GareK's Garret

The step down from 14 mg to 7 has been the most challenging time of my Quit since I conquered D3. Having said that, I'll also say this week, though challenging, hasn't been one quarter the shock to me that D3 had been. I think this is because I'm staying ready for anything.

D1 and D2 were exciting days. It's even possible that I was so ramped about my actual Quit Date arriving and doing what it was I'd been wanting to do for so long, I really flew through the first two days on adrenaline. Quite possibly, was the first day I allowed myself to actually feel the effects of starving my addiction to death.

But I'm past a month now, and even though my Quit has been as kind to me as a summer's breeze, I've remained watchful. This week has been the payoff. It's still challenging. I still know I'm quitting - really alot! But I'm not shaky in my resolve and I'm not tearing out my hair. I was, more or less, ready for this week.

I can't stress it enough. If you are quitting, prepare yourself. I don't want you to read that in a doom and gloom kind of voice - I mean that in a "boy scout motto" kind of voice. Somebody or another once said "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." That goes double for nurturing a Quit.

Believe that statement. Even if you have to postpone your Quit Date for a while to prepare - you're much better off if you do so. Part of devising your plan is to create your Quit Kits, your list of methods of dealing with craves and waves, creating your Flash Cards, gathering a support system, both in 3D (real life) and online, and preparing your loved ones for the roller coaster ride.

Another part of the planning stage is to educate yourself. I did what I considered a great deal of studying about quitting, and I can tell you now, 34 days in to my Quit, I didn't study as extensively as I thought I had. Fortunately, I found the Q within the first week of my Quit, so I got to catch up with a good support group taking every step along with me. I will always hold the Q'sters high in thankfulness and praise. What a tremendous help my Quit Buddies have been, and the Q-mmunity at large as well.

So, study and read and research and read and study some more, go to the Q and begin talking with people well before your Quit date because you'll learn more from people in the middle of a Quit than you ever will anywhere else. While you're there, learn about preparing your tools and your Quit Kit, etc. And no matter how kind your Quit is to you, no matter how long you go thinking "This is easy..." - stay vigilent and your Inner Addict won't have a chance to trip you up.

Enough advice! Somebody in forum said that they thought California was going to ban smoking altogether, even in the privacy of your home. I'm going to Google that right quick to see if there's any truth to it... Click the "more" link to see what I found out!

Aha! Okay, there is some credence to the rumor, though it isn't yet at the point I was led to believe it might have reached. Here's what I've read so far from SFGate.com:

California regulators became the first in the nation Thursday to designate secondhand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant,'' a move that could lead to new city and state laws and educational campaigns directed at smoking parents.

The state Air Resources Board voted to target environmental tobacco smoke on the basis of studies that link other people's smoke to increased cases of breast cancer, heart disease, asthma and reproductive problems among nonsmokers.

The designation, adopted 6-0, places secondhand smoke in the same category as the poisons arsenic and benzene. About 200 chemicals are on state and federal lists.

No representatives of the tobacco industry or the smoking public testified against the designation, which was recommended by the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the agency that evaluates the health effects.

The American Lung Association spoke in favor of it.

....

One challenge will be designing an educational campaign geared toward protecting children in homes and cars from family members who smoke, air board representatives said. The California Department of Health Services has an outreach program for parents, which could be expanded with additional funds based on the state's investigation, air board representatives said.

Former Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, who is running for the state Senate, had tried unsuccessfully to get a bill passed that would prohibit adults from smoking in cars carrying young children.

There you have it, boys and girls. It has begun. While I'm all for kids having a break and not having to deal with second hand smoke, I also feel that the government is talking out of both sides of its mouth. We've discussed this in forum - here's what I posted about the situation.

Welp, I'm betting we see a huge increase in homicides, suicides and arrests for smuggling in contraband.

I live in Cali and, while I'd prefer a world in which people didn't smoke, I have to say that the whole part of this that bugs me is the way the problem is being addressed. First off, if somebody wants to smoke in their own home, they should be able to smoke until cigarettes are made illegal. That won't happen. Why? Because big tobacco companies do have strong representation in the government. Their money buys a lot of friends who make and/or vote on policies.

Second thing that bothers me... there is no safe sickarette, but there IS such a thing as social responsibility. Because of the reasons stated above, however, our government is doing everything it can to stay buddies with big tobacco companies and, instead of forcing tobacco companies to quit using these chemicals to create a more addictive product, they are instead punishing the addicts that those same tobacco companies have created.

The "little guy" is always caught in the middle and can't win.

That's what bothers me.

Pass legislation that makes it illegal to create or continue to manufacture a product that has demonstrable addictive chemicals and/or produces addictive chemical byproducts when used as directed. Because I guarantee you this -- if any single one of us created a product, let's say a piece of gum - that, when chewed, released a chemical or caused a chemical reaction that created an addictive response in the human body...

...we'd be shut down in a New York minute.

During the month after the 9-11 attack, when the entire government was supposedly focused on fighting the anthrax scare -- there was a little dr. in Florida, running 2 clinics for the terminally ill to help them cope with their depression. The doctor was making a compound of aloe vera into a pharmaceutical injection and treating patients for a one-time fee of $1200 regardless how many treatments it took to help these patients...

The patients had been turned away by their own doctors as being terminal, and as having no hope of finding a way to win the battle. Most of these patients were dying of one form of cancer or another. The FDA hadn't approved this doctor's efforts, however, so both his clinics were shut down.

Those clinics were shut down and the doctor banned from practicing, even though he had CURED 97% of his terminally ill cancer suffering patients, they just took his notes, his materials and his product and shut him down.

But tobacco companies can still keep pumping out their product with the full blessing of the government.

I agree with California and other states that want to take strong action to stop the madness. I just don't agree with the way it's being carried out, and against whom the actions are being taken.

We need to do something... but I don't think attacking smokers is the way to proceed if you intend to get at the root of the problem...