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

demonizing fatties (and others)

Having been raised with Christian values -- love your neighbor, no matter his sins -- and with sporting values about playing the ball, not the player, Opal (a happy fatty) is appalled at how governments promote the politics of hate in order to promote perfection.

"I don't like a lot of things that my fellow human beings do," says Opal, "but I am prepared to love them unconditionally at the same time as condemning what they do."

"If what they do is really evil and abominable then they should be locked up for life in order to protect the rest of us," says Opal, "but for everything else we must bear in mind that we live in a free society and must be tolerant of beliefs and behaviors that do not gel with our own."

"I don't like to see law-abiding citizens being victimized by government policies designed to make everyone hate them," says Opal. "You just have to look back in history to see how governments change policies almost on whim, according to whoever is in power and whoever is paying into their slush funds."

"Slavery is now illegal," explains Opal, "but for our ancestors it was perfectly legal and normal and when the abolitionists came along the hate they engendered was so terrible that a war was fought over the issue and many good lives were lost."

"Going back even further, we even burnt alive so-called witches," sighs Opal. "It's only a fine line that separates us from barbarism, and the guys in government know that and use it to their advantage."

"I don't believe the civil war entirely eradicated the slave-owning mentality any more than time has eradicated the witch-burning mentality, the anti-communist mentality or any other weird belief," says Opal, "yet with good government we've learned to get along together and agree to disagree without hatred and bloodshed."

"I've seen some wonderful freedom-loving events in my life so far -- civil rights, women's liberation and acceptance of gays," says Opal, "but in the last ten years, particularly, I've seen hate rear its ugly head where I've never seen it raised before and I blame the government for starting it."

"Take smoking and drinking for instance," says Opal. "I don't like these habits and to avoid people who do smoke or drink I don't hang around places where I'm likely to be offended by what they do. Same goes for prostitution, gambling and the gay scene."

"Avoiding these people doesn't mean I hate them or would spit in their face if I met one on the street," says Opal. "I'd treat them with the same civility I would any other law-abiding citizen -- because what they do IS legal."

"I'm learning, though, that being a law-abiding citizen is no guarantee for being treated with civility when the government targets you for a hate campaign," sighs Opal. "I've heard about the sort of hate campaigns that smokers and SUV owners are being subjected to, and now I'm wondering whether the anti-fat campaign is going to impact on me, too."

"I wonder how I'd feel if someone spat in my face because I'm fat," muses Opal. "I believe I'd have a hard job loving that person unconditionally while hating what he or she did, but I'd try my best to forgive them because they were only acting on advice from the government."

"The government isn't coming out and saying 'go spit in the face of every fat person, smoker, drinker and SUV owner you come across'," explains Opal, "but it might as well be saying just that when it puts out misinformation about health costs, pollution, global warming and that sort of thing."

"Before the banning of outdoor fires I remember my husband being accosted -- on our property -- by an irate environmentalist who was passing by and saw the smoke of burning rubbish," sighs Opal. "After getting over the initial shock of having our privacy invaded, we laughed about the incident, calling him a crazy, but it was a presage of what was coming next (the banning of outdoor fires)."

"Already SUV owners are complaining of having their vehicles or driveways defaced with hate messages by the crusaders," sighs Opal, "so what's next?"

"Will I be accosted in my kitchen one day by an irate anti-fat crusader who was passing by and caught a whiff of potato chips cooking in trans fat"? asks Opal. "Will a smoker be accosted on his patio one day by an irate anti-smoking crusader who was passing by and caught a whiff of cigarette or cigar smoke?"

"It's not just a case of being able to do something legally," explains Opal, "it's a case of being able to go about one's life in a law abiding manner without fear of being accosted by people fired up with hate inspired government misinformation.''

"It is abhorrent to put up with this sort of thing," says Opal, "and if anything should be banned it should be this type of hateful diatribe against other human beings."

"It would appear, though, that this is how the government operates when it wants to make a change in policy," sighs Opal. "First it puts out the misinformation -- some truths mixed in with a whole lot of untruths; then it encourages the hate crusaders to do their work -- some genuine souls mixed in with a whole lot of stooges; then it either makes small changes to the law (if it is a big issue, like alcohol) or it bans it outright, citing 'social pressure'."

"Hey presto! A perfectly legal and acceptable behavior one day is illegal the next," sighs Opal, "and law abiding citizens are turned into criminals. How's that for the effectiveness of the politics of hate?"

"The crazy thing about the politics of hate is that most people really don't care one way or another whether someone is fat, smokes, drinks, prays to Mecca or whatever," says Opal. "They accept the change in law because they believe most other people DO care and are offended by whatever the ban is about."

"When has a change in law ever been preceded by a plebiscite -- a people's vote?" asks Opal. "We assume that our representatives in government are acting in our interests, but are they actually acting in some lobby group's interest?"

"I can't see that taking away freedoms from minority groups makes my life any easier, especially when it's done so hatefully," says Opal. "I don't believe that backyard burners, SUV owners or smokers are more responsible for pollution than industries; I don't believe that trans fat is more fattening than any other fat; and I don't believe that my air conditioner is causing the glaciers to melt."

"Putting out all this misinformation and creating a climate of hate is not what I expect of my government," says Opal, "and I don't believe the other guys are going to be any better because it started with them."

"The goal of these hate campaigns is to make it as inconvenient and unpleasant as possible to do whatever legal activity we want to do so we give up and fall in with the banning of this legal activity," says Opal. "Hello? Are we living in a communist dictatorship or a democracy? Isn't our government supposed to do our bidding, not the reverse?"

"If something is truly risky then the proper reaction of our government would be to educate people about the potential dangers and allow them to make their own decisions," says Opal. "It has no right to spread hate propaganda and send its jack-booted crusaders out to invade private property and terrorize law abiding citizens."

"Our society was once one that championed freedoms," says Opal. "At the slightest sign of discrimination we would get out there and stamp it out. Now, we appear to be one that champions restrictions of all types, and this rot set in many years before 9/11."

"Is it because our new immigrants come from nations that don't have the same democratic values we do?" asks Opal. "Is it because the rich have become so rich that they think they own the country and can buy the government and dictate their own agendas? Is it because Christianity has declined?"

"One would think that if you come to a new country you do so because you like it's freedoms," says Opal, "and one would think that if you're as rich as Croesus you'd buy an island and get as far away as possible from the rat race."

"I have no idea how or why the politics of hate has become so fashionable," sighs Opal, "but I do believe that if more people were instructed in true Christian values there might be a less hate and more tolerance. Human beings in the Christian sense are imperfect, so any policy designed to make us perfect is almost blasphemous."

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?