I don't smoke. Never have. I tried it when I was thirteen. I'll never forget the experience. My cousin, who was 16 at the time, handed me a lit cigarette. We were in a public place, but I took it and had a drag. Just at that moment, a woman standing nearby looked at me and said "You're too young to smoke!" Scared the beejeezus out of me, so that was the end of my rebel phase.
And that people (adults, anyway) have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to risk it.
True, Pam, people - adults - do have the right to decide for themselves if they want to take the risk of making themselves sick and perhaps even sick enough to cause death. But I can tell you that nothing will get me going more than seeing a person smoking in a car with a child inside. I have absolutely zero tolerance or respect for any adult who subjects a child to second-hand smoke. As far as I'm concerned, it's a form of child abuse.
I lived with two smokers for one semester at college. They respected my situation enough to smoke only in their own bedrooms. But even so, I always smelled like smoke. It made me crazy because I didn't want to smell that way, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.
Guess my views on smoking are pretty clear.
Lynn
