Where quitters are welcome

THE CHIEF smoker at a recent awareness camp against smoking was Chennai Corporation commissioner Mr. J.T. Acharyulu.

``I have been smoking for the last 35 years, and the only thing missing now is that I did not bring my packet here,'' he said. Obviously, he found it amusing that he should be invited to the camp, but hoped it might help him.

Habits die hard though and soon the commissioner was reeling away on ``the advantages of smoking''. That too at a time when he could among those who will soon have to enforce a ban on smoking in public places.

``A cigarette is a companion in times of loneliness. And when I stopped smoking for three years, I tended to eat and sleep more, which gave rise to laziness.''

He seemed irritated that it was treated like a ``dirty habit'' and smokers had to hide when longing for a drag in public places.

But finally, falling in line with the spirit of the occasion, he pointed out that smoking is a disease that could be cured by medication. He sounded like, despite the pleasures he mentioned, he sincerely wanted to quit.

But quitting, the Commissioner will tell you, is not all that easy. He will tell you about the withdrawal effect quitters have to contend with. He will tell you it's terrible, but will also tell you that it can be handled. That quitting is indeed possible.

The public education programme by Glaxo Smith Kline on `Ban smoking' was in a way an introduction to the anti-smoking camps that are cropping up in the city.

Dr. G. Lakshmi, an allergy and asthma specialist who runs one such camp at Anna Nagar, pointed out that smoking works on the principle of diminishing returns. ``When people reach a stage where they cannot afford to smoke any longer, they will give up.'' But quitting can happen earlier. There are medicines that simulate the effects of smoking, reducing the dependence on nicotine. Eventually, a smoker learns to give up the habit.

But that's only 60 per cent of the battle won. The rest of it is a war fought in the mind, and this is where the camps and support groups come in.

But if you went by the number of participants at the programme, you would be fooled into thinking there were few smokers in Chennai. Or you would realise that few are interested and do not perceive smoking as a threat.

Dr. Lakshmi's worry was an indicator: ``Most of my patients who are trying to quit smoking are doing so for financial reasons.''

But when you have an ex-addict who quit smoking five years back declaring, ``There's nothing like a smoke'', anything goes to make them quit, including quoting stats which point out that a person smokes up a few lakhs on an average.

By Feroze Ahmed

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : WCD report -- response to a misreading
Next     : Does the end justify being mean?