NOW THAT'S NOT FUNNY

Drugs, Sex, and Cigarettes - Part II

I have been reminded that I am a drug addict.

Yep, I'm addicted the nicotine contained in the cigarettes that I pay for with legally earned money.

The money I use to pay for my drug addiction is well taxed - first when it's earned, and again when I spend it... but I guess that's another rant... my point is, one of the two or three readers of my Blog took the time to remind me that my stance on DRUGS in the previous entry seemed odd, since I too am a drug addict.

Illegal drugs like heroin, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote are not the same as the nicotine contained in the cigarettes that I smoke. Yes they're all drugs, but not all legal and taxed drugs. Big difference.

Not that the nicotine is actually better than any of the aforementioned drugs, but if a country decides to legalize marijuana, cocaine, LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, and peyote does that make these drugs the same or equal to cigarettes which contain nicotine? YOU'RE KIDDING ME RIGHT?

I don't get the munchies from nicotine.

I'm also addicted by choice to caffine.

I may or may not get cancer from smoking cigarettes, but I believe it is possibly a genetic gamble anyway. Look at Christopher Reeve's wife... she didn't smoke. She wasn't around people who smoked, yet still she died of lung cancer. Sad, but I don't believe my cigarette smoking contributed to her death in any way, shape, or form, nor anyone else's cigarette smoking.

So, are cigarettes the only thing that causes lung cancer? I think not...

I have health insurance, but if I can't pay for my health insurance, and co-pays for medical treatments I accept the consequences... unlike most drug addicts.

Drug addiction is usually and eventually supported by criminal activity. That's a fact.

How many people die in this country each year just because they don't have medical insurance? And that has nothing to do with smoking or being addicted to nicotine or caffine?

I just read an article in the New York Times (I think) about the Federal Government wanting Washington State to repay $75 MILLION dollars of Medicaid money improperly used to provide undocumented aliens with health care. Go figure, right?

Many years ago, I was broke, really broke, homeless, and needed surgery... The lovely people at the Medicaid office told me I didn't qualify. Of course, there was no detailed explaination of why I didn't qualify from these lovely, concerned citizens of the world... but My Goodness... I didn't know all I needed to be was an undocumented alien. I eventually got the surgery but not until I almost bleed to death in the emergency room of a charity hospital while appealing the local Medicaid office decision.

Yes, I'm a smoker. Yes, by smoking I've subjected myself to an addiction to nicotine. But nobody can tell me, so that I would believe it, that my nicotine addiction is the same as using illegal durgs like marijuana, cocaine, LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, and peyote.

I wish this world's citizens, including me, never had an opportunity, need, or desire to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

The tobacco companies have admitted to manipulating the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, therefore making the addiction worse.

Nicotine has never rendered me physically or mentally incapable of using good judgment when selecting a sex partner like so many of the drugs Mexico is legalizing have, will, and do.

Don't get me wrong... in so many ways, and for so many reasons ($$$$$$$) I would love to quit smoking. I've tried, and I've decided stopping smoking is not worth the pain and misery it causes.

But don't tell me my addiction to nicotine is the same as using, buying, selling, or being addicted to the list of illict drugs Mexico is planning on legalizing.

OH PLEASE!!!!