oh woe is she
ms "n" who is the older sister of ms 15, a young mother, a whole 21 years old and a nice young woman, has decided to cease the smoking habit she started when she was 13. eight years as a drug addict sure is hard to "cold turkey" but she has started. the withdrawal has hit. she (this morning) has a major headache. so ms15 and her mum are off to provide the required support. they have taken a good measure of "mother earth" remedies that won't work so all should be well. hopefully. i did google some more remedies for them. who knows, they might do something that will work or just having the support might do the trick. smoking, man that sucks.Labels: cold turkey, smoking, support
smoker's fault
ae marika!
a column by hone harawira
maori party mp for tai tokerau
another kiwi who doesn't agree with the donsta.smoker’s fault
don brash said recently that māori who smoke, deserve to get lung cancer. which is a bit like saying pakeha’s who get bashed up deserve to go to hospital. neither comment makes sense; but i made the second one, knowing it to be foolish. cigarette smoking is a carefully managed addiction, promoted by multi-billion dollar tobacco companies who profit by hooking people, māori and pakeha, into their product, and tweaking the chemical mix to ensure that once hooked, you won’t be able to stop. but the comment i noticed most in the flurry of condemnation of brash’s remarks were those from the prime minister who said: "what i know is that tobacco smoking is as addictive and habit forming a behaviour as addiction to any hard drug, like morphine or heroine…so i just don't think it's fair to blame the victims of a disease, an addiction, for their plight," she said.
the reason why her comments were so noticeable, is that she actually has the power to do something about the problem. as the prime minister, she has the power to immediately put legislation before the house, banning the production and sale of tobacco products in this country, and stop this deathly destruction of our nation, it’s children and it’s future. she didn’t. her words ring as hollow as brash’s ring of ignorance.
10 october 2006
Labels: addiction, don brash, helen clarke, smoking
