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Friday, October 19, 2012

Smoking is an addiction – not a mental illness


Re; Canada’s ignored mental illness (Letters, Oct. 11)

After reading Lee Fairbanks letter respecting the notion that smoking cigarettes is a mental illness, I’m left wondering to what extreme anti-smoking zealots are willing to go – to ostracize people addicted to tobacco by implying it is a mental illness?
Smoking, like drinking alcohol, is an addiction. On this issue, I can speak from experience, as I suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after I tried to revive my disabled son, Logan. Unfortunately I was not successful, may he rest in peace.
This particular illness can have devastating effects for the person suffering it and their families. With proper medical care and therapy, PTSD can be beaten.
Mental illness can strike anyone, but soldiers, police officers or firefighters are also prone to this disorder (PTSD) and they should get the treatment they deserve for keeping us safe from harm, every day they work.
I have been smoking for decades and have watched as society demonized smokers and barred them from smoking just about everywhere but on their own property or a public sidewalk.
I don’t even smoke in my own home, after having had to wash tobacco stains off the plaster walls after I moved into my now smoke-free home.
Matter of fact, I was sitting out on my cedar deck as I wrote this letter while enjoying a legally bought cigarette, from a carton purchased at a nearby corner store. Buy local, share the wealth.
If Lee Fairbanks really wanted to help young people quit smoking – or not start at all – he should advocate against the flood of illegal, cheap cigarettes readily available at the nearest Indian reserve instead of trying to demonize smokers as mentally ill, something we all know is not factual or true.

Mark-Alan Whittle
Hamilton Mountain

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