Puff, Puff...Pass It On

There they were, three boys, who looked no more than eight or nine years old. They walked over to the nearby mobile kebab trailer (which was closed) and attempted to pick the lock. When that failed, they made their way into the gas station and pleaded with the female attendant to sell them a lighter. It was at this moment that I had to step in.

 



What happened to the days when young boys played at the lilypond?



“Boys, you shouldn’t be smoking. Nothing good will come from it and you will die. A slow death,” I call out to them. Ok,  so maybe it’s not my call, but there is nothing wrong with a little scare tactic.

“Please, we need them,” one of the boys pleads while asking me to buy him cigarettes. The other two boys pipe in.

“We have to smoke. Please buy us cigarettes, please.Why won’t you get them for us?” They beg and plead for me to hear their case. I see the ‘old’ me in these boys. Trapped in an addiction that will only get worse the further they get dragged in. I then roll out the spiel that I had heard so many times before. It was heartbreaking to watch. They weren’t at school (which is an entire story in itself) and they didn’t have anyone who was teaching them about the damaging effects that come hand in hand with smoking.

“I live with my nan. She doesn’t care as long as I don’t smoke her cigarettes,” said the youngest boy. He broke my heart. He didn’t care if he died from smoking. He said he had ‘no one that cared whether he lived or not.’ I couldn’t get him to see that I cared and that his life was worth saving.

I only wanted to fill up my tank with gas. I never thought I would be lecturing kids on the dos and don’ts of smoking. But when I saw those boys, I felt it was my duty as an adult to break that evil downward spiral that begins when you take that first drag. I felt defeated because I couldn’t help them. But who was I to lecture these boys, when two days later I was happily (ok, maybe not happily but definitely of my own freewill) puffing away?

As a put out that cigarette it dawned on me that everything I achieved in the last ten months was wasted. I thought I could do it. I really wanted to be a non smoker. I lasted almost a year without breathing in that noxious weed. But in a moment of temporary insanity, I failed. I even got a tattoo in Latin, libertas de famulatus, meaning freedom from enslavement. I was enslaved to the weed.

When I finally came to the realisation that I was slowly responsible for ending my life (I guess it’s kind of like committing suicide over a longer period of time), I had clocked over 17 years as a smoker.

But I’m not the only one. Each year, thousands of Australians try (and some are successful) to give up smoking. With names such as butt, fag, cancer stick, smoke and ciggie, cigarette smoking became popular in the early 20^th century where it was seen as sociable and fashionable to smoke.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australia ranked 17th out of 77 countries in tobacco consumption in persons aged 15 years and over. Poland came in first. Yet today well into the 21^st century, millions of dollars are spent on scare tactics by the government and organisations like Quit. 

New data released in January reveals one in five smokers believe the dangers of smoking are inflated and don’t believe any of smoking related cancers are caused by smoking.

Quit Victoria's Policy Manager Kylie Lindorff, says the data shows that many smokers do not understand the risks associated with smoking. She adds that more works needs to be done to educate the health effects associated by smoking.

"By exposing smokers to campaigns which explicitly show the health effects of smoking and by systematically updating graphic health warnings and making them a larger feature of cigarette packaging we can better communicate the devastating health consequences of smoking," she says.

However, their efforts are almost wasted as many Australians start smoking each year.

Mark Maguire, 20 from Gordon in Sydney’s North Shore, knows this only too well. For the past two years, he has been bouncing up and down like a yo-yo from smoker to non smoker and vice versa. He says that although he knows the side affects of smoking he can’t help but continue the habit.

“It is hard for somebody like me to quit smoking. Everyone I know smokes. I feel left out if I don’t smoke,” he says. “Sometimes I smoke just to kill time. Like if I’m waiting for friends. It’s a social thing,” he adds.

Courtney, a 30 year old legal assistant from Canada, can relate to what Maguire is going through. She started smoking at the age of 13 because she thought it was a cool thing to do at the time.

“I’m not really sure why…it has always been a regret of mine,” she says. When she first picked up a cigarette she didn’t even in inhale properly. So what propelled her to finally give up?

“My grandfather recently passed away from cancer and my father has lung cancer,” she says.  “I think the reality of turning thirty along with the recent health issues in my family prompted me to wake up - it was the easiest time to quit for me,” she adds.

After roughly 18 years of life as a smoker (with the exception of the times she quit and relapsed) Courtney finally put out her last cigarette in early January 2009. She now sees eye to eye with all the anti-smoking information that is splashed all over the television, radio and magazines.

“I agree with them now. Of all the times before that I quit or wanted to quit, I always told myself I would never be one of those people that quits smoking and then can't even stand the smell of smoke,” she says

“Well, this time around I have become one of them.  It seems to be working for me though; I don't even have a desire to pick up a smoke again.”

Somebody who is winning the battle against cigarettes is Anna, a 28 year old high school teacher from Ambarvale in Sydney’s south. She quit smoking three years ago to have a baby and is now the mother of a healthy baby girl.

“I quit because I wanted to fall pregnant. Smoking lowers fertility, causes low birth weight and is a risk factor in SIDS [sudden infant death syndrome],”she says adding that her daughter is healthy because she quit smoking two years before conceiving her. That was a sensible decision to make but why did Anna take up smoking in the first place?

“I know it sounds dumb, but to get a break at work,” she says. “The smokers got regular smoko's [smoking breaks] and the non-smokers had to work through.”

That ‘break’ turned into almost 11 years as a smoker for her. Now older and wiser, what would she say to her younger self?

“Don't do it. It will stunt your growth…it actually does, by interfering with puberty, ruin your nice white teeth, permantly alter your lung capacity and turn you into an addict. It is harder to give up smoking than get off heroin.” she says.

“Every day it is a conscious effort to not smoke. Once a smoker, always a smoker, you have to remember that and never fall back into the trap. The government profits a lot from smokers...then they spend it on things we didn't ask for. Why do you want to throw your money away...wouldn't you rather go shopping?” she says.


Courtney adds “Put that down. It's not the cool thing to do.”

As I pull away from the gas station, I look over my shoulder to see the boys move on to another driver who has just pulled into the car park. I hope he can get the message across better than I did. As for what I would tell my younger self about smoking- nothing. What’s done is done. But I can say something to the kids I see on the street, who continue to light up. And I will.