This is a subject I am sooooo reluctant to bring up....but I've gotta be me!

I smoke cigarettes! I hate that I do.....but I do....and I'm not gonna make any excuses for it. I have all the warnings....I know what it's doing to me....I'm not stupid....I know already! I'll tell you this.....I've quit 72,000 times.....and as an addict, I suffer the battle everyday of my smoking life (I was 7 y/o when I started...you do the math!). If you've never smoked.....you'll never understand the addiction....and so I don't slight you for thinking, "Just quit then". If it were that easy I wouldn't be on here right now......so pissed off my head could explode!

My husband just came home from the store with 2 packs of cigarettes.....Total=$10.50.......

SIN TAX! A fuckin SIN TAX......again! For the 6th time in less than 3 years......we, the smokers, are dubbed sinful and taxed for it out the wazzoo! We have been moved to the outdoors....or off the premises completely.......made to stand in "shelters" far removed from the general population....shunned in restaraunts and now even local drinking establishments........taxed up the ying yang.......some have quit and a few of those have made it to the other side......and we have taken all this because we are addicted and we really don't have a leg to stand on! We know that our smoke can harm those that don't indulge.....and so we move away to be considerate......we sit in our little section of the restaraunt and keep to ourselves....we pay the tax as it's acrued....and we take it and take it and take it.............till I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

We aren't animals! Not everything about smoking is sinful and horrible (just wait to comment on that one till you hear me out).....I've known smokers well into their 90's who've braved the warnings and lived a good long life! Some people are more susceptible to disease and sickness than others.....but that's true about anything in life! I'm not a hunter.....seeking non-smokers to make them sick! I am the most considerate smoker I know....and I have never done anything to offend anyone on purpose in my life!

With all the research we have as to how bad smoking is for us.....couldn't we work on a way to HELP the smoker instead of taxing them and punishing them time and time again? I know....I know....there are devices and gum and shit like that out there to aid us in quitting. I also know willpower plays a major role in success. OK....I admit it! I don't have that SPECIAL willpower that so many quitters before me have! I'm addicted for crimony sakes! Not an animal....an addict!

What is the means to the end of this sin tax? What will happen when everyone quits and the cigarette companies go out of business? Where do you think they (the powers that be) will get the money to replace the taxes they have become accustomed to in collecting this tax from smokers? Do you think it'll come out of non-smoker's pockets? It's gonna come from somewhere.....cause once the tax is relied on for the amount of time it'll take every smoker to quit and every tobacco company to go out of business.....we won't be able to go back to the day when there was no such thing as a sin tax on tobacco! I wonder if they've ever thought of that?

It'd just serve them right for a surgeon to come up with a hemi-lobotomy that would CURE all smokers! Wham! Where you getting your raise from now Mr./Ms SINTAXER???

Whew! Who wants the soapbox now? Anyone can express an opinion....because as I've said.....ain't nothing you can say to me that I haven't already said to myself!