Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette

     The demise of widespread cigarette use is probably the most significant advancement in human health in the last 100 years.  It was 50 years ago when the United States Surgeon General first issued a report on the harmful effects of cigarettes.  50 years ago 42 percent of Americans smoked cigarettes, today that figure is 18 percent.  I can't really remember when I stopped smoking but I think it was sometime in the early 1990's.  Never smoking as a teen , it's still a mystery as to how I developed a pack a day habit in my 20's. Between the years of the 70's and 90's I gave up cigarettes several times but always went back to them.  Drugs, relationships,  pier pressure, stress,  it was  always easy to blame something which gave me the excuse to smoke smoke smoke that cigarette.
     Recently I visited an exhibit on the harmful effects of cigarettes.  The exhibit sure resonated with me  but when I was a smoker I never paid much attention to what the Surgeon General was saying.
     Today a lot of smokers are giving up conventional cigarettes and giving a new nicotine delivery system called E-Cigarettes a try.  With their different flavors, cool names and low price, e-cigarettes are slowly but surly replacing  conventional cigarettes.  Don't be fooled by the sexy marketing, e-cigarettes are nothing more than a today's Marlboro Man riding a different horse.  E-cigarettes should be regulated and taxed the same a conventional cigarettes.  Nicotine is equally addictive no matter what the delivery system is.  Most smokers I know say their reason for switching to the e-cigarette in not for health reasons but for economical reasons.  For the price of one pack of conventional cigarettes one can get the equivalent of five packs of e-cigarettes.  The e-cigarette companies profess the health benefits of their products but that's like saying a regular cheese burger is better for you than a double cheese burger.  Vice is Vice no matter what form it comes in, that's one thing this addict knows for sure.  The world would be a very dull place if all vice diapered  so I won't try to save the world with the few words on this page.  Although I'm not a smoker any more I eat a cheese burger when ever I please.  Hell,  maybe I'll order a double cheese burger and a large order of fries the next time.  I wonder what the Surgeon General would say about that?