In 1977, my daughter was two years old. Today, her own daughter is now 15 months old. Perhaps one day my granddaughter will learn how her mom saved her grandpa’s life. On that particular day back in 1977, I had been in trial all day. Once the verdict came in, I rushed to get home to see my daughter before she went to bed. I didn’t wish to miss our nightly story telling session. So hurried was I to see her, I didn’t stop to get a pack of cigarettes, even though I knew there was only one left in my pack. If one is a smoker and a lawyer, lots of cigarettes get burned while the jury is out.

In those days I was a three-pack-a-day man. It boggles my mind now to think that, once I got home and had my daughter in my lap, telling her a story, I lit up that last cigarette in the pack. Some smoke got in her little face. “Oh Papa,” she winced, “smoking is pooey.”

That was my epiphany. I never smoked again. Back then, a package of cigarettes where I lived in Florida cost 50 cents. Today in Florida, according to a study recently completed, a pack of cigarettes will cost over $6.00. New Yorkers pay the most: $12.50 a pack. Depending upon the state tax imposed, all states are different. West Virginia is the cheapest: just under $5.00.

I cannot imagine spending that much for a package of cigarettes. Admittedly, that is partly because I am a cheapskate. But once you factor in that cigarettes are poison, it becomes even more incredible. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), there are 443,000 deaths per year from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. Another 8.6 million people in the U.S. live with a serious smoking related illness (if you can call that living).
Once again we have an example of spineless politicians succumbing to the will of lobbyists, in this case the Big Tobacco lobby. Tobacco will never be outlawed, notwithstanding the billions in annual health care costs related to its use. It has been my observation that those people most likely to continue to smoke are the ones least likely to afford it. They will spend what limited funds they have on cigarettes and go without auto insurance or dental care or new shoes for the kids. But tobacco executives rake in the dough. The rest of us are all downwind.