In my case it took four days in a hospital bed where they wouldn't let me smoke, and then several weeks of recovery at home where I didn't have to be around smokers. I don't think even the heart attack would have stopped me if not for the initial period of enforced non-smoking followed by an extended period not being around smokers. By the time I went back to work I could walk past the folks standing outside on a smoke break with little more than a twinge of desire to "bum one."

I think that's something that health-insurance companies really need to take a hard look at. Resident non-smoking programs are almost 100% effective while non-resident programs are something like 15% effective (I might be off a tad on the figures, it's been several years since I read the article). Yet, almost no health-insurance plan covers resident non-smoking programs nor do most employers grant time off for a resident non-smoking program. As a consequence, there are very few resident programs and they are quite expensive.

I was so addicted that as I was laying on the floor waiting for the ambulance (when I had my big heart attack in '98) I was looking up at my cigarettes hanging over the edge of a table and wishing I could reach them for a last smoke because I knew they wouldn't let me smoke in the ambulance!

In spite of all that I don't really hate cigarettes. People choose to ruin their health in any number of ways and not only is attempting to regulate that sort of behaviour invasive, it simply doesn't work. If you "criminilize" smoking all you do is create more ways for criminals to prosper and more ways for politicians to interfere in our daily lives. Prohibition was possibly the biggest mistake in domestic policy since the civil war. Even now we are paying costs associated with the entrenchment of organized crime that prohibition facilitated. (And yes, I'm dead set against the draconian "drug war" here in the US in spite of the fact that I'm a very conservative non-drug user, myself.)

I know people who used to criticize me for smoking while they were killing themselves with food faster than I ever did with cigarettes. There is nothing more laughable than someone who is 5'8" and weighs 350 pounds, all of it jiggling blubber, telling someone else they should have more respect for their body!

I know most reformed smokers tend to become anti-smoking nazis, but I'm not one of them. I had to drive to a business meeting in another state last year with a co-worker. We were using a rental car and I told her to crack her window and go ahead and light up 'cause it wasn't going to bother me (and I remember what torture it used to be riding with non-smokers), and she about wet herself!

Finally, most "confrontational" attempts to stop a loved one's smoking are counter-productive. We humans have a stubborn streak and don't like to be told what to do, especially not by our children. Far better to let a loved one know you're ready to help when they're ready to quit than to constantly badger them. All badgering does is raise the stress level and make them want a smoke even more badly!

John