Pledge to smoke less, then quit

FRANKLY speaking, as a smoker, I want to smoke less and, if possible, quit.

I know the health risks associated with smoking. While I made the choice to smoke, this is not a habit I am proud of. The longest period ever that I did not touch a cigarette was two months. It is just a very bad habit that I chose to indulge in.

It’s just like drinking coffee. The choice is whether to take the instant 3in1 white coffee mix or coffee without sugar. My bad habit of drinking a few cups of instant 3in1 white coffee per day can cause me to be diabetic in the long run and I know that. I know I need to gradually reduce the intake of 3in1 white coffee, or switch to coffee without sugar for my health in the long run.

At the end of the day, it is about the choice that I as a consumer makes, with the awareness and knowledge of the risk that comes with consuming the product. Many won’t like hearing this, including my wife, but as a smoker I know what I am doing (smoking) is bad for my health and yet I choose to continue.

Having said that, my next step to achieving my personal health goal is to smoke less or attempt to quit, and I believe many smokers are also saying the same thing. At the back of every smoker’s mind, we aim to take shortterm steps to smoke less and in the long run to quit altogether.

But the problem that smokers including myself have is this – the only available size of packs sold in the market, whether legal products or those cheap RM4 cigarettes, are all in 20 sticks. As a matter of fact, it is more appealing to buy those cheap brands out there but I avoid them because smoking is already bad. But smoking cigarettes with dubious content is even worse.

There is no control over what goes inside those illegal products and how they were manufactured.

So, I don’t have any option but to finish 20 sticks a day because I don’t wish to leave the opened pack until the next day. The majority of smokers would agree that smokers don’t keep their packs for the following day because they may not be as fresh.

So if there are 20 sticks in a pack, smokers tend to finish 20 sticks per day. And if there are 10 sticks in a pack, smokers will smoke less in a day.

So smaller packs of cigarettes are not all bad. It can be a first step for smokers to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day.

As a step to achieve my personal health goal, I am making a public pledge to smoke less, and I can definitely smoke less with small packs.