No smoking gun

Today on MLIVE.COM I read an article about no smoking in public. As a non-smoker myself,one would think that I'd be in favor of this law passing,but I'm not! I can understand the public not wanting to smell another persons smoke while their eating dinner with the family or some idiot smoking at a gas pump...but when the law starts interfering on our right to smoke,even outdoors,when it effects no one but the person smoking....I have a problem with that.
Sometimes the people who fight for a cause,never know when to stop...especially when they've tasted the blood of victory.



New law: 'No smoking in public'
By Deborah J Cook
April 12, 2010, 2:00PM
When the Ron M. Davis smoke-free air law goes into effect May 1, smoking in public becomes a costly choice.

Light up anywhere but a cigar bar, tobacco shop, home office, commercial truck or motor vehicle, or an exempted casino, and face a $100 fine the first time and $500 every time after that.

Tobacco Free Partners advocated for the bill, which makes Michigan the 38th state to ban smoking in public. TFP, which offers services in Zeeland, Holland and Grand Rapids, notes that California, a state that has long been smoke-free, has the lowest lung-cancer rate in the U.S. They offer free smoking-cessation programs and free nicotine replacement to help smokers kick the habit.

Hector Amaya, a recent graduate of the six-week Tobacco Free for Good, described the program as “a little kick they give you to start quitting. I got it in my mind that there’re not going to be (any) more cigarettes.”

The most effective way to quit smoking, according to the American Heart Association, is a three-pronged approach of medication, counseling and social support. Pharmacotherapy, such as nicotine gum, patches, and inhalers, increase the likelihood of quitting. Add phone counseling, and your chances improve 20 percent. Group therapy improves the odds 30 percent, and face-to-face intervention 70 percent.

Jan Levering, a registered nurse who’s been smoke-free for 18 years, says kicking the habit required determination and willingness to make lifelong changes. For her, that meant no more coffee or hanging out in bars, and finding new friends and activities to replace those that triggered the smoking response.

“A lot of the responsibility for maintaining your newfound (non-smoking) status is to hold yourself accountable to change your behaviors and your trigger associations,” she says. “No support group will do that for you.”

Having tried to quit several times, Levering asked her doctor for a prescription for the patch. “I couldn’t stand another failure,” she says. “I held the prescription in my pocket for six months before I was truly ready to give it my best shot.”

Frank, a 50-year smoker who asked that his last name not be used, says face-to-face help was hard to find. “I was on the phone one day for four hours. All they would say is they would send me a pamphlet in the mail,” he says. He eventually joined Nicotine Anonymous,
a 12-step program.

While the once-a-week meetings are less frequent than he prefers, he’s found kindred spirits to encourage him.

“I need to go in and talk to somebody who’s going through the same angst and anxiety,” he says. “I’m probably going to have to battle this one for the rest of my life.”