Tobacco Causes Cancer...duh!

Wills Navy Cut packets of 10 is now available with an additional feature. The newness is basically a bold proclamation on the pack that Tobacco Causes Cancer alongside a picture of what seems like a pair of blackened lungs; you can't be sure though.

It makes me wonder if any of the regulations designed to combat the phenomenon of smoking actually takes into consideration the habits and tendencies of addicts. For it is my belief that an addict's mind works quite differently from the clean cut-straight mind.

Eric Clapton was once asked for his opinion on junkies after he himself had spent considerable time in a rehab. His initial response was that he hated them. In fact people like that pissed him off. He wouldn't associate himself too closely with such people. Then he tried heroine. Clapton recalls that in the very first time he tried the drug it became patently clear to him "why these guys would rob, sell their own house and even murder for another hit ". And he became one of them. The point being that people consuming most addictive substances grow immune to the consequences thereof. Its a natural progression into the habit, and it also instills a certain kind of fearlessness in the addict. It is the act of consuming and the physical relief thereafter that is of utmost priority. Death can wait darling, there is always time for another drag.

Which is why, irrespective of whether the price of cigarettes go up or there are scary images being printed on packets, smokers will still smoke. As much as they used to. Maybe they'll shift brands, try milds for a while. But they'll still smoke.

(And just for the record, all forms of tobacco is equally cancer inducing. Mild cigarettes merely have a finer quality of tobacco that render them less harsh on the throat. They are no less or no more a threat to causing cancer than regular cigarettes. So the act of switching brands isn't going to hide anyone from death.)

Also tobacco doesn't cause cancer per se. It may lead to lung/throat/mouth cancer in many people, and it definitely aggravates the same if the person smoking already has cancer. But in the larger majority of people, smoking is a habit that simply reduces one's stamina/lung capacity over the years and nothing more. Thus to say that tobacco causes cancer is technically incorrect, though I get the point they're trying to make.

I guess one argument in favour of creating such warnings would be to deter future smokers, especially teenagers. I'm not sure if this actually works, or doesn't. All I know is that I started smoking at age 18, and I would've still taken that first whiff irrespective of what was printed on the packet. But thats just me.