For those of you that follow the tobacco control debate, you’ll be - painfully - aware that the UK’s resident antismoking sock-puppet charity are always banging on about one of a few items. Of course, each item they champion - for whatever misguided reason - never goes “far enough”. This leech of a charity will never rest until smoking - and probably any reduced risk alternative - is completely eradicated.
This is a post that I’ve been putting off for a while as it contains a number of personal things. They aren’t necessarily secret things, I’m just not the sort to talk about them publicly.
I was a heavy smoker. Like super heavy, easily going through two packs per day and sometimes three or four depending on the day. I had a routine, wake up then immediately spark up. Coffee and a smoke. Get to work, coffee and a smoke. Four or five smokes before work officially started at 9AM. Regular smoke breaks during the day, two or three during lunch. You get the picture. Most of my smoking was either habitual or as a way to calm down and de-stress (when working on a tech support desk, it can get really stressful).