A Smoker's Point of View

I am a smoker, have been for 48 years and will be until the day I die, OR, until I decide to stop voluntarily. I will not be FORCED to "quit" by ANY "special interest" group, especially ones who use unproven "statistics".

I was raised in a generation where it was pounded into your brain, "you are not a quitter". Those were, and still are, powerful words. The more "certain people" or "special interest" groups, such as ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), tries to FORCE me to quit smoking, the more I dig my heels in and rebel against them.

Every time I read about the "dangers" of smoking or how "harmful" environmental tobacco smoke (a.k.a. ETS or Secondhand smoke) supposedly is, I get on my computer and do my own research. What I've found is amazing AND disturbing.

I've found research paper after research paper stating scientific FACT about how many smokers would need to be in a 20 ft. wide by 20 ft. long by 9 ft. high unventilated enclosure, all smoking at the same time, to bring the levels of carcinogens up to the "harmful" degree both ASH and the World Health Organization (a.k.a. WHO) claim is the danger level. Well, I can't see how you can get between 1,400 and 250,000 people into that room, no matter how much you scrunch them up.

I also found out that ASH and WHO forgot to mention that these so-called "studies" they used were done over a period of 40 to 50 years!!! The studies were conducted by following couples---smoking couples, one smoking and one non-smoking couples and non-smoking couples who worked in smoking environments. The results? Barely any significant difference in their health.....over 40 to 50 years!!! AMAZING!!!

The disturbing part came when I found out that both ASH and WHO were chastized by the World Courts for manipulating figures, giving false conclusions of incomplete studies and basically lying through their teeth to accomplish their goal of having a "smoke-free" planet.

Anyone can punch numbers into a computer and manipulate those numbers to give you the outcome that you want. Garbage in, garbage out.

You've heard John Banzhaf, the Founder of ASH, state unequivicably that 80% of smokers want to quit, BUT, what you didn't hear, or read, was the rest of that 80%'s statement --- they will do so when they feel they are ready. This is just an example of how ASH manipulates words to suit their needs.

The more I read, the angrier I got. ASH cares nothing about your or my health. They care about FORCING everyone to conform to THEIR chosen Lifestyle --- smoke-free --- and they're committed to achieving that goal by any and every means possible, including using Parental Guilt. These people are emotional terrorists!!

Recent studies have shown that the air quality in a well-ventilated area, where smokers are present, barely changes and the levels came no where close to the levels claimed by ASH, yet it was barely reported to the general public. Why is that?

I find it truly amazing that ASH and the anti-smokers can slam smokers, blame smoking for every ailment or disease out there, con governments into quickly passing laws and by-laws to ban smoking and kick all smokers to the curb, yet do absolutely NOTHING about that brown haze hanging over our cities and towns that we're all inhailing. Does that "air quality" not affect our health moreso than any tobacco product could?

Think about it. If ASH cared one iota about your health, your children's health or my health, don't you think they would go after the smog makers? When one really thinks about it, it just proves that smokers have been the target of one "special interest" group, and all because they want the world to kowtow to their preferred lifestyle. At least if they went after those causing the smog, they wouldn't have to change their initials....Action on Smog and Health.

ASH is doing everything they can to segregate ALL smokers from the rest of society. They've FORCED smoking Veterans from their Legion Halls, they've FORCED smoking Seniors from the comfort and safety of their well-ventilated smoking lounges, they've FORCED all smokers to the curb regardless of the weather and with no shelters provided for them. They've FORCED all businesses to conform to ASH' preferred lifestyle. ASH must be so proud of themselves everytime they pass a group of Seniors or Veterans standing out in storms at all times of the year. Our governments must be just as proud knowing that they helped ASH accomplish that task.

Sometimes I wonder if ANY politician THINKS about the consequences before they start imposing bans on anything. What happens when a Family sues both ASH and the governments for the wrongful and premature death of a smoking loved one who became deathly ill because they were FORCED to go outside to smoke, and that the death could have been prevented by allowing that loved one to stay within the confines of a well-ventilated room instead of being FORCED outdoors? Trust me, it's going to happen one of theses days.

Anyway, that's my opinion for now. Will write more another day.