Quit smoking leads to alcoholism?

Because so many ex-smokers she knows become heavy drinkers or alcoholics after quitting, Benet fears that if tobacco is banned then she will become dependent on alcohol, too, and that worries her because her body cannot tolerate alcohol.

"I can't help it if I can't tolerate alcohol," says Benet. "If I could, I'd be a lot better off in many, many ways than I am now. For starters, I had to give up the love of my life because he drank and kept on at me to take it up again, not believing how alcohol seriously affected my health.”

“I've spent most of my life being an ex-drinking smoker in a drinker's world, and while the sight and smell of alcohol certainly does trigger old desires I'm sane enough to handle it – as long as I can smoke,” explains Benet. “I remember how ill alcohol made me, and that does it for me."

"It seems that ex-smokers who gave up smoking for health reasons -- and then took up drinking -- are not only getting a better deal than I am but are also calling the shots, as alcoholics,” says Benet, “and this is so unfair because smoking calms my nerves – it’s my legal drug of choice.”

"Smoking never affected my health like alcohol did, so I never had reason to quit and still don't, but my nerves are getting so bad with all the non-smoking nonsense that if I did try to quit I'd need some pretty heavy tranquillizers to get there and stay there," sighs Benet. “It's definitely not something I care to try while I am still employed."

"Unlike smokers, drinkers just can't seem to enjoy their habit alone," sighs Benet. "They always want to force their habit upon you and get offended if you politely refuse. I get along fine with drinkers who also smoke, but if I have to socialize with non-smoking drinkers -- especially ex-smokers -- it doesn't take long for them to start abusing my smoking habit. Funny about that, isn't it?"

"Ex-drinking smokers don't abuse drinkers or preach to them," says Benet, "and I can't understand why ex-smokers can't bear being around us, whether we drink or not.”

"Maybe the abusive ex-smoking drinkers gave up cigarettes for the wrong reasons," muses Benet, "and that's why they go crazy when they see and smell cigarette smoke?"

"If I can't drink for health reasons, and I'm soon going to be prevented from smoking anywhere -- even in my own home -- then where does that leave me when I take early retirement (to avoid smoking hassles at work) and have umpteen years ahead of me to fill?"

"Do I go with the flow and become an alcoholic, or do I experiment with other drugs -- legal or otherwise?" asks Benet. "And don't give me any crap about not needing a drug.”

“I can't undo all those years and pretend I'm an innocent young girl again,” says Benet, “and besides which I don't know anybody who doesn't take something, legal or illegal, to make life less painful or more pleasant."

“Do you?”

Read more by Benet on this issue:

tobacco vs. alcohol
Toxic workplace drinking culture

We’re all gonna die!

When Sapphire, 19, proclaims that all of the current draconian health measures are ridiculous because “we’re all gonna die”, you get to appreciate that young people like her may be right in believing that far too many resources are being wasted on a lost cause at the detriment of our enjoyment of the days we do have.

"There's a real link between our aging population and the new draconian health measures," says Sapphire. "I don't think the government wants all of us to live forever, but the geriatrics in power behind the faces we see on television most definitely want to achieve that goal for themselves."

"Look at the sudden surge of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and surgeries designed specifically to extend the life or the youth of old people," confides Sapphire. "Viagra and all of that stuff coincided with anti-smoking propaganda. They are terrified of anything -- cigarettes, alcohol or even loud music -- that might jeopardize their ability to keep it up forever!"

"They hate us because we smoke, do drugs and live lives that they can only dream about now," says Sapphire. "They want to hang on to power forever. They hog jobs that should be going to young people. Because we have the youth that they don't have, they want to deny us what we enjoy."

"And the health nuts are just sooooo boring that I don't even want to talk about them," laughs Sapphire. "They are likely to be ex-smokers, ex-druggies and born-again Christians on a mission to make everyone as boring as they are."

"These are the people who are driving the government to put out all the anti-drug propaganda," says Sapphire. "Why? Do they want all of our jobs and all the fun of bars and clubs that we once had?"

"There are going to be an awful lot of unemployed people if all the jobs go to non-smokers and clean living people," laughs Sapphire, "and an awful lot more crime, too, if they keep raising the tax on tobacco."

"I can already get cigarettes on the street a lot cheaper than I can buy them legally, and when smokers stop paying tobacco tax who do you think is going to fund healthcare?"

“We’re all gonna die or one thing or another, guys, so why don’t we all just chill out and enjoy ourselves while we can.”

Read more by Sapphire:

health nuts, geriatrics and smokers

unruly teen alienated by stepfamily

street government

everything in moderation

In researching the secrets of longevity, Emerald, 62, was amazed to learn that the world's oldest people – Jeanne Louise Calment (pictured) and Marie-Louise Meilleur – were smokers; and now she questions what we’re being told about the terrible health dangers of other pleasures such as food and alcohol.

"I think the advice that our parents and grandparents received from doctors was a whole lot better for them than the advice we're getting today," sighs Emerald. "Everything in moderation was once the catch-cry, but now it's don't do this, don't do that, and everyone is going around bad-tempered and miserable or drugged up on a whole lot of pharmaceuticals they don't really need."

"I know that genes play an important part in longevity," says Emerald, "but I truly wonder how old Jeanne Louse and Marie-Louise might have lived had they been subjected to the incredible stress of anti-smoking propaganda when they were in their 40s and 50s like I was."

"I think being happy, having a positive outlook on life and taking a genuine pleasure in whatever you do -- whether or not others approve of it -- is very important to longevity," says Emerald. "Oh sure, there are plenty of miserable old baskets rotting in old folks' homes, but it's not just living to a ripe old age that I want.”

“I want to live a long, healthy and happy life," explains Emerald, “with the emphasis on being happy.”

"If doing something that's supposedly 'good' for you makes you feel miserable," says Emerald, "then it's not working for you, right?"

Read more stories by Emerald related to longevity:

how to live to 122

a smoker lives to 122!

doggy friends

overeating and early graves?

drunk as a skunk

Rhoda swore off alcohol many years ago after someone described her as being as drunk as a skunk and whenever she sees women drinking too much – especially women of high profile such as Sarah Ferguson, aka Fergie the Duchess of York – she cringes and wonders why they continue to drink when it is not just harming their health but ruining their reputations, too.

“I think the scariest health implication of too much alcohol over a long period of time is Alzheimer’s disease,” says Rhoda. “The prospect of liver and kidney disease down the line doesn’t scare anybody, but when you know every time you take a drink that it affects your brain and makes you do and say stupid things, then it’s a no brainer that alcohol is killing off your brain cells.”

“In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Fergie denied being drunk at the meeting with the bogus businessman she was introducing to her ex husband, Prince Andrew, for a whole heap of money,” says Rhoda, “but anyone with brain cells can see from the secret tapes of that meeting that she was as high as a kite, if not as drunk as a skunk.”

“She could hardly string a sentence together and was all over the place,” says Rhoda, “and if this is how she behaves when she is not drunk – and being out cold is how she describes herself when she is drunk – then she has another huge problem to face on top of managing her weight and finances.”

“If she was conducting a legitimate business deal – as she makes out she was,” says Rhoda, “then she should have conducted it in an office, without alcohol, during business hours, with a third party present, like every other canny businesswoman does.”

“For goodness sakes,” sighs Rhoda, “Fergie didn’t even know the man she was doing business with, and she had dinner and drinks with him and then went back to his apartment.”

“If that isn’t stupid behavior – without all the other stuff that she is alleged to have done – then what is?” asks Rhoda. “And she cannot blame alcohol for a momentary lapse in judgment because just about everything this woman does is improper, and if she is a daily drinker then she is in total denial about the effect that alcohol is having on her mental faculties.”

“If she cannot give up alcohol as easily as I did,” says Rhoda, “then she needs to join AA and maybe make a legitimate career for herself as a successful spokesperson for that organization in the same way she did for Weightwatchers.”

See also:
Fergie’s Imaginary Friend

Will Fergie and Andy Remarry?

Marriage or Emigration for Fergie?

Mother of the Year?

Fergie’s chutzpah survival

what's next for Fergie?

How free is Fergie?

Oprah tops Fergie’s retirement pot

Fergie Flouts Family

Fergie and the global gravy train

Greedy Fergie!

Fergie smokes, so what?

Homeless Fergie?

Fergie’s £15,000 pa was a lousy settlement

Fergie’s menopausal mania

star struck Fergie

cashing in on the family Fergie style!

Fergie’s broken homes

Is Fergie reliving her childhood?

a foghorn for silent whispers

Sarah Ferguson’s Libran Balance

Age Secrets of Prince Andrew

Age Secrets of Sarah Ferguson

Andrew and Sarah, Duke and Duchess of York

classifying drugs and criminalizing users

Looking at Noni you'd never suspect that she's a grandmother of six and a former speed addict. She believes that governments have done such a terrible job classifying drugs and criminalizing users that it might as well lift all bans and let people free to do as they like because they do it anyway.

"Like everyone starting out in life, I got into drugs when I left school, started work and fell in with a new crowd," says Noni. "Experimenting with drugs is a social thing to do and the illegal drugs were ALWAYS more tantalizing even though they cost more."

"When a drug is illegal there's an excitement about taking it that you don't get from a legal drug," explains Noni, "and it's this excitement, this risk-taking, that needs to go because it made me a speed addict."

"Speed or ice as they call it these days was my drug of choice simply because it wasn't main-stream," adds Noni. "I wanted to be different, and although a speed addiction is no worse than an addiction to alcohol or cigarettes it seemed worse because it was something I did in secret."

"I gave up on smoking and drinking very quickly when I discovered speed," says Noni. "Everyone thought I was a nice, wholesome girl for not smoking and drinking but they didn't know about my double life and where I got my incredible energy from."

"It's the same today with all the people who've been forced by social pressure to quit smoking," confides Noni. "You don't quit one drug without substituting it for something else, and that something may be far more dangerous in the long run if not in health costs then in leading a double life with the prospect of a criminal conviction down the line."

Read more by Noni on this subject:

legal v illegal drugs

stop crime, decriminalize drugs

tobacco vs. alcohol

Benet is approaching retirement age and, facing bans on smoking all over the place, she regrets how smoking is affecting her social life but makes the point that the tobacco war is not about health but the profits of the alcohol industry and that lawyers are behind it.

"What really angers me is that my smoking friends and I can no longer enjoy meals at our favorite restaurants -- they've all gone smoke free!" sobs Benet. "Sure, we can go there and sit among all the drinkers having a good time while eating their meals, but we can no longer light up before, during and after courses like we once could -- we have to go outside, and baby it's cold outside!"

"The restaurant owners refuse to open up a smoking area -- saying that they're operating an eating establishment not a smoking establishment," says Benet, "but what if alcohol were banned in eating establishments -- would they fob off the drinkers with a similar response?"

"I don't think so, they'd sooner make moonshine out the back than lose the patronage of drinkers," laughs Benet, "and this is the point I am trying to make. Restaurant owners make more money out of the liquor they sell than the food they serve and because of this they are perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to the occasional drunken behavior and vomit all over the place."

"They quite happily support the ban on smoking because smokers are not as lucrative as drinkers," explains Benet. "Why would they go to the expense of providing us with a properly ventilated smoking area when we just pay for food and buy our cigarettes elsewhere?"

"Sure, they can spout the health hazards of passive smoking on staff and patrons," says Benet, "but never once in my many years of smoking has any restaurant owner, waiter or fellow restaurant patron complained.”

“Most drinking patrons were too drunk to notice, and most waiters were too eager for a big fat tip -- which they always got -- to care."

"Bearing in mind that the sale and use of alcohol was prohibited for quite a number of years prior to WWII, it's amazing that it's such a mainstream drug today, having pushed out cigarettes, cannabis, cocaine and everything else that people once freely enjoyed."

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that tobacco is going to be prohibited," says Benet, "and having had personal experience of their enormous capacity to drink as well as their utter distain for the guys who smoked, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the non-smoking lawyers I once worked with, now in their late 50s to early 70s, are behind these changes."

"Perhaps a check of the liquor industry register would turn up some interesting names," laughs Benet, "and in the meantime my smoking friends and I are showing our contempt for liquor loving restaurants by boycotting them."

Read more by Benet on this issue:

Toxic workplace drinking culture
Quit smoking leads to alcoholism?

if smoking kills, why is it legal?

Tyla is 23, works in hospitality and she's thoroughly confused about all the anti-smoking hype. She enjoys a smoke socially -- so she's not yet a daily addict -- and it's at this stage in her life that she feels the government should stop flip-flopping on the issue and either ban the sale of cigarettes or get off smokers' backs.

"In my work I get to see plenty of off-duty health officials and they're off their face with one drug or another," laughs Tyla, "and while it's true that very few of them would be sneaking out back for a smoke the fact is that they don't practise what they preach."

"If smoking kills then the government would ban the sale of cigarettes outright, wouldn't it?" asks Tyla. "Either the government is deliberately killing us by not banning tobacco or it is deliberately lying to us in order to keep the money coming in. Which is it?"

"Maybe I'm naive, but when my government bans a substance I believe it's harmful and when it doesn't, I believe it's okay."

"Because the government is flip-flopping on the issue of smoking -- on one hand telling us how harmful it is and how we can't smoke in certain places any more and on the other hand it allows tobacco products to be sold in supermarkets and at the local store -- I don't know what to believe any more."

"If alcohol isn't allowed to be sold in supermarkets and local stores like cigarettes are," says Tyla, "then that means that cigarettes must be safer than alcohol, right? So why aren't there any warnings on liquor bottles and cans?"

"Can you see how confusing all this is to young people?"

"Like most of my friends I am left wondering about what the hell the government is really doing."

"Either it is deliberately lying about the harmful effects of smoking or it isn't -- which is it? -- and what part does money play in its flip-flopping behavior?"

"It seems to me that the government stands to gain both ways from its present position -- being supported by both the tobacco industry and the anti-smoking lobby --and a total ban on the sale of tobacco products would be detrimental to all three parties."

"If tobacco products are harmless and the government is just going along with the anti-smoking lobby in order to appease it and gain votes and money -- then that's understandable," says Tyla, "but if tobacco products are really as harmful as the anti-smoking lobby says they are, then by not banning the products the government is deliberately killing us -- and that's criminal behavior."

"I guess the government could squirm out of the inconsistency by saying that it cannot ban smoking because it doesn't want to infringe on our rights to choose our own poison," muses Tyla, "but that's a load of bull because we only have two legal choices -- alcohol and cigarettes -- everything else is banned!"

"It's only by making harmful substances illegal -- like heroin and cocaine -- that people understand the risk they're taking when they use it," sighs Tyla. "Just putting a warning label on a pack of cigarettes is not going to have the same effect because warning labels are everywhere these days -- even on plastic bags."

"Sure, cigarettes might kill you if you eat the damn things just like a plastic bag might kill you if you tied it around your head -- and idiots need to be warned about these dangers," laughs Tyla, "but if used for the purpose they are sold freely and legally on the market no product should be harmful."

"So, is our government sanctioning the sale of a harmful product or isn't it?"

"While I'm still young and not yet addicted to cigarettes I want to know if my government refuses to ban cigarettes -- and is deliberately killing me -- because it's in the pocket of the tobacco industry and wants to squeeze more taxes out of me for as long as it can," says Tyla, "or if it refuses to ban cigarettes because it does not consider tobacco products to be as harmful as other drugs and all the warning labels are just an appeasement for the anti-smoking lobby."

"Right now, I tend to believe the appeasement argument because if I died prematurely from lung cancer both the government and the tobacco industry would suffer financially -- they're not going to deliberately kill off a potential golden goose," admits Tyla, "but all the same I don't want to die prematurely from lung cancer and I certainly don't want to be a golden goose for the government, the tobacco industry or -- if it comes to that -- the anti-smoking lobby."

"I'm mindful that the anti-smoking lobby is making a lucrative living off smokers, too," says Tyla."If smoking was truly as harmful as they make it out to be then they would demand -- with everyone's approval, especially mine -- to have the sale of tobacco products banned outright."

"I don't see the anti-smoking lobby calling for an outright ban on tobacco and I can understand why -- if tobacco products were banned, their income and purpose in life would come to an abrupt end, right?"

"To be totally cynical, if smoking were truly as harmful as they make it out to be and the anti-smoking lobby does not call for a ban on the sale of tobacco products then they are deliberately killing me, too."

"To put a stop to all of this confusion I challenge the anti-smoking lobby to put its money where its mouth is -- cut the mealy mouth warnings, call for a total ban on the sale of tobacco products, and mean it -- or butt out of my life."

legal v illegal drugs

Noni wants to know what is so special about alcohol that makes it a more socially acceptable drug than tobacco products when it causes far more harm.

"Why do people go out of their way to lecture us when we light up in an outdoor area designated for smoking?" asks Noni. “The same people wouldn't bat an eyelid if they saw us drinking alcohol in the most inappropriate places, such as a children’s play area – which is something I’ve seen plenty of young women do – so why?"

"I like alcohol as much as most people do – it's a convivial drug, loosening tongues and everything else!" laughs Noni. "But I'd never make it my drug of choice to take on a daily basis because I need my wits about me when driving, going up and down steps and dealing with people who might take advantage of me."

"Smoking focuses my wits – and so do certain other drugs," explains Noni, "and that's why I'm very concerned about the current anti-smoking climate because if the government banned tobacco products people like me would need to become criminals in order to enjoy our drug of choice."

"I know enough about drug behavior to be able to spot someone who's not exactly as high on life as they make themselves out to be," confides Noni. "I'm not fooled by the exceptional energy and passion of some people in high positions, and I wish I could be on what they're on but I lack the money and influence that allows their duplicity to be maintained with impunity."

"It makes you wonder whether some drugs are illegal and hard to get because the big boys running the world don't want us to know the secrets of their success."

"I know that the more zealous of the anti-smoking crusaders want to add tobacco products to the list of illegal drugs," sighs Noni, "but that's only going to make tobacco attractive to people who may never have been attracted to it in the first place. A choice between two drugs – alcohol and tobacco – is bad enough; a choice of just one – alcohol – would be ridiculous."

"I'd give up smoking cigarettes immediately if cannabis were decriminalized," says Noni. "Cigarette smoke stinks and I can understand why the anti-smokers hate it, but what else can I take that's legal and smells good and doesn't make me witless like alcohol does?"

"At my age I need a drug that's mellow," explains Noni. "I don't want something to heighten my sexual experience, take me on psychedelic trips or keep me jumping all night. Ecstasy, LSD, GHB, ice, heroin and cocaine are totally unattractive to me."

Read more by Noni on this subject:

classifying drugs and criminalizing users

stop crime, decriminalize drugs