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There's been a discussion here on Techdiver about drug testing and how in some cases random drug testing nets a lot of divers in the commercial diving industry. But there's another drug we should consider. One thing that I never expected when I started scuba diving was the large number of divers, especially instructors, who smoked cigarettes. When I took up cave diving it was even more stunning to me how many smoked. Last year my Mother died of lung cancer. It took her two years to die and many dozens of hours sitting in a chair with an IV in her arm being infused with toxic chemicals, but not so much toxicity that it would kill her before it killed her cancer. As a result of those chemicals, she lost all of her hair and couldn't eat. She also got irradiation treatment and the procedure burned her skin and made her sicker. In the last months my Father became desperate to find someone who could save her. He changed treatments and she lived a little longer. She always smiled, she rarely complained--you'd think she wasn't sick. She died a little over a year ago - of a cancer related to cigarette smoking. My Father lived another nine months and died on New Year's eve. He was victim number two even though he didn't smoke, but he'll never show up on a smoking death statistic. 470,000 people die each year from tobacco use. This compares to 1,000 deaths due to alcohol abuse or 10,000 deaths due to murders. The annual death count due to tobacco use is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing EVERY DAY with no survivors. Imagine. The chemicals found in tobacco are so toxic that you can't dump them in a landfill. 3,000 kids become regular smokers each day ... one MILLION each year. Year-to-date, 110,000 kids have become daily smokers. Smoking before the age of 15 versus the age of 25 puts them at TEN TIMES more risk to get cancer. 82% of adults who smoke started before the age of 18. My Mother smoked most of her life. Smoking racks up $50 Billion a year in direct medical costs. The tobacco industry spends more than $6 Billion annually in advertising programs directed at getting new smokers - targeting children, women, and minorities. How? Movies, advertising outside schools (targeted billboard campaigns), free gifts, and misleading advertising stating that smoking is healthy, "cool" and fun. The tobacco industry uses science to obfuscate the truth and generate controversy. They hide and lie to the public about the dangers of tobacco use and nicotine addiction. They put profits ahead of public health and safety. They have lead an advertising campaign that arouses their addicted millions to believe that somehow the effort to educate them about cigarettes and to make smoking in public more difficult is somehow a civil rights issue. They want you to believe that smokers who die from cigarette smoking deserve what they get because, hey, it says it right there on the pack: Cigarette Smoking May be Harmful to Your Heath. All those happy, smoking people who die unknown in the privacy of their beds. They just disappear. It isn't like an airline disaster, it's quiet and private. And because of that it's just a part of the scenery . . . nothing to get upset about. We all have the right to kill ourselves so long as we are endangering no one else. But if no adults smoked and there was no market for it do you think that any children would start? If there was no cigarette money for advertising and sports endorsements and for all those colorful clothes and bags and belt buckles, would kids still know how "cool" it was? As long as we are discussing the impact of drugs on sport, specifically diving, and the potential for injury and death, I wonder if smoking shouldn't be included in that discussion? How many people died last year from marijuana? I couldn't find any statistics anywhere, even in the usually paranoid and slanted government literature. The pro-pot pages say "0." The picture I have is of a railroad driver who got stoned and ran into a busload of kids. I don't know if it's true, but that's how they say pot kills you. I smoked pot from the time I was 18 until my son turned 11. I didn't want him to use me as an excuse to smoke pot. None of the joints I smoked gave me half the pleasure and satisfaction that diving does. Drugs alter your perceptions and that could be fatal to a diver given that diving itself can alter your perceptions. Death could certainly follow in stressful situations. So sure, pot could kill. But what kind of numbers are we talking about here? 10? 100? How does that compare to 470,000 annually? I wonder how many divers around the world have died from smoking related illnesses? My guess is that it would eclipse by many, many times the deaths from all other causes. In the last weeks as the cancer consumed my Mother she weighed almost nothing. Her eyes were sunken in her head, her skin discolored. She stopped wearing the wig she had bought to hide her baldness. She had to sit in a chair to sleep because the cancer prevented her from breathing when lying down. Every breath was a wheezing effort and every breath caused her pain. On March 12th, early in the morning, she asked my Father to lie with her on the bed and with his arm around her that is where she died. She died from smoking those satisfying cigarettes that she just couldn't quit. Enjoy. JoeL
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