My Father was a 50 year, one pack per day smoker. He had an accident in his car on 1/10/11, and ended up on a ventilator because he could no longer breathe, even with his oxygen on. I saw the CAT scan of his lungs, and the spaces that we normally use to get oxygen into our systems was totally destroyed. Cigarettes did that. Burning, chemical laden smoke that delivered the nicotine into his system to feed his habit. The tar and chemicals from those death sticks blew out my father's lungs, and he faced a lifetime of living with a machine to push air into his body, and another one to feed him through a tube. My sister and I chose to have a hole put in my father's neck to allow him to be weaned off the drugs that he needed to keep him sedated (so he could tolerate the vent) to allow him the opportunity to decide whether he could continue with this life on a machine. After finally waking up out of his drugged coma, he (and we) chose to not continue, and he died last night at 11:30pm. He was 64 years old.
How can our IDIOT politicians possibly live with themselves after voting to ban something that will reduce the risks for many people who are already addicted to nicotine?