Smokeout! The Maldives Forge a Path Forward

 

by Pa Rock

Ex-Smoker

Today is the "GreatAmerican Smokeout," an annual health-oriented, smoking cessation event that was started by the American Cancer Society in 1977.    It occurs on the third Thursday of each November.

The 1970's was a time when social pressure really began building for the elimination of smoking.  I was a heavy smoker from the late 1960's through the mid-1970's.  During my very stressful time as a young officer in the United States Army (1971-1975), when work days routinely began before daylight and ended well after dark, I would often get into a fourth pack during one of thos long workdays.  I quit in late 1973 or early 1974 when my oldest son was an infant.  A layer of smoke hovering in the house just did not look like it would be good for babies.  (Though the cigarette companies, which were and are evil, would have been loathe to admit that.)

Actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke, who was born in West Plains, Missouri, the community where I now live, one hundred years ago next month, starred in a comedy film in 1971 which helped to pry me free of smoking.  It was called "Cold Turkey."   The popular film was the story of a small town minister (Van Dyke) who encourages his town to take up a challenge issued by a cigarette company.  The company vowed to give a community that could quit smoking for thirty days a reward of $25,000.

The minister got his town to accept the challenge.  ($25, 000 was obviously worth more back then than it is today!)   The members of the town policed each other, and the cigarette company had people on the ground who were also monitoring the situation.   Most of the movie - and its central message - centered on the power of nicotine addiction and the lengths people would go through to satisfy their cravings.  It was funny, but in a truly sad way.

Over the years our government placed health warnings on cigarette packaging, and occasionally made news by strengthening those warnings.  Smokers were ostracized into certain areas in their workplaces where they could smoke.  Businesses gradually became smoke-free, and so did government offices and public transportation, and the social acceptability of smoking diminished considerably.

And now the anti-smoking forces are getting even more aggressive.

This month the Republic of the Maldives, a beautiful 12,000-island nation in the Indian Ocean southwest of India, instituted a law that will ultimately make smoking totally illegal within its borders.  Starting this month, anyone born on or after January 1, 2007, is prohibited from buying or using  tobacco products within the nation's borders - forever!   The Maldives are aggressively pursuing a smoke-free generation.

Ex-smokers are always the worst when it comes to being critical of the habit, and this ex-smoker is no exception.  Give 'em hell, Maldives, lead us into a smoke-free future!