American Smokeout
* Citizens in Santa Ana have been getting together to find ways to encourage everyone to stop tobacco use. City ordinances are just one way this can be done. However, even though we try to legislate behavior with drug laws, the reality is people themselves must want to stop.
Today, the Great American Smokeout will allow individuals an opportunity to find out if they actually have a choice in their use of tobacco. Smokers who quit for just one day will demonstrate to themselves just how much they are addicted to nicotine.
More than passive smoke, passive people are also a part of the smoking problem. To be passive and say nothing is to say it’s OK that tobacco carcinogens are a part of the meal your children will get at a restaurant; that it’s OK your clothing or house will smell like tobacco smoke. To be passive is to be willing to carry the burden and support tobacco use that is costing everyone billions of dollars in health care and millions of lives in lost loved ones.
If you already believe that tobacco use is harmful then your help is needed now. If you want to protect your children from starting a habit that 90% of all smokers started as children, now is the time to do something. Break the chain of addiction, disease and death by caring enough to help get across the message that it’s:
Time to Quit.
JIM WALKER
Santa Ana
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