Yes, there is a plan to put newer, bigger, yuckier and gorier pictorial warning labels on cigarette packs in an attempt to force the last few smoker holdouts to quit by grossing them out and “scaring them straight”, so to speak. These things never work, because smokers always make fun of them, and they also feel even more like they’re “living on the edge”, so it makes it seem even cooler and tougher to smoke; and the more graphic and disturbing the warning labels become, the more of a bad-ass factor they inspire. They also actually usually backfire due to the simply rebellious, contrarian nature of many smokers: after all, they’ve been harassed about this stuff for years, and they’ve toughed it out for this long; after a while, they develop a kind-of “bring it on!” attitude, and they see it as a new, higher-stakes challenge.
I know about this stuff because I used to be a smoker myself, and I smoked about a pack a day back when I did smoke, basically because I tend to have an “all or nothing” kind of attitude. I suppose it can be quite a character-flaw at times. But I’ll tell you one thing, and this is the truth: quitting was really easy for me; all I needed was a real reason to want to quit, and then I just used my willpower for a week, and I was completely over it. So I think it’s pretty easy to quit smoking. You just have to want to do it. But I didn’t try earlier for one simple reason: everyone always hammered it into my head all of my life how difficult, nay, impossible it is to quit by yourself without help, etc., and most people will never be able to quit at all!
This suggestion that it’s practically impossible to quit is the sole reason I waited as long as I did to quit smoking! And I honestly believe it’s why so many other people try and fail all the time, too. Seriously, all my life I’ve heard about how addictive nicotine is, and how it’s as addictive as heroin (bullshit!), etc. But if all my life people had been saying that it’s no big deal to quit, that you want a cigarette for the first few days, but that if you just do something else instead or just use your willpower, it’s actually really easy to quit, I would have never worried about it or made excuses, and I would have quit years earlier. And that’s the truth! It was the fear of how horrible it was supposed to be that made me avoid it for as long as possible, when I really could have done it anytime. And this culture of spreading “facts” about how difficult it supposedly is to quit smoking is probably trapping many, many people into continuing the habit for years unnecessarily, leading to all kinds of health problems in the process.
In fact, while cigarette commercials have been banned from television for years and years and years, they have recently allowed tobacco companies to begin running ads for products that “help people quit smoking”. And guess what they say in those ads. No, really: try to guess. Oh, yes: that’s right! They say: “It’s impossible to quit smoking without help, and most people fail anyway... (And oh, look here: we’ve got something really expensive to sell you to “help you quit”!)” So these ads are basically an excuse for the big tobacco companies to mention their cigarettes on television again, and then to reinforce in everybody how torturous and horribly difficult it is to quit smoking! So then they’ll sell tons more cigarettes! Or, if they didn’t successfully scare you into not quitting smoking, then they have an extremely expensive product that will attempt to help you in quitting (but probably will only lead to failure). And it’s all perfectly legal! (But it’s awfully immoral.)
I tried to quit with that “Nicogum” stuff initially, but it didn’t work. Chewing a piece only reminded me that I really wanted a cigarette, so then I’d just spit it out and go have a cigarette. But when I just decided to quit smoking because I wanted to quit, I just didn’t smoke. Sure, it makes you grumpy and a bit nervous for a couple of days, but it passes, and then you’re free! And then you have lots more money to spend on booze and stuff! Um, I mean, then you save a lot of money that you can put toward your retirement, assuming you even still have a job in this economy. But honestly, I think it’s the process or activity of smoking that’s so “addictive”; you just get into the habit of doing it, and it’s hard to get out of it. And that, I think, is much more of the reason people have a hard time quitting; way more of a reason than the nicotine. (In my opinion.)
Now, if you’re a tobacco company executive, and you’re reading this and are mad because it’s prejudicial against cigarettes and smoking, just relax. I’m not anti-smoking, and I’m not against the sale of cigarettes, either. (But I do agree with the warning stuff, as people should know the risks!) I’m just against spreading this misinformation about how impossible it is to quit, and then charging $100 for 50 pieces of gum that doesn’t help the people you’ve brainwashed their whole lives about it. Sure, it’s not easy for some people, but some people get addicted to placebos, too. It’s mainly psychological, I think, in any case. When they say that cigarettes are more addictive than heroin: I mean, really! Come on! Heroin withdrawal makes people sick for days or weeks, and can require hospitalization. Cigarette withdrawal makes you be in a bad mood. It’s hardly the same thing!
Here's a story with pictures of the new warning labels:
