Breaking the law to quit smoking

West Vancouver resident Gary Adelson tried everything — gum, patches, willpower, acupuncture, even hypnosis — to get off cigarettes because he could feel the physical toll smoking was taking on his body. A two-pack-a-day smoker for almost four decades, the 58-year-old made about a dozen attempts to quit in as many years, but the addiction was just too powerful, according to The Vancouver Sun.
 
Adelson was a couple of days into his latest quit attempt in 2010 and surfing the Internet when he stumbled across electronic cigarettes, devices that were supposed to deliver the nicotine without the smoke. He found someone in Vancouver on Craigslist who sold them and met him in an alley, where he exchanged cash for a plastic bag containing the device along with a nicotine-infused liquid.

Bar owners protest state smoking ban

State bar owners have been raising opposition to the statewide smoking ban in bars and restaurants, claiming to legislators and courts that the ban is ruining their business.

While restaurants have come to appreciate the ban’s unforeseen effect of increasing sales, the president of the N.C. Bar, Pub & Tavern Association recently wrote a letter to the N.C. General Assembly urging legislators to exclude profit-making bars from the ban.

Sales at Gate City Billiards Club, a private club in Greensboro, have decreased 25 percent since the 2010 ban , said Don Liebes, the club’s owner and president of the association.

“We’re different from restaurants,” he said, adding that 75 percent of his customers smoke. “The ban put us at a competitive disadvantage.”

Because of the ban, the club has lost $30,000 since January, Liebes said. On an average Friday night, the club now serves 30 fewer customers — about a 15 percent decrease.

“We’re not making any money,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before we go under.”

Bar and restaurant owners in the state were initially concerned that the ban would be an excessive regulation, said Brad Hurley, co-owner of the 42nd Street Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill in Raleigh and chairman-elect of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association.

But some restaurant owners now say the ban has boosted sales. In a letter sent Oct. 5 by the restaurant association to the legislature, one restaurant owner reportedly observed a 25 to 30 percent growth in sales since 2009, reports The Daily Tar Heel.

Heavy Smoking on the Rise Among Teens

The smoking rate among men dropped from 51.6 percent in 2005 to 48.3 percent in 2010, but more than one in every 10 teenagers still smokes, according to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rate among middle and high school students who smoked more than once over the 30 days prior to the annual KCDC survey has remained steady at around 12 percent since 2007. The figure was even higher among boys at 17 percent last year.

What is more worrisome is increasing number of smoking teenagers. The rate of those who smoked every day for 30 days prior to the survey rose more than 1.5 times from 3.9 percent in 2005 to 6.1 percent last year. Last year some 2.8 percent said they smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day.

Some experts blame the social environment where many adults can be seen smoking in the street and cigarettes come in garish packets.

According to last year's survey, 39.6 percent of teenagers said they saw family members or guests in their home smoke over the last week, informs The Chosunilbo.

"Adolescents tend to imitate adults or celebrities," claimed Lee Hae-kook of Catholic University College of Medicine. "If they smoke in adolescence, when the brain develops, teenagers can get seriously addicted to nicotine and also easily fall victim to other addictions like alcohol or gambling."