smokin'

Gallup released some data last week stating what is probably obvious, that smokers as a whole have a statistically lower quality of life than non-smokers by several different measures. While one could argue that low quality of life causes cigarette smoking, I would have to say it works the other way too. This does not surprise me and it should not surprise many other people, but what perplexes me is what the appeal of cigarettes are.

As I understand it, most people who smoke as adults started as teens, possibly under peer pressure, then stick with the habit because it is hard to break later. What I do not understand is how this specific vice has caught on. I assume that most people who are smokers and started since our culture has been inundated with information about how unhealthy smoking is are more short-term thinkers who do not picture themselves at age fifty with emphysema or lung cancer.

When I was in high school I worked as a cashier and a bagger at a grocery store. Probably the majority of the observations I have made about cigarettes and smokers came out of the experience of that job. Since I was frequently the person who had to retrieve customer's cigarettes from the locked display case, I got a good sense of who was buying cigarettes. Granted, no one was quite young enough to be in my age group because I was under eighteen, but my observation of the general cigarette purchaser demographic did not make me think that I would be more cool if I smoked. I am sure that I was heavily influenced by a strong correlation that I saw between people who used food stamps and people who bought a multiple cartons of cigarettes. I am not saying anything about those who have to turn to food stamps. I just did not want to emulate the lives of those people in that situation.

That grocery store had a small break room where most employees spent their breaks and where it was not yet illegal to smoke, though it probably would be illegal today with the lack of proper ventilation and all. If there was any question about the impact that cigarette smoke can have on lungs a person would only need to look at the walls of that room. The originally white walls had been turned what I assume was a brownish yellow. They were repainted while I was there and very quickly started to look dingy again. Of course, this illustrated what everyone in this country knows, that cigarette smoke will damage whatever it comes in contact with over extended periods of time.

One of the managers at the store once was illustrating how old he was using the price of cigarettes as an example. He noted that he had given up on cigarettes in his younger days because the habit was too expensive at fifteen cents a pack. At the time a typical pack of brand name cigarettes cost about two dollars. I do not know what a pack of cigarettes costs today, but I do know that in Pennsylvania where I had that grocery job that the taxes on a pack of cigarettes is now more than two dollars, which would imply a price approaching four dollars a pack. At more than $1400 a year, who has the kind of money to be able to afford a pack-a-day habit? I certainly do not.

A final thing I noticed when I worked at the grocery store was that, whether I was judging them fairly or not, the middle-aged to older people who bought cigarettes nearly always looked noticeably worse for the wear than those who did not. A few had severe creases around their lips where they had pursed them to hold their tobacco container of choice. A handful had obviously damaged their voice boxes in some way. Who wants to start a habit that almost guarantees they will appear an aged fifty or sixty years old rather than an attractive fifty or sixty?

Of all of the vices there are, smoking is one of the ones that I just do not understand. There are many addictions I that I understand how someone could get sucked into them because they offer a fleeting but significant endorphin rush. I guess that smoking must too, but as someone who has never smoked I just don't see it.

I have heard some people claim that smoking is a sin, but I do not think that is necessarily the case. It is an addiction, and those are the sorts of things that have to be dealt with as we prioritize Christ. It is not necessarily any more sinful than other addictions that people see as benign, though, such as to a specific food or television show.

Even if I did not have all of these reasons not to smoke, I would probably still have to pass on it. I already have a dependence to a chemical substance that stains my teeth, ruins my breath, impacts my mood, and is associated with relaxation. I drink my share of coffee every day and that is good enough for me.