I believe that the younger generation can do themselves some good if they don’t smoke. We should make it more difficult to get cigarettes. This industry is still one of the biggest killers of humanity throughout the world. The biggest problem is, it is done over time, and gradually makes the user more dependent on others. Our youth have to be exposed to these addicted older people and see the damage smoking causes, and also understand how smokers’ quality of life continues to diminish.

To the youth, I say, if you have small habits you cannot break, don’t smoke. This is an addiction that so many others, smarter and wiser than you, have tried for most of their lives to break and couldn’t. They needed more will power than they could muster, and now they are carrying oxygen everywhere they go. Or worse case, they are in their homes with tubes projecting from their throats. The ability is in all of us to resist, by never starting this very disgusting habit. You may think you can’t quit, or you want to be part of a group, but the fact is: this is a critical point in your life. Just look around at these smokers. Their fingers are brown. Their teeth are discolored. And their cloths and breath smell bad. They also wake every morning hacking and can hardly wait to light up and start their day.

When you smoke, you will no longer notice this, or worse yet, you will try to justify it. Do not believe that this will not happen to you if you smoke. I also implore each of you not to take my word, but ask your doctor, go to the library and investigate the history of the downstream problems attributed to smoking. Also keep in mind, although you are young and may live forever, vampires will not suck your blood if you smoke. So, this is another option that you lose because you chose to smoke.

I appeal to the intelligence of our youth to recognize the long term problems that can be avoided by not using this drug, which is a drug with an addiction that is increasingly more difficult to give up as time goes by. Probably because our politicians are still funded by the tobacco companies, it is still a legal over-the-counter drug. If all the parents wrote to their representatives, we could do what a democracy is designed to do. Get rid of these purveyors of death and disability.

Frank Votry

Oak Harbor