Tribune Company Will Charge Smokers $100 a Month

So do the obese.

But they do go to the hospital often, and at a high cost.

 

Holy Christ.... do you play Russian Roulette with five chambers full, too?

 

Yeah, I'm sure the $50 clinic charges more if you come down with something other than the sniffles.

 

Smokers are still a much easier target than the obese. Part of that is public relations. A lot of it is concern over second-hand smoke. And it's not just the risk of cancer from second-hand smoke. Being a non-smoker in a room full of smokers is damn annoying, especially for those of us with respiratory problems.

But there are also other reasons. Stories of tobacco companies intentionally enhancing the addictive qualities of their product and spreading misinformation to protect their business. The fact that a very large percentage of smokers get their first cigarette illegally (as in before the age of 18). Smokers absolutely bear some responsibility for what they do to their own health, but it is pretty easy to hate the tobacco companies.

Find a way to make sure nobody smokes before they are 18, and I'll stop complaining about it. Anybody dumb enough to start once they are an adult deserves what they get. But 12 and 13-year-olds just aren't ready to decide to take those health risks.

Let me add that I know I am not always rational on this topic. That went out the window when I saw what lung cancer did to my father, who was 12 when he lit up for the first time and never could kick the addiction in the 40 years before it caught up to him.

Is all of this fair? Nope. But it is one reason to doubt the "sky-is-falling, our-rights-are-being-trampled" crew just a little. It is going to be a lot tougher to legislate eating habits than tobacco.

 

he said while his co-workers helped pay for his daily dose of condyox.