10 billion in advertising. Guess how mych the anti-smoking people spent? About $10 billion. Anti-smoking is big business! And by anti-smoking I mean pharmaceutical companies. You know, the guys who make the patches, gums, inhalers, zyban, etc. to "help" us quit smoking.

So I started doing some research into the claims that 400,000 people die "prematurely" from smoking-related diseases. Suffice it to say that most of the studies are definitely based on "junk science" and statistical averages, not actual bodies. More links in My Favorites.
forces.org + in defense of smokers + smoking does not cause lung cancer + nuke story + smoking helps protect against lung cancer