REAL-LIFE STORY OF CIGARETTE ADDICTION

Let me tell you a story of addiction I experienced when I was young. . .

There was this old man who loved smoking “Bicycle” cigarette. I am talking of early 70s, I don’t even know if the cigarette still exists or it had gone into extinction. The old man became very sick such that he was carried to the city hospital from his native African village. He was fully taken care of and the doctor, when the old man was about, told him that he must stop smoking cigarette or else the cancer he was having might go beyond treatment.

Two weeks after the old man was discharged, the children and the grand-children accidentally found him on his farm writhing in pain while clutching his hands to his chest. At the spot, which is a hidden place on his farm, they found a lot of cigarette stubs and some new packets of this “Bicycle” cigarette.

They have to carry him to the hospital again and fortunately, one of his son who has been away to England for further study just arrived. So this son was able to follow them to the hospital and, as such, developed a rapport with the female doctor. The doctor implored the son to make sure that he watched the old man critically. After treatment, he was discharged on the third day and was told to come back for medical check-up the following week.



The following week, the doctor showed the X-Ray report to the old man’s son and explained that the old man was still smoking the cigarette. At this mention, the old man swore that he had stop smoking cigarette and called his son as a witness.

As a result of the old man’s denial, the doctor wisely called the young man aside and told him to be watching his father critically. Then, he discharged the old man to go home.

At that night around 1 a.m., the young man woke up and moved quietly to his father’s door. There, he heard some quiet sound as if someone is humming a song. Before doing anything, he called other people in the house and they opened the main door in order to go out and check through the grandpa’s window. There, they saw the window opened with their father’s locally-made ash-tray filled with cigarette stubs on the window sill and the old man majestically puffing his cigarette away while humming a local song.

The children were so shocked, afraid and embarrassed that they shouted in unison “Ha, Papa”; one of the children said “Why? Papa, why are you doing this?”

You know what the old man said?! Can you guess what the old devil said in reply!! The man bravely asked them, shouting “WHY ARE YOU ALL SHOUTING AND LOOKING AT ME? AM I NOT OLD ENOUGH TO DIE? PLEASE, LET ME ENJOY THE REMAINING PART OF MY LIFE. I WANT TO DIE HAPPY!”

Everyone became speechless with their mouth wide open!!!

YES! That is addiction. Sure, that's ADDICTION for real. The old man couldn’t give up the cigarette despite the fact that it would add more days to his lifespan. Addicts don’t drop the drug easily no matter what, even at the point of death. They always say “I will stop after taking this one, I won't touch this ‘thing’ next time” but that ‘next time’ never comes. That is the real point.

Though, a cigarette smoker knows quite well that his action is not good for his well being, yet he found it extremely hard to control himself.

Smoking is a true addiction, not just a habit as people often erroneously referred to. It is a form of addiction that is more powerful than dependence on other hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin or alcohol! In the whole world, there is no other drug that is self-administered with the kind of persistence, regularity and frequency of cigarette smoking.

According to research, it was discovered that within a year a cigarette smoker inhales 70,000 to 200,000 individual doses of mainstream smoke from his average of 2-3 packs-per-day. He only needs to take his normal 10 puffs per stick.

CAN YOU CALL THE ABOVE SCENARIO ENJOYMENT?