Share this:
Across Australia retailers are replacing branded cigarette packets with that ‘dark and sinister’ looking plain packaging we’ve all heard so much about. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the cigarette company’s intellectual property. What I do care about is the negative message anti-smoking initiatives such as plain packaging, send to non-smokers about adults who smoke.
I’m fed up with being ‘demonised’ by the anti-smoking lobby and the Government’s anti-smoking campaigns. Every new anti-smoking initiative feels like I’m being punished because I haven’t been able to successfully quit smoking. Once seen as cool and sophisticated, smokers have become social pariahs – barely tolerated in open public spaces and about as welcome as your next electricity bill.
To add insult to injury, the health system doesn’t even offer any practical assistance to help those of us who are finding it hard to quit smoking. They use the “but lots of people have quit smoking” excuse to screw us out of funding for quit smoking programs.
Millions of dollars are spent each year on programs to treat drug users and alcoholics and rightly so. But all we smokers get for the millions of dollars we pay in state and federal taxes each year, are those preachy TV commercials and that lousy Quitline!
If only there were rehabilitation programs like the ones they provide to drug users, or a group like Alcoholics Anonymous? Is there such a thing as ‘Smokers Anonymous?’
Try finding a free or even a subsidised quit smoking program at your local hospital or community health centre. If you’re lucky enough to find one, put your name down on the waiting list quick smart and if you’re really lucky, you might just be able to complete the program before they pull the funding.
Sure, there are a lot of programs run by private clinics but with state and federal government taxes on cigarettes being what they are, who can afford them!
Nicotine replacement therapy such as patches, gum and inhalers are a much cheaper option and I’ve tried all of these. I use to feel bad about the fact that I failed nicotine replacement therapy. That was until I learned that research studies have shown them to be less effective than the old ‘quit cold turkey’ method. Speaking of which, the quitting cold turkey method only works if you’re really, really determined to quit.
But what if for some reason you’re not able to quit on your own. How do you actually get to that place where you’re determination to quit is strong enough to overcome the barriers such as withdrawal symptoms, anxiety and depression? I’ve read just about every quit smoking book published in the past fifteen years and sadly, no-one has been able able to answer this question.
One final point. Why is research into smoking largely targeted to young people? I may not be young anymore but I’m not dead yet!
A recent study by RMIT University in Melbourne found that restrictive measures such as cigarette price increases and limitations on smoking in public places, actually decreased the desire and intention to quit. The research by RMIT’s School of Economics, Finance and Marketing was based on a survey of young people aged 18 – 24. But as a 43 year old smoker, I can attest to the fact that resistance to being told what you can and can’t do, doesn’t diminish with age!
I want the Australian Government to know that I’m a 43 year old smoker and I’m not dead. I’m still here and like many of my fellow Australians who have been unable to find a way out of this addiction, I too am worth saving.
So why do I feel like the anti-smoking lobby and the Australian Government have written me off as a lost cause?