Passion Power

In April of 1994 on the front page of the New York Times there’s an infamous picture of 9 tobacco executives standing in court declaring under oath that Cigarettes Aren’t Addictive. In November of 2017, after successfully delaying for 11 years, the tobacco companies began a court-ordered advertisement campaign admitting the variety of ways they manipulated the public, including that they designed cigarettes to be more addictive and lied about it. Experts found that Big Tobacco companies genetically engineered their tobacco crops to contain two times the amount of nicotine and adjusted their cigarette design so that the nicotine delivered to smokers increased by 14.5 percent. The result of these “innovations” in cigarette design is devastating. The surgeon general found that “today’s cigarette smokers — both men and women — have a much higher risk for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than smokers in 1964, despite smoking fewer cigarettes. Even though the...

I was waiting in the emergency room in Smiths Falls for a procedure and there was a young adult, probably 19 years old, waiting to be seen. He looked very agitated so I went over and tried to console him. This was his second visit to the hospital in 4 days. He could barely swallow from this throat infection. The first time the physician told him to go home and that if he would quit smoking it would get better. No throat swab or antibiotics were given even though he was in really bad shape and could barely talk. What gives this Physician the right to discriminate and refuse to further investigate due to this young man being a smoker?  This physician is the reason more addicts don’t reach out. They’re met with judgment, lack of empathy and told to ‘just quit?’ Smokers are made to feel like second class citizens. The smoker is in the trenches. They would like to quit but don’t know how or don’t believe it’s possible. They light up a cigarette first thing in the morning if they’ve...