Only 60% of smokers aware they are addicts

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jonobugs at 01:14 PM JST - 8th July

Thinking about how non smoking became popular in Canada, it started with a lot of ad campaigning. Then, just a few bans on smoking in certain areas, which lead to non-smoking areas in government buildings and finally most public areas.

Now, it's normal that there is no smoking in all restaurants (in some cities). People who want to smoke need to get up and go outside to a smoking designated area. It's quite inconvenient so most people who can quit do. It's now normal in Vancouver to go to bars and pubs where there is a no smoking policy. There was lots of grumbling from the smoking population though. Now, the attitude seems to be that smoking is tolerated only in certain areas.
nutsagain at 03:22 PM JST - 8th July

I heard from a doctor friend once, who had worked with heroin addicts that it was true; many could got off heroin but few gave up nicotine as it was harder to do.
chardk1 at 03:32 PM JST - 8th July

John Karr's The Easy Way to Quit Smoking. REad it. It's magical.

Dang, I mistakenly read John Mark Karr's "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking ***" instead. Turned out it was about something totally different if even more distasteful.
keshii at 03:45 PM JST - 8th July

The abundance of research in this article made me shiver with pleasure. I would have discounted the whole article if it hadn't been about a survey done by Pfizer, a company I generally expect decent research from. All I can ask is the ever present, non-rhetorical question - Why didn't the Japanese anti-smoking advocates look to other countries for advice or solutions?

It is no good to offer insurance to help quit smoking when you can nip the habit in the bud by disseminating information!
timorborder at 03:56 PM JST - 8th July

Never smoked at all. Before I got started, my grand-dad arranged for me to witness the autopsy of a 2-packs-a-day man. Bit of a harrowing experience for a 5 year old, however, it certainly did the trick.
Peaceful_Man at 04:39 PM JST - 8th July

I am a 20 year old man and I am thinking about starting smoking because all my friends smoke. Do you think I should?
Anomaly_Jr at 05:09 PM JST - 8th July

...and the remaining 40% were just plain ignorant.
Ah_so at 05:21 PM JST - 8th July

Japan - highest rate of smoking in the developed world, highest life expectancy.

Fortunately Japan is one of the few countries left where you can enjoy a good, honest smoke with an ice-cold beer

And you do not have to ever meet any prude who uses made-up words like "illegalized".
Leopalace at 06:46 PM JST - 8th July

The headline should read: Only 60% of smokers aware that there are people around them who despise smoking and feel animosity and hostility towards them for ruining their dinner, drink, coffee.....etc
WMD at 07:42 PM JST - 8th July

TJrandom Agree with your post 1000%. In my family, I've seen an uncle dying in great pain from lung cancer and a grandfather dying in great pain from intestinal cancer. Caused through a lifetime of smoking.

Ban smoking in all public places now. As in most countries. But japan , being the home of the cancer stick, can't see that happening can you??
isthistheend at 08:57 PM JST - 8th July

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette. Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette. Its crazy that people say the word "smoke a cigarette" like its one and done. Its NEVER one and done. That's why the world wide epidemic. And its not just the action of partaking of the smoke that's the problem. People hold on to their precious butt as a prop, using it like a piece of chalk to emphasize a point in their conversation, all the while the xxx 2nd hand smoke is killing my eyes, lungs, ad nauseum. A country to enjoy a beer and a smoke, someone says. O.K. I'll admit to having once smoked (once as in ten years (really 20 but 10 sounds better) and lilke the 40% in this study, never admitted that I was hooked.....Until I tried to stop....joking "Stopping smoking is easy, I've done it 1000 times". And then one day, like so many others, I quit cold turkey. Only to suffer for the next year of daily counting the minutes hours and days since my last one. Its a nightmare, always hounding you. But after the first year, it became better. But it was always just one puff away from addiction. Don't fool yourself. People in Japan are slow to admit what the world admits, its a damn stinking habit. I hope JT gets a new life, and the country charges 600-yen per pkg as I hear rumour it might. Link it up with a person's budget and you'll do them a favor.
zurcronium at 09:39 PM JST - 8th July

smoking of course is an addiction, just lihe herion. But those heron junkies just kill themselves, clueless ignortant selfish nicotine junkies pollute the air of others and make them sick. Killing many.

Two things are needed, as proved over and over again in the US and Europe where big tobacco does not run the government like here in Japan. Increase the price and ban all smoking in public spaces. Ban smoking while walking in public spaces is my added suggestion. Japanese kids have reactants to tobacco in their blood due to second hand smoke by the addicts, these are kids that come from smoke-free homes. That is a crime.

I notice JT is running their inane advertisements about smoking green again. Thats like saying murder nicely.
usaletterhead at 06:23 AM JST - 9th July

Wow to continue harming your health and not be addicted one might think another person is INSANE!
flammenwerfer at 07:51 AM JST - 10th July

Niue - the small Pacific nation is trying to ban tobacco, just read about it, they are asking for NZ and Aust co-operation to do so ( I guess Intl flights are from NZ and Aust and need the airlines support of a tobacco ban an planes heading to Niue) Excellent idea - filthy disgusting habit
frontandcentre at 07:13 PM JST - 14th July

I am a 20 year old man and I am thinking about starting smoking because all my friends smoke. Do you think I should?

If you are Japanese, and your boss smokes, then yes, you are obliged to reduce your lifespan for the sake of improving your chances of promotion in the long run. Even if you don't want to