Giving up smoking wasn’t hard at all

THANK you for publishing my article (Cape Times, June 1).

A critical paragraph was left out. The article has a headline with the words “Government is lying about cigarette ban”.

But the paragraph that sets out the basis for the lie is left out.

It reads as follows: “The exceptional rights the government claims are to deal with a situation now.

“Smokers – as defined by the virus rather than by Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma – will remain smokers, with the underlying health risks, even if they cannot lawfully be sold cigarettes, even if they do not smoke for months. The government is lying when it suggests otherwise.”

This paragraph explains why banning the sale of cigarettes cannot affect the contraction of infection or its consequences.

Without it the article is slanderous without justification.

We apologise for this error by the sub-editing department, which operates independently of the Cape Times.

I AM COMPLETELY mystified by the claims of the majority of smokers, as well as some of the medical fraternity, with regards to being deprived of cigarettes and the subsequent side effects.

I looked up the definition of the word addiction in order to determine the symptoms that I could expect to experience by giving up smoking.

I decided to go cold turkey two months ago.

I am still waiting to experience any of the symptoms attributed to the word addiction.

The only side effect that I experienced was the desire to have a smoke with my coffee in the morning, but this I attributed to the habit and not to an addiction, and I no longer experience either.

So either I have been especially blessed with not suffering the physical side effects of stopping smoking, or it is all, as I suspect, psychological.

I also replaced the smoking with exercise. Feel great.

As a matter of interest, I “was” a drinker for more than 40 years, stopped more than 10 years ago, and was a smoker for more than 50 years.

Good luck to all of the smokers out there.