Anti-smoking letter

To anybody who would listen,
My name is David Harlow, and I am an aspiring game designer with my forte being game balance, and also harboring a strong hatred of problems plaguing gaming communities such as the Cross Assault incident. I type out this letter to call out smoking in general. I have recently been dealing with an already ugly situation in my life, and what smoking does with it is aggravate it because the person who made the situation particularly painful also happens to smoke indoors. May I also point to how a friend who has been trying to help me with the situation in question has been taking annoyance with her neighbors smoking, also mentioning how one of them grows marijuana. We ended up talking about how God awful smoking is and came across a point: why are smokers not held at least as accountable as alcoholics?

I am going to point out first and foremost that no, I am not intending to downplay alcohol abuse in the least. In fact, I'm speaking as somebody whose amount of emotion put under self-restraint is already a sight to behold even without the lack of payoff adding to the frustration, so yes, I can tell you from personal experience how emotion likes to be responsible for the 7 Deadly Sins. That stuff of course relates to alcohol because alcohol practically removes self-restraint. This isn't even going into the drunk driving problem, which naturally speaks for itself. What I want to point out is how both of those problems associated with alcohol abuse can be intercepted. Driving already legally requires a driver's license, a responsibility in its own right, and a drunk person can be intercepted against any attempt to drive under the influence. Also, as I imply, drinking alcohol without acceptable regard to the saying "in vino veritas" is already the choice of an individual whose following actions are bound to reflect on the individual themselves. That brings up my point about the comparison: that alcohol abuse actively involves the individual as it is.

Individuality being complicit isn't a mercy provided by smoking. Second hand smoke does not discriminate in who it affects, and going near the smoker involves having to put up with this cause of lung cancer. The damage done by smokers who are apathetic at best is not avoidable, least of all when the law requires one deals with them in the first place, and unlike drunk driving, the smoking itself is the direct problem, although the driver and any willful passengers can still be faulted for their own problematic moral code anyway. It may be true that drunk driving does endanger lives, which alone means coverage against alcoholism shouldn't be lightened, but its damage is, relatively at least, more short term, easier to catch without active law enforcement, and incapable of self-feeding without exterior issues. Smoking involves nicotine, which last I checked involves addiction, and deals long term damage to anybody in proximity which can include kids, on top of how it also pollutes the environment.

I can also hear the argument that smoking is intended for stress relief, but in that case, may I recommend candy to those seeking that much. I don't mean adult candy such as the magazines placed right next to the actual candy at a FoodMaxx, do not ask me what sense that makes just because I have reason to be concerned for not having an easy time remembering deeper reasons for why my type of female is the positive, brave, and kind bundle of vitality. I actually mean regular candy such as Reese's or Kit Kat's. Putting the heart in turbo mode does have its own implications, but I don't see how those could be worse than smoking's lung cancer, and once again, any problems to others that would result from any sugar or whatnot would likely be reflecting off of the individual. There are probably better ways to vent as well, even if those aren't coming to mind. Regardless, I don't buy that smoking is a general necessity, especially when there isn't any sign that it's always been around historically.

Here is the first thing that I am left wondering over smoking: why is the minimum age restriction for buying cigarettes 18, instead of 21 at least? This restriction implies that smoking is the lesser of two evils between it and alcoholism, even though I pointed out why it's instead equally as bad or outright worse. Simply providing an increased tax for buying cigarettes when under 21 would not fix this either, because the age 18 to 20 smokers don't care about becoming broke, and all the tax would imply would be profit off of suffering little different than the same companies that make the cigarettes in the first place--sure the politicians might use the money to help repair the damage done by smokers, but they don't have the best track record for trustworthiness, least of all considering who our president is in his chauvinism. An outright stronger restriction to buying cigarettes would be more ethical.

The more important question I pose with the smoking problem is, why aren't there more active drug help groups for smoking? I have not seen active indication that alcohol is as addictive, and yet there is a widespread group called Alcoholics Anonymous to help people get out of drinking alcohol. There should be an equivalent for smoking, as that problem has worse self-feeding with equally worse long-term effects. Even if the direct smokers did make a choice from the start, the addiction caused by the nicotine hasn't been helping matters. Why abandon people who would want to get out of smoking in the first place? A good empathetic group that would help people get out of smoking would surely cut down on the smoker count.

All in all, smoking is a problem that should be snuffed out, not treated as the joke that it isn't.

From the (self-proclaimed at least) knight of game balance,
David Harlow

(Note: to the friend I mentioned early in the letter, assuming you see this at least before I show you, it's the YouTube uploading I have gone on hiatus from because of the aforementioned awful situation, because I want to have my next video tear at the situation's general problems. pastebin isn't a problem and I'd rather get this letter up to address something.)