You know a hundred reasons to quit smoking already, but in case National Non-Smoking Week this month didn't leave a lasting impression on you, here are a few more:
Lung cancer migrates. It can spread, into the brain, into the glands and into the bones. If you sign up for lung cancer, you are spinning the roulette wheel of cancer.
Will you simply get a painful, wheezing death as the cancer ravages your lungs? Or will you get seizures, loss of vision and violent mood swings as it carves its way through your brain, through your very sense of self?
Perhaps, if you are particularly unlucky, it will take root in your bones, giving you one of the most painful experiences known to humankind.
There is a more positive reason to quit smoking, too: everyone is on your side. Everyone. The B.C. government will be happy with you, and will even give you free medications to help you quit, through the smoking cessation program.
Bars and pubs in B.C. will be happy that you're not nipping out the door so often for a smoke, letting in that cold air. Ditto your significant other, who will be able to avoid either allowing you to smoke inside, or banishing you to the garage or deck.
Your bank account will be particularly pleased, and you will be pleased in turn when you see how much more money is there at the end of a month.
Your doctor will give you a big grin. Try for a fist-bump; the doc will probably go for it.
Chefs everywhere will be happier, because you will be able to better taste their food.
A few years from now, you'll have mostly forgotten why you started smoking in the first place.
You don't wheeze going up a couple flights of stairs any more, you can't stand the smell of tobacco smoke and much of the spectre of an early death has been lifted from you, and from your loved ones.
So c'mon, butt out. We're rooting for you.
