Cigarettes and What We Don t Know

How many people can you think of in your life who smoke cigarettes? If you said anywhere between two to three people, you d be joining millions of others who either know or are the person who smokes. But does smoking cigarettes lead to other types of more serious drug addictions? There has been much controversy and debate over this issue.

I can still remember watching my father smoke his pipe in the backyard. He was always careful to never smoke in the house or around any of us. He had started smoking cigarettes when he was around the age of 17 years old. Now, many years later, he is still a smoker. He went through a brief period when my brother and I were born, where he didn t smoke at all. He managed to give up smoking cigarettes all together. Then he switched to smoking pipe tobacco on the weekends only. Today, since he is a lawyer, he is back to smoking cigarettes again. At first, he tried to hide the fact that he had resumed smoking cigarettes. I remember being picked up from the airport after coming home from a college break and watching my dad try to hid the fact that he had a cigarette in his hand by hanging his arm out of the car window before discarding it when I turned my head.

In a lot of ways, cigarette smoking can be linked to stress and nervousness. It wasn t until my father changed careers from being a vice president at one of the nations largest car rental corporations to being a lawyer that he resumed smoking. After all, being a lawyer is a stressful job. But back in the 1970s, when my father was in college, smoking wasn t a horrible thing it was cool. People once regarded smoking as being good for your health! Today, we know better though; and my father is a great example. Smoking cigarettes is not only extremely addictive; it is bad for your health.

My dad started smoking any other way that people started smoking: You re around your friends and someone has a package of cigarettes that they start handing out. You don t think much of it because you don t see the big deal in trying it once or even a few times with your friends. Soon before you know it, however, you re smoking socially with your friends and before you know it, you re smoking when your friends aren t even around. Why is it that we feel the need to smoke? I recently spoke to several people who smoke. One person informed me that it is a sort of oral fixation . Another person informed me that it helps them to feel less insecure; it gives them something to do while they are socializing. I wonder what would happen if smoking was banned in all public places though. There are already some efforts in place to make smoking illegal on many college campuses. Recently, the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina banned smoking on its campus. Perhaps others will take the example. Until then, however, we all need to be aware of the many dangers that cigarettes pose.