I used to smoke cigarettes.

It was a long time ago, but during those years (my father disapproved: “If God had intended you to smoke, he would have given you a chimney instead of lungs”), I was up to three packs a day. When I finally gave up tobacco, it wasn’t because of health concerns; it was sheer vanity. Someone told me that smoking would ruin my complexion.

So, I stopped. Cold turkey.

My late husband, Charlie King, also had been a smoker. On top of that, he was a firefighter in New York City when arsonists were burning down the South Bronx, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Lower East Side, Harlem, and more. During those Bad Old Days, firemen would respond to up to 15 active (not false alarm) fires a day, and they did not wear self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs, i.e., oxygen tanks), which are standard equipment today.

In other words, on a daily basis, Charlie breathed in huge quantities of smoke, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and other toxic chemicals the way that the rest of us breathe fresh air.

And he loved every minute of it.

I met Charlie when he was 46 years old, after he had been a FDNY Fire Marshal (no longer actively fighting fires) for about seven years. He was hospitalized with his first angina attack right after we got married (I hope I didn’t cause it!) when he was 48 years old, and after that heart-scare, he stopped smoking cigarettes.

Fast forward 20 years to a triple-by-pass, and, when he was around 70 years old, to a diagnosis of lung cancer. He died, after living a pretty wonderful life, when he was 71 years old.

As to me, even though I smoked up to three packs of cigarettes daily from when I was 19 until I was 27 years old, I survived and am alive and healthy – knock on wood – to this minute, as my fingers click merrily on the keys of this computer.

My point being that ever since the Powers that Be began to demonize cigarettes, young people have been smoking, swallowing, inhaling, licking, and injecting addictive substances far more dangerous, mind-altering, health-deteriorating, and brain-cell destroying than cigarettes. And many of them are legal.

Which has given me pause to think … because instead of me being alive at whatever age I am (I’ll never tell), Charlie having smoked thousands of cigarettes, fought thousands of fires and dying at age 71, WE DID NOT DIE YOUNG.

Now, with cigarettes not only demonized but also made impossibly expensive by state and federal taxes, young people have turned elsewhere to cope with the aching trauma of adolescence.

According to a U.S. CDC (Center for Disease Control) report on drug overdoses in adolescents “Approximately 90% of deaths involved opioids and 84% involved illicitly manufactured fentanyls (IMFs).” Accounting for over 180,000 adolescent overdose deaths in 2021.

When I tried to find statistics on death resulting from teenaged cigarette-smoking, I could find NONE. There were all sorts of (duh-huh?) psychological consequences in adulthood attributed to people who started smoking when they were young (none of which I have ever seen in friends who smoked or in myself), but zero statistics on “overdose” deaths from smoking a Virginia Slims or a Marlboro cigarette.

Nevertheless, the government as well as many civilian pressure groups, continue to terrorize us with threats about our health if we smoke cigarettes. And while they are doing this – observe my eyes blinking with incredulity – they also are leading a parade to legalize marijuana.

Speaking of which, here are some “Cannabis Facts and Stats” from a CDC report dated February 22, 2024 about marijuana:

• Cannabis use directly affects the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision-making, coordination, emotion, and reaction time.

• Approximately 3 in 10 people who use cannabis have cannabis use disorder.

• The risk of developing this disorder is greater if people use it before age 18.

• Long-term or frequent cannabis use has been linked to increased risk of psychosis or schizophrenia in some users.

Okay. So now, to my point.

I no longer smoke cigarettes. I am GLAD that I no longer smoke cigarettes. My adorable and adored husband smoked cigarettes (he also ran into burning buildings). He died from lung cancer.

Am I advocating for people to die of that horrible disease? No. Of course not. Am I advocating for people to smoke cigarettes? No. Of course not. But … and here is an interesting statistic from the American Cancer Society:

“Lung cancer mainly occurs in older people. Most people diagnosed with lung cancer are 65 or older; a very small number of people diagnosed are younger than 45. The average age of people when diagnosed is about 70.”

So, what I AM saying is that since most teenagers are nervous wrecks – always were. Always will be – why not let them indulge in a comparatively harmless addiction – if you can call it that? I was never addicted to cigarettes; I just liked them. And when I decided to stop, I just … stopped.

Compared to the alternatives now available to them – marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth, heroine, OxyContin, fentanyl, etc. – if they smoked a Marlboro or walked a mile for a Camel, they might, at least, live long enough to die of old age.

Copyright © Shelly Reuben, 2024. Shelly Reuben’s books have been nominated for Edgar, Prometheus, and Falcon awards. For more about her writing, visit www.shellyreuben.com.