We all know that cigarette smoking is bad for our health. In fact, by now, nearly everyone on the planet is aware of the dangers of cigarette smoking. Even knowing the dangers, there are over 3000 kids that start smoking every day!

Now like I said, nearly all of us are aware of the hazards of smoking. When I started smoking, packs of cigarettes had just began to have the warning “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health” printed on their side. This was the first government effort to inform people that smoking was bad for you. Since then, fighting the battle against cigarettes has been a case of the tobacco industry versus common sense.

Unfortunately common sense does not prevail and our government continues to rather ineffectually attempt to legislate our behavior. At the same time the tobacco industry continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the legislation and promoting their products of death.

Legislation passed on April 1, 2009 nearly doubled the price of tobacco. I believe that the rationale was that, by making tobacco products so expensive, especially in the economy we are now experiencing, this would be great method to help smokers quit smoking, simply because of the cost. 

This rationale will work to some extent. In fact, more of the smokers that have come to me this year to use hypnotherapy to help them quit smoking have told me that the cost was one of the biggest factors for them wanting to quit. But can we legislate behavior modification? Let me ask, do you or the legislators really believe that the person who has just been laid off is going to quit smoking while searching for a new job? I’d say that’s a stretch. Because of their cigarette addiction , many smokers will reduce their food budget before quitting.

So what are the positive effects of such legislation? Tax revenues will grow. These taxes are supposedly earmarked to fund new programs to help disburse stop smoking tips and advice that can reduce cigarette smoking and fund even more legislation to ban smoking in public places. Of course the problem with this is that this is the same government that has given us the well oiled entities of Amtrak and Medicare.

One thing I especially liked about the government’s latest move to put a damper on cigarette smoking is that it has empowered the FDA with the authority to approve what ingredients may be allowed in tobacco products. It also gave the FDA the authority to order changes, eliminate toxins and disallow new tobacco products. I believe these are all good things.

I think that everyone knows that nicotine is a toxin and is the primary addictive substance in tobacco. What’s less known is that cigarette companies have been adding between 500 and 1000 ‘additives’ to cigarette tobacco. These additives cause even greater cigarette addiction and are also toxins. When combined with nicotine, these other additives have been shown to make cigarettes more physically additive.  So that leads to the question, shouldn’t our legislators have the intestinal fortitude to put some real teeth into this FDA authority? Why don’t they have the FDA require that all of the additives be removed, thus approving a cigarette that cause much less of an addiction so that people might actually be able to beat on their own?

Here’s the real rub. Most of us have been brainwashed to think that the FDA is supposed to regulate food and drugs in a manner that provides the consumer with safe products. All of us have heard about drugs put out by large pharmaceutical companies, like fen-fen, that obtained FDA approval, and later are found to have side effects with devastating consequences. This same body that is supposed to protect us from bad food and drugs allows additives, growth hormones and antibiotics to enter our bodies through various approved foods. So why should we believe the FDA will do any better with cigarettes?

Since most of their older cigarette addicted clients either quit or die, I think that the increased tax can do good if, the funding were used for classroom coursework for kids. You do know that kids are the real targets of tobacco companies, don’t you? Without new consumers their companies will die instead of the consumers of their products. Use the tax revenue for documentaries that have patients on oxygen tanks, photos of the effects of smoking like those you can find at the Tobacco Control Supersite as well as a few images of what cigarette smoking does to your lungs. Then the money might be well spent.

I admire President Obama. I believe he is an educated and intelligent man. The problem I have with him is that he still smokes. If someone like him won’t give up the smoking habit at the least as an example for his two lovely daughters, then it seems to me that we should use that money to target the future generation, including the president’s kids.

When commenting on the new tax, President Obama said “… For over a decade, leaders of both parties have fought to prevent tobacco companies from marketing their products to children and provide the public with the information they need to understand what a dangerous habit this is.” Amen Brother Barack.

Yes indeed, people need to quit, but more that that we need to do a better job of helping our children understand that cigarette smoking is a deadly, deadly habit that cripples and kills most of the people it traps. By the way, that goes for you too President Obama. Quit smoking. If you need help, I can help you quit. Man up. Be the leader of the smoke free world.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.