Big Tobacco kills their customers

I know that nobody put the cigarette up to my mouth and held a gun to my head as they yelled in my ear ” Smoke it or die”, but I was 14 years old and hanging out in a crowd that peer pressured me to smoke. I felt out of place if I didn’t, those were the only friends I had who would except me for who I was as dysfunctional as I may have been. I was raised since the age of 11 in Tacoma Washington and we lived in a very poor area known as Hill-Top. My father was a Vietnam veteran who was unstable mentally and a mother from Thailand who I thought at the time was weak. I had no support with school work or anything else for that matter. I was forbidden to have a life outside of school and my family so as you can imagine smoking was a getaway drug for me.  I remember it giving me a feeling of acceptance and peace in my very chaotic life. Was I educated on the dangers of smoking? Hell no. I got smokes for free from “friends” and actually was able to purchase them at the age of 14 from a local corner store called  E-Z mart next to my best friends house. I just turned 34 and have three boys who are 17,16 and 9. I had a pre-cancerous tumor removed from my colon last year and it was terrifying. I have tried over 100 times to quit smoking with no success. I have 5 boxes of patches and will try again after thanksgiving so everyone pray for me please.

I guess the question I have is why after the Big Tobacco companies found out the dangers of smoking do they continue to kill the very people who made them billionaires? Do they have no regard for human life on earth? And for those of us who want to quit why are they not paying for our Chantix, Nicotine Gums and Patches since the product was made by them and not everyday hard working tax payers.

It goes to show ” The ones with the money have the power”, and at the end of the day all us smokers have is lost years with our loved ones due to cancer.