If any generation knows that, our generation does. We’re the ant-smoking campaign generation. We’re the ones who saw the pictures of the lungs before and after someone spent their lives smoking. We’re the kids who were told not to cave to peer pressure. The ones who sat through D.A.R.E. classes and school assemblies and were told before we ever encountered a cigarette that smoking kills. So we know the dangers, those of us who smoke and those of us who have never smoked. We’re well informed and well aware, and people make their own decisions for their own reasons regardless.

There will never be a world where no one smokes. (Maybe I’ll eat my words someday, but I’d do so gladly.) So why exactly is the campaign to rid the world of smoking still a big issue? Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law banning smoking in public places like parks and beaches. And now, according to Gawker, the government is asking tobacco companies to publish corrective statements on their advertisements and marketing materials, statements that read, “Smoking is very addictive. And it’s not easy to quit…We manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive… When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain—that’s why quitting is so hard.”  This is just one of many, and they do get harsher. And while part of me revels in the fact that tobacco companies are finally being forced to admit to just how harmful their products are, another part of me knows this will make no difference at all.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of smoking, or being around people while they’re smoking. But even I can see that things are getting a bit ridiculous. Everyone knows just how harmful smoking can be, and everyone knows that tobacco companies have always been well aware of just how addictive smoking can be, knows just how much they encouraged that addiction. But that hasn’t stopped smokers from smoking and it hasn’t stopped tobacco smokers from selling. And neither will this.

So while I understand the emphasis on banning smoking, and am thankful that I won’t be hit by a cloud of cigarette smoke while laying on the beach this summer, I also have to ask when is it enough? Where is the line? Smokers are making an informed decision, and while it may not be a healthy one, it’s still there decision to make. People make unhealthy, informed decisions all the time (hello, we’re in college!)  and at some point we just have to step back and let them. And then, maybe we can focus our attention on some of the more relevant and hopefully resolvable issues.

And since then, I have been completely 100% smoke free.

No packs. No puffs. No nothing. I went completely cold turkey after NYE and I’ve maintained it for an entire week. It’s very difficult; especially when I had a few glasses of wine this weekend and desperately wanted one, but I had the will power to say NO to myself.

I am a strong willed person and if I set my mind to something, I stick to it. After seeing a series of horrific smoking commercials, I made a serious resolution to myself that, on top of not wanting my teeth to turn yellow and my hair to permanently smell like an ashtray, I don’t want to die from lung cancer (cliché but true).

So, for now, I’ve a week smoke free. I feel cleaner, healthier, and will hopefully continue on this path. Wish me luck!

(Photo courtesy of smokefreezone.org)

But I know you guys have seen the recent Truth commercials. Sure, they’re still sort of living up to their name. Still, it seems like they’re more interesting in getting the shocked “WTF?” reaction out of people instead of educating them.

Most people in my family don’t smoke. I happen to be allergic to cigarette smoke, and I have asthma, so taking a puff for me would kind of be like committing suicide. One of my aunts smoked until the day she died about seven or eight years ago. My other aunt stopped smoking shortly after. I have a bunch of friends who smoke, though. And no matter how much lecturing they get, I know that most of them are not going to stop smoking. Hell, I remember asking a friend of mine at school if he thought he would ever quit smoking. He laughed. Then coughed.

Yes, smoking sucks. Yes, over time, it screws up pretty much every system in your body. Thanks to the effort of organizations like Truth (and all the ones that came before it), we all know that. Where I’m from – good ol’ NY – the average in 1998 was about seven cartons a day. In 2003, it was around 3, and I’m sure it’s dropped to about 2.5 or something like that by now. Truth and organizations like it must be doing something right. Right?

I’d like to make a bit of a hypothesis. I get the distinct feeling that yes, even though tobacco sales have dropped dramatically since it’s gotten more expensive to smoke and even harder to find places to smoke, there are still those last stubborn few. There are people who are NEVER going to stop smoking. Maybe their kids will see the effect it had on their parents and decide never to pick up the habit or drop it if they’ve already got it. But I think we’ve hit the point where we’re not going to influence the thoughts of anymore smokers or prevent it, and especially not through stuff like Truth.

What’s really going to be the boot that squishes the tobacco industry is when smoking stops being economical and just starts being useless. When you’ll have to order your cigarettes online cuz they won’t sell them in stores anymore.

But, really, all Truth is doing at this point is putting out silly commercials that make you think more about how you wish the commerical break was over than about how much smoking sucks.

Oh, and make songs that get stuck in my head that are SO inappropriate to sing in public.