Today Is No Tobacco Day 2006

Today all smokers have the opportunity to say no to tobacco - No Tobacco Day 2006. Although tobacco addiction is serious and strong, giving it up is not impossible. Take comfort from the hundreds of millions of people who have managed to give up. There is life after tobacco, there is happiness after tobacco, there is normality after tobacco. Give it up today and look forward to better health, cleaner teeth, nicer smelling hands and clothes, less bad breath, a much higher level of fitness, and a fatter wallet.


As tobacco addiction falls in some parts of the world, mainly the developing world, in other parts it is ravaging countries that can least afford its impact of disease, lost productivity and enormous death toll. The tobacco industry's expansion into some parts of the world is the result of a callous thirst for profits before human life, corporate expansion before the health of future generations. It is a sinister ploy of widening its addiction and creating a faithful market. Customers who faithfully pay, every day, to get their regular fixes.


The industry has always been trying to trick people with 'light' cigarettes, 'mild' tobacco and 'low tar' brands. All presented as healthier alternatives. The only really effective way of making tobacco less dangerous is to take all the nicotine out - the drug that makes people most so addicted that they have to have several cigarettes each day. I can assure you the industry will never even attempt to take the nicotine out.


Smashing global tobacco addiction is a huge fight. A fight between hundreds of millions of addicts who need to be told there are successful ways of giving up, and the tobacco industry which finds any way it can to either keep smokers smoking or recruit new ones.


I have heard many in the tobacco industry say that they only advertise to persuade smokers to switch brands. Here is some surprising news. Children see tobacco ads. Children are susceptible to messages in ads. Children are curious. What proof is there that tobacco ads have absolutely no effect on children? There is none. Here is another fact. Most addicted smokers started when they were children in their early teens. Now put the two together - ads…children…ads…children…most smokers started as children? It is not rocket science.


The most important message that all smokers must remember is:


-- Giving up is possible.


-- Don't be put off if you tried before.


-- Even though you may not feel so now if you have just given up - you can feel happy, normal and 'complete' again without having to smoke. It is the drug, nicotine, that makes you feel your life will never be the same again. Eventually that emptiness wears off and things really do come back into place.


Personally, I do not believe giving up is a question of willpower. I think the strongest motivator to anyone who gives up is 'hope'. The biggest enemy is its opposite - 'despair'. To have hope you need to believe. To believe you need proof. There is proof all around you. Go and ask people who gave up a few years ago - ask them whether the feeling of completeness ever came back after they gave up. They will all say it did. This feedback will give you hope. This hope will keep you going. The longer you can be a non-smoker the less difficult it becomes.


Today I am giving up cigarettes. I woke up feeling excited and worried at the same time. Excited because I am taking my first step towards freedom, freedom from a demon that has controlled me ever since I was 14. Worried in case that road to freedom may be a bumpy one.