For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 14, 2016

Make up your mind, Phil: do you want a loving relationship with another human being, or do you want to die early and single from inhaling poison?

The man has no will power. I quit cold turkey and so did my daughter. It. Can. Be. Done!

Dude … Just get in the car, go to the store, and buy another pack.

Or just give them up for good! Not an easy thing to do but not impossible either! I gave up a 2 pack a day 40 year habit 12 years ago and have been smiling all the way to the bank ever since! :)

I tapered off back in ‘78. After getting down to about 5 @ day, they just weren’t good anymore. Five years after my last one, I realized one day that I was still telling people, “No thanks, I’m trying to quit.”

My Dad quit 40 years before he was put on hospice and he told my mother that if it wasn’t so hard to breathe, he’d take up smoking again before he died..It is such an awful addiction.

Didn’t they run this one not too long ago? Or was that just the newspaper that ran it. I think there was a day where what I read online was different from the paper.

Lynn’sNoteI keep saying this, but here is another true story…as spoken, line for line.

I’m sorry, but “addicted to MENTHOL cigarettes”? What a wuss!

I have a friend who is going through the process now of quitting cigarettes. It’s been almost 2 months and she still craves them. Meanwhile, my spouse gave them up within a week with not problems. It’s a hard habit to quit for some.

Brother died of lung cancer at 48. He could have bought a house with the money he spent on smokes over 30 years. He died broke.

Why doesn’t she have some nicotine gum handy for him when he gets like this? The gum was around in the 70’s.

Do you want to marry him if he breaks all of his promises so easily?

When my Grandfather’s health started to fail, my Grandmother started to ration his cigarettes, just like Georgia is doing with Phil. For some reason, my Grandfather would always ask for one on his way to the bathroom. My Grandmother told us that he would stand there, dripping on the kitchen floor, because he couldn’t hold it, but needed his cigarette in the bathroom.The only reason I am sharing this very personal story is this: I hope it will help someone out there to make the decision to quit, and, even more, for anyone thinking of starting tobacco use: STOP. Please.

Methols? Real Canadian men smoke Du Maurier for true smoking pleasure,Du Maurier,it’s the best ciggerette!

Many non-addicted people,as evidenced by some of the comments, here, do not realize or understand the hell that an addict goes through.There are two types of addiction – physical and psychological.The former may be overcome by going “cold-turkey” , gradual withdrawal, or alternative measures. The psychological addiction is much harder to overcome and in many cases remains long after the person is “sober” or drug free.

We can laugh at Phil and his nicotine withdrawal problems but it ain’t funny for a person really going through them.

I got over my physical addiction to nicotine within 3 days but it took well over a year to lose the psychological cravings completely. Even then, I have occasionally had a craving for a cigarette in the 30+ years I’ve been nicotine free.

When my grandfather gave them up, he didn’t want to be a cigarette bum, so he bought a pack, carried it around in his shirt pocket until it wore out, bought another pack and did the same, and never smoked again. Sometimes it pays to be ornery. He still wound up with emphysema from his years smoking, but he made it well into his 80s.

Leonard Nimoy died from complications from smoking, he had stopped 35 years before.

So did my dad. He had quit in 1958 and died of lung cancer in 2009.

@Linguist. I agree.Addictions have very little to do with willpower.Research is beginning to show that some people are genetically predisposed to addictive behaviour.You can be perfiectly sensible in most aspects of your life,yet totally Irrational when given a shot of booze, or smokes,or drugs,and then have them taken away! I quit smoking so many times I can’t remember even to the closest year when I had my last one! I don’t care.The important thing is not to have the next one!

@Nightgaunt49. You’re welcome. That was a classic Canadian advert jingle from the 60’s,but I think I screwed up the lyrics a bit.

@comicsssfan. Switch from Virginia blend to Georgia blend?

@samhuff. Deals gone wrong in motel6 rooms…"what ya mean cocaine man,it’s icing sugar,the real deal,now gimmythe cash…bang bang!

When my brother threatened me with death if I told our parents he was smoking, I figured it wasn’t worth it to smoke and never started. Good thing too because I would’ve been a 3 pack a day smoker.

I went with the Chantix for quiting, 2 month of pills and upset stomach and then one day I actually forgot to smoke! Stopped even thinking of it and haven’t smoked since. 10 years now.

I was in a dentist’s waiting room one day when I absentmindedly offered a non-smoking friend a cigarette. (Remember when people smoked everywhere?) He asked me, “What do you get out of that, anyway?” That question haunted nearly every cigarette I ever smoked after that. It became my motivation to quit. When starting to light up, I also took a second to ask myself if I really wanted that cigarette right then, and frequently put it away (if only for a minute).

Heard cigarette manufacturers spray additives onto the tobacco to amp the addictives in it.. wicked evil.

Phil has no clue you can’t just taper off smoking…it’s all or none. Cold Turkey is the way to go!

Here’s a little bit of wisdom for anyone who may be thinking of quitting cigarettes:

It will never be any easier to quit that it is right now.

So forget that “I’ll quit when…” stuff, do it now. Don’t light that next cigarette.

cANCEL THE WEDDING, GEORGIA! eVENTUALLY EVERYTHING IN YOUR HOUSE, INCLUDINGCHILDREN,WILL REEK OFCGARETTS!