Philip Morris needs to kill smoking to survive

[Mee]

This is an interesting article about how tobacco companies are realizing people are quitting smoking and they need to hook people another way.

 

 

Philip Morris needs to kill smoking to survive ://a.msn.com/00/en-us/BBW2w7D?ocid=se

[Martian5]

And the big tobacco companies continue to march on and reap profits thru inflicting damage/injury to others.  I am so sad I ever fell into their trap.  I can only go forward and let others know the dangers, I do this by speaking to my grandchildren and they do listen -- they only have to look to me to see the damages!!!!

[Reciprocity]

They are fighting for their corporate survival in any and all ways they can, no matter who they hurt or kill along their way .... like they always have.

The Who did a song called; Won't Get Fooled Again! There was a lyric near the end of that song "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" - applies very much to big tobacco unfortunately   

[Doreensfree]

The one thing that gets to me now....is how I fell into the trap...the lies...for all those years ...

I'm angry at the tobacco companies ....and I'm  more angry at myself....

I hate them....

[Mee]

When we were young, they made smoking look so appealing.  All the movie stars smoked and romanticized it.  

I am ashamed of my foolishness.  I am hoping we can teach the younger generations.  

[Reciprocity]

4 hours ago, Linda Thomas said:

When we were young, they made smoking look so appealing.  All the movie stars smoked and romanticized it.  

I am ashamed of my foolishness.  I am hoping we can teach the younger generations.  

 

Funny you should mention that, about the movie stars. Just yesterday I was reading a list of famous people (a lot of them movie/TV stars) who died of smoking related diseases; mostly lung cancer. The list went on and on and on. I couldn't even get to the end of it. It's amazing. When you watch those old TV shows and they are all happily smoking away ...... little did they know then that they were facilitating their own early demise. I remember a lot of them were between 60-70 when they died but some even a lot younger. It's shocking to look at those statistics.

 

I too am angry with tobacco companies but most;y at myself for ignoring the facts once they were made available to us. Regret does nothing positive though so all we can do is protect our own quits and do what we can to encourage others to take the step to freedom.

Edited April 18, 2019 by reciprocity

[Boo]

1 hour ago, Linda Thomas said:

When we were young, they made smoking look so appealing.  All the movie stars smoked and romanticized it.  

I am ashamed of my foolishness.  I am hoping we can teach the younger generations.  

 

We were duped by the tobacco companies when we were still young, impressionable, and in my case stupid.

 

Unfortunate, but not something to beat ourselves up over.

 

As for Hollywood and the mainstream media, their level of influence on young people is on a sharp downward spiral.  Hopefully this trend continues and the relationship between big tobacco and big media continues to show diminishing returns.

[Wantsit]

Was it not just part of the times though? I mean where I grew up it was smoking cigarettes, drinking, and just generally being Johnny bad ass. And in my case I started driving trucks in the oil field's and smoked to stay awake all night. I mean... were we really duped? My  mom and dad smoked and I don't know why, but I was the only one out of 4 that picked up the nasty habit. I wish I never would have but it is what it is. I only have myself to blame, I do wish I could lay it on someone else but I have to suck it up. All we can do is move forward and try to make the best of our situation now. 

[Mee]

1 hour ago, Wantsit said:

All we can do is move forward and try to make the best of our situation now. 

Wansit, we are making it better.  We are quitting.  How awesome is that.  I never thought I had that power within me.  Hopefully we show others the way to freedom!

[jillar]

I agree 100% with @Wantsit, I'm not going to hate the tobacco companies for something I chose to do. We have to take responsibility for our own actions.....

[Sirius]

Tobacco Co Creed:  "A man has the right to dig his own grave and I have the right to sell shovels."

 

 

[Boo]

2 hours ago, Wantsit said:

 I mean... were we really duped?

 

2 hours ago, Wantsit said:

Was it not just part of the times though? I mean where I grew up it was smoking cigarettes, drinking, and just generally being Johnny bad ass.

 

Were you duped?  I can't answer that.

 

I would ask why growing up you associated smoking cigarettes with being "Johnny bad ass."  Smoking a cigarette doesn't require any real level of strength or courage, yet smoking was viewed by many of us in our formative years as something "real men" did.  That was not a coincidence.  It was the result of a decades long manipulative campaign by the tobacco companies.

 

I'm all for taking personal responsibility.  I am also all for observing the past tactics used by the merchants of death to manipulate people and call them on their bullshit.  These two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

[Rozuki]

Bad news: A friend has been diagnosed (just this past Monday) with small cell lung cancer with brain metastases...very bad news, indeed. Smoked 2 packs a day for over 40+ years (she had quit about 4 years ago.)

 

Good news: My nephew has started on Chantix this month as he wants to quit smoking...says I am a good example for him!    

[jillar]

I'm sorry about your friend @Rozuki  And very happy that your nephew is quitting. It must feel good to be the example for him that quitting is possible

[Lilly]

2 hours ago, jillar said:

I agree 100% with @Wantsit, I'm not going to hate the tobacco companies for something I chose to do. We have to take responsibility for our own actions.....

 

I'm with Jillar on this. 

 

When I was young I never saw any smoking ads and nobody smoked on any TV I watched. People at school smoked as did my mum. 

 

I smoked through choice and I have to take responsibility for my own actions. I continued to do it even though I knew the risks. 

 

Electronic cigarettes are a big market and tobacco companies are a business. From that perspective it makes sense that they go where the money is. 

 

 

[Lilly]

As everyone knows I don't have anything against e-cigarettes.  Hadn't heard of the one in Linda's article so looked it up. This is a really long article so it might put you off reading it but in a nutshell it looks like there are whispers that their reports on how great this product is are a bit *cough* inaccurate. 

 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tobacco-iqos-science/

[Mee]

@Rozuki I am so sorry about your friend. Hearing stories like this always make me wonder if I will get my life back or still suffer from the effects of smoking so long.  I do hope your nephew can follow your lead.

[Doreensfree]

I'm sorry too @Rozuki to hear the sad news about your friend ...

I often wonder if I have dodged the bullet ...but I intend to enjoy what life I have left ....smoke free.....

Your nephew has a great role model ..

[notsmokinjo]

On 4/19/2019 at 5:39 AM, reciprocity said:

Regret does nothing positive though so all we can do is protect our own quits and do what we can to encourage others to take the step to freedom.

^... Don't waste your energy on regret...what's done is done, why can't go back on time and change what we did but we can control what we do .... We have quit, we do not smoke, we have made the right choice....celebrate this decision don't waste time and energy regretting your past decisions it is negative energy and a waste of all your free time you have taken back

 Have pride in you choice to quit and tenacity to stay quit, don't waste a moment feeling shame or regret it will achieve nothing.

 

10 hours ago, Linda Thomas said:

@Rozuki I am so sorry about your friend. Hearing stories like this always make me wonder if I will get my life back or still suffer from the effects of smoking so long.  I do hope your nephew can follow your lead.

Sadly for some of us we may have left it too late, but for many of us we have avoided that one ciggie that was the cincher....but for me when I got sick early in my quit and I faced treatment and I thought about smoking, (I mean what was the point in staying quit I was already sick), but you know what...I want to leave this life free of an addiction that controls me....I want to go out the master of myself.

 

@Rozuki I'm sorry for you and your friend. 

 

So I despise big tobacco, but not because I was stupid enough to buy their lies...that's all on me...I'm angry with them because they think it's acceptable to profit from making people sick, they know the product they sell addicts the users, they know the product hurts and kills them and yet they see no issue continuing to profit from others misery, even innocent bystanders...that's what pissed me off. They know and they don't care...they want people addicted...just don't know how they look at themselves in the mirror and say "I'm good people".

 

[Mee]

@notsmokinjo I can't quote on my cell phone but what you said about getting sick and not giving in to going back to smoking says a lot.  I always was so ashamed that I smoked through breast cancer.  I would run in for my 15 min. radiation and then leave and light up.  Looking back it was kind of defeating the purpose.  That was not enough to scare me off cigarettes.  

I am not looking back.  I am only going forward with the hopes of gaining as much life as I can.

[notsmokinjo]

@Linda Thomas but at the time, when you were fighting a battle for your life you weren't in the position emotionally to stage a war on two fronts....at the time the battle of the pink ribbon was the one that counted....but you are a different person now than then....now the time is right for this battle.

[Doreensfree]

So I despise big tobacco, but not because I was stupid enough to buy their lies...that's all on me...I'm angry with them because they think it's acceptable to profit from making people sick, they know the product they sell addicts the users, they know the product hurts and kills them and yet they see no issue continuing to profit from others misery, even innocent bystanders...that's what pissed me off. They know and they don't care...they want people addicted...just don't know how they look at themselves in the mirror and say "I'm good people".

 

I share this 100/%....

How can you justify ,knowing millions have died because of your product....and you are targeting children .....beggars belief .....

Dirty money ...

[Wayne045]

20 hours ago, Linda Thomas said:

@notsmokinjo I can't quote on my cell phone but what you said about getting sick and not giving in to going back to smoking says a lot.  I always was so ashamed that I smoked through breast cancer.  I would run in for my 15 min. radiation and then leave and light up.  Looking back it was kind of defeating the purpose.  That was not enough to scare me off cigarettes.  

I am not looking back.  I am only going forward with the hopes of gaining as much life as I can.

 

Here's my level of stupidity.  I actually started smoking regularly (not daily, that came 4 yrs later) while on chemotherapy when 18 yrs old.   My thinking at the time was I had contracted this disease, came within inches of dying, might still die (doctor didn't make any guarantees) and had never smoked at all beyond 2 or 3 experimental cigarettes previously, so what did I have to lose?

 

I still can't answer that question and I can't honestly say I would've done anything different in that time and place in my then state of mind.

 

That was 3 and half decades ago.  Obviously I'm still around, and am closing in on 3 yrs quit.   I finally realized that it was possible I might get cancer again and wouldn't be so lucky as I was the first time.

 

Knowing what I know now, if I had a time machine (which I am working on) I would definitely go back to that time and place to tell myself I would survive and don't start smoking....   and also invest whatever money you have in Microsoft and Apple.....

[jillar]

18 minutes ago, Wayne045 said:

Knowing what I know now, if I had a time machine (which I am working on) I would definitely go back to that time and place to tell myself I would survive and don't start smoking....   and also invest whatever money you have in Microsoft and Apple.....

Since we share a quit date will you share your time machine? I'd love to get in on all that too!

[Mee]

1 hour ago, Wayne045 said:

Here's my level of stupidity.  I actually started smoking regularly (not daily, that came 4 yrs later) while on chemotherapy when 18 yrs old.   My thinking at the time was I had contracted this disease, came within inches of dying, might still die (doctor didn't make any guarantees) and had never smoked at all beyond 2 or 3 experimental cigarettes previously, so what did I have to lose?

 

I still can't answer that question and I can't honestly say I would've done anything different in that time and place in my then state of mind.

 

That was 3 and half decades ago.  Obviously I'm still around, and am closing in on 3 yrs quit.   I finally realized that it was possible I might get cancer again and wouldn't be so lucky as I was the first time.

 

Knowing what I know now, if I had a time machine (which I am working on) I would definitely go back to that time and place to tell myself I would survive and don't start smoking....   and also invest whatever money you have in Microsoft and Apple.....

Wayne045, you were not stupid.   I could  not even imagine dealing with that at such a young age.  That is the age you feel infallible.  The time you are looking for independence.      Most kids are rebelling against mom and dad at that age.  You were rebelling against the curve life was throwing at you.  

I am so grateful that you have been disease free for 33 years and that you are here to share your quit.  

I would be rich with you if I had invested my cigarette money.  I also started at age 18.