It's been two weeks now without smoking tobacco.
To many that may not mean much, but to others, it does. Ironically with tobacco "we're given a choice". Pay the tax, smoke it. Kill yourself. To those who never indulged, you're fortunate. Tobacco is bad stuff.
I have struggled with tobacco addiction since around age 16. From 40 years ago.
I've quit before, for as long as 3 years, twice... a year or more a couple other times... and always i told myself this was it - the end. But always, the "fix" was everywhere around me, advertising, and state taxes depending on cigarettes being sold. They kill people, and they'll contribute to my death, even though once again I've quit.
2 Weeks Now...
Tobacco truly is a schedule one type drug... the true form of such a drug... but it can't be outlawed, any more than alcohol can be.
I saw my doctor yesterday due to a cough... I have chronic bronchitis, and am going for tests for COPD.
In my early 20's I would have gladly dropped tobacco if cannabis was legal. Today, because each plant is different, and tobacco just happens to be one of the most unhealthy, I'd be pretty healthy if I'd been able to smoke a little pot rather than have a pack or two a day habit for tobacco.
Prohibitive laws are mostly political, not for public safety. The science behind which "drugs" are legal and which aren't is often not based on any science. And no two plants are a like - except for basics like anything burned creates CO (carbon monoxide). Plant tars are a science of itself... no two plants have the same chemistry/tars and the effects of each is different.
It just so happens tobacco is one of the worst plants to use, let alone be addicted to it. Cannabis is one of the safest, but one of the most illegal.
My doctor asked me, considering the rapid success to my not smoking tobacco, if I had cravings for tobacco? I told him no. The reasons:
1) My housemate grossed me out after my other HM dropped a cigarette under her desk, 4 days into my cessation, he found it first and knowing how much it might mean to me, he offered it to me. After he stuck it up his nose.
2) In a previous post I wrote about "K2" type cannabis substitutes that are being marketed. I had said No to them. Well, now I'm saying yes. Compared to the alternative, smoke tobacco, can't get cannabis, "K2 Type" quality smoking products are worth buying; not addictive, herbal in form and mostly safe to use. They get you slightly high, but mostly it's simply pleasant to smoke.
In life we have to make choices. Sometimes we can actually accomplish our goal. Other times, for whatever reason it doesn't work out, or it only works for awhile. For myself I've always wanted to understand the choices I make, but am at the same time pummeled by opinions and do-gooders that feel they know better.
Yes... this is my autobiography. It is that because I can't pretend to be an entertainer or journalist. I am a writer... and that's what i'm going to do. Write.
It's all fiction... and what? Do you think I'd write the truth about my life? Ironically, though truth is stranger than fiction, fiction based on truth is stranger than life. The reason is, our advanced cognitive abilities creates a paradox of expression, like how do we "be ourselves" if being ourselves means to admit we do things questionable by "society"? Our advanced tools and means of communication make it obvious we are to share... but share what?
If you're within the embrace of the culture - married, with children, college degrees, and "normal" lifestyle, you win. If you're outside of that region, you play the game. Nobody that I know enjoys playing games to survive, but that the way it is. And that is the where of where this autobiography is going to.
I give this country a grade of A for protecting our 1st Amendment rights. I also give Henry V. Miller, recognition and credit for making that a reality... for confronting the right wing extremists who felt they had a legal right to dictate morality and freedom of speech.
The early 20th century was extraordinarily interesting... an interest of mine, let's say.
And the vote of 46% - 54% to legalize cannabis in CA was a victory. After 70+ years of extreme propaganda and ruined lives over a plant that is primarily beneficial, to have 46% of the population of such a large state vote YES, is very significant. I would have been happy with 33%.
To understand my autobiography, you need to understand I'm one of those people that was transformed in a very positive way when introduced to cannabis. I was also one of those people most strongly opposed to it. It makes me wonder if I had been a kid around age 16 in Germany, 1938, if by 1940 I wouldn't have deserted the German Army and gone underground working for the resistance?
What side are you on??? Would you turn your neighbor in for offering you cannabis? Would you see that as similar to murdering your neighbor? Do you see how tobacco, not cannabis, is killing millions of people? Do you see how to make a decision we need the facts?
My autobiography will be anything but boring...
Whether I'm dead tomorrow or 50 years from now (106), my life is my life, and I've not hurt anyone, nor any soul.
I pray I'm alive when cannabis is legal... when terrorists like Eric Holder who threaten the citizens of CA if they vote in a way he doesn't like is gone... good riddance. Our political system is broken... because, We The People don't make the decisions... in many cases, special interests do. A 46-54 % vote to legalize cannabis in CA should be a wakeup call to Washington, and Pres. Obama. You can have your "War on Drugs", Just Leave Cannabis Out of IT!!!
Thanks for visiting...
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to BobKat's Lair ®™
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A lair is a home; A castle; A burrow; A haven; a place where one should feel safe. To ensure our safety especially in one's lair, we have laws. And some laws cause more harm than good!
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Please Note: This Blog, with the Trademark "BobKat's Lair"™ is legally registered and under US law cannot be used without my express permission. In addition, all material produced by within this blog-site is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without my express permission. It may be used for your own purposes as long as there are no monetary gains of which I am not notified and not entitled to benefits. You are welcome to post links of my content, with the disclosure that this material is trademarked and copyrighted by "BobKat's Lair".
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Smoking is smoking. You haven't quit. Pot is illegal because it's just one more thing to smoke, and people are smoked out.
ReplyDeleteGo back and buy cigarettes, they're legal for a reason. Smoke is smoke. Can't believe you think you quit!
Dear "Can't Believe..."
ReplyDeleteDrinking is drinking, and my V8 to your Bud!
Smoking is not smoking... every plant smoked affects a person differently. There is no dichotomy when it comes to things we humans inhale, eat or drink.
Tobacco is/addiction to it is really, really bad. Getting off it, I'd rather smoke cow dung if it helped. Seriously, it's not simply that tobacco is bad for you, and physically addictive... it also works itself into the fabric of your life...
Used to be smoking was acceptable everywhere... no questions asked.
Because there's a difference, tobacco smoke is now banned in most public places. In the case of tobacco, this is just and rational.
Just don't tell me, if I choose to imbibe in some legal K2 type herbal smoke to help me escape tobacco, that I can't, or it's the same thing. It is not.
Keep up the good work!!
ReplyDeleteThank-you Mary...
ReplyDeleteOver two weeks now and 5 days without a nicotine substitute. I mean nicotine. As you may remember I was an herbalist in the 1970's, so I know lots of alternatives - not substitutes - to tobacco. The best sub is by far smoking cannabis instead - a couple hit's off a pipe. Of course not legal. But the new K2 trend is much more than it may seem, since, see, K2 is a "myth". As far as it's synthetic cannabis or THC. It's not.
K2 is spelled "redherring" and is particularly addictive to politicians. The insanity pours over... the joke is on them.
There are many herbals - and of late several "geniuses" have developed herbal compounds that mimic THC. That is what I wish I had invented, but alas, I didn't. But they're helping me now quit tobacco... which is sure to piss off big tobacco advocates.
RE: K2 - it's incense - you inhale it not through a joint, but as incense. Fills the air with a relaxing smell of blueberries... extremely effective.
For those opposed perhaps burning poison ivy at your next neighborhood cookout might be a more acceptable choice, though I certainly hope not, and I accept no responsibility if you are stupid enough to do that.
Gee... isn't that tobacco cigarette your neighborhood store selling about as dangerous???
Off my soap... still struggling through withdrawal...