As it turns out, Borat wasn’t completely full of sh*t. Although yours truly couldn’t point it out on a map (I would SO lose the final round of “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”), Kazakhstan actually DOES exist. Being that it is so far away from the watchful gaze of American interest, it’s the perfect place to attempt some less-than-Kosher business practices.

Enter Philip Morris:

Earlier this month, the world was made aware of Kazakhstan (for perhaps the first time since Borat) and more to the point – made aware of child labor in the name of big tobacco. The folks behind Marlboro admitted that children as young as 10 were subject to long, hard (that’s what she said) hours in tobacco fields. Philip Morris has been cultivating tobacco in Kazakhstan for sales made in Russia and former Soviet states for some time now. It’s unknown just how long this has been going on for but what we do know is that there are 72 documented cases of child labor abuses stemming from this discovery.

As if hard labor for next to nothing weren’t bad enough, there are also serious health risks for the laboring children. In the average workday, these kids are exposed to as much nicotine as contained in 36 normal cigarettes. Furthermore, children are at higher risk (due to lower body weight) for contracting Green Tobacco Sickness, where nicotine is absorbed through the skin from contact. The sickness causes nausea, vomiting, headache, muscle weakness and dizziness.

Authorities place the blame equally on Philip Morris and the Kazakh government. Since it was discovered that children were allowed to work 11 to 13 hour shifts, some progress has been made but Human Rights watchdogs aren’t fully confident that child labor has come to a full halt in Kazakhstan’s tobacco fields just yet.

Wow. Did anyone catch this recent video tearing its way through the net? This 2-year-old kid in Indonesia sucks down a cig for the camera. He is reportedly the son of a fishmonger who gave his son his first smoke at just 1 and half years old. The toddler allegedly smokes 40 cigs per day and throws terrible tantrums if his parents don’t give him his cancer sticks.

When I was two, I was into He-Man and PB&J sandwiches with the crust torn off. This kid’s diaper probably looks like an ashtray.

Career politicians sure have it rough. Press conferences, legislative meetings, big decisions and three-day, fully paid getaways to beachfront resorts – that takes some real dedication.

Republican lawmakers in California (and their aides) grew tired of the dismal Sacramento landscape a couple days ago and decided they needed a change of scenery. Being that the state’s economy isn’t in an ideal position, our politicians chose to sneak away to somewhere prudent, frugal and of course low profile: a luxury beach resort in Santa Barbara.

The three-day event allowed our treasured politicians to spend some much-needed solitude focusing on their tasks at hand. Of course, if they decided that they wanted a little bit of stimulation (you know, to get those legislative juices a-flowin’), they could always take part in the tour of the Ronald Reagan ranch, grab a $300 gift bag, enjoy a gourmet meal or indulge in a cocktail or 12…all of which was paid for by private companies.

Any guesses what type of companies would foot the bill for such a lavish event? You already know.

Among oil companies, casinos and various other slime balls with a political agenda, our good friends in big tobacco shoveled out big bucks to treat people who are already wealthy to a much needed escape from their luxurious, high profile lives. The two largest contributing companies were Chevron and Altria (Philip Morris USA).

When Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth was questioned by the LA Times about his involvement in the getaway, he declined to answer. Later, his spokesperson, Hector Barajas, informed The Times that “most” attendees actually paid for their own rooms. It was later discovered that these attendees used money from political contributions to pay for their vacay.

Maybe it’s just me but it strikes a very disturbing nerve to find out that this sort of flagrant bribery still works. It’s no secret that tobacco companies rely on lobbying to stay afloat but you’d think that both companies and politicians would have moved on to new methods by now. Instead, our politicians fall for the same tricks that worked 50 years ago. A suite, as many Tom Collins’ as your liver can process, free shell fish and a bag full of tchotchkes somehow STILL justifies allowing deadly products to line shelves.

I can honestly count on one hand the number of friends I have who DON’T smoke. Most of them started when they were in high school so, now in their twenties, they’re coming up on a decade of tobacco dependence — not the sort of occasion that calls for an ice cream cake.

A few months back, while having a few beers at a pub in North County (we, of course, had to sit outside so they could smoke), I looked around the table and realized that not only were we all getting older but that my friends had been roped in by tobacco for nearly one-third of their lives. What was once edgy and cool and potentially led to a prom date in high school, was now causing my friends to be banished outside like dogs, where the only women that came our way were working on their 4th Cosmo, their 5th marriage and their 2nd pack.

Although I was never mesmerized by it, I think my friends all came to the realization that night that the glamor of the cigarette had worn off. Older, addicted and generally unhappy with the effects, they had all separately expressed their desire to quit to me on multiple occasions. So this night, I decided to address them as a group and call them out on their bullsh-t proclamations of wanting to stop.

All in all, it went well. They all agreed that they wanted to quit and they agreed to finally take action.

Fast forward about 3 months…

I invite my friends over to watch some cheesy B-movies (you have to love Bruce Campbell), and they all pile in my apartment and take over the couches. To this point, none of them had quit but they had all “cut back” (which is code word for smoking literally two less cigarettes per day in an attempt to justify their continued use) but tonight was unusual. It was odd because nobody made a straight shot for my balcony to light up. Instead, we got out the chips, popped in a DVD and got down to business.

Then, almost as though it were choreographed, they all reach into their pockets and pull out their new E-cigs. I paused the movie. Every single one of my idiot friends looked like a pig who just happened upon a fresh pile of sh-t. Sitting there, gleefully gloating at the fact that they can enjoy the fleeting rush of inhaling nicotine without having to put on shoes or a hoody. Of course, if you know anyone who uses an E-cig then you know all the phrases they use to justify why this is a much better choice than cigarettes.

“It’s vapor instead of smoke.”
“It’s much healthier than sucking in all those chemicals.”
“It’s cheaper in the long run.”
“I can smoke indoors now!”
Or, my personal favorite: “I’m going to use this to help me quit the real smokes.”

Now, there is some truth to these claims but you all know as well as I do that the second the cartridge runs out on that E-cig, they have some 2-for-1 Parliaments ready to go. They’ll choke those down until they can ‘go pick up some more cartridges,’ and who the F knows when that will be.

For the time being, though, they’re content sitting on my couch, sucking on those ridiculous little plastic E-cigs like babies with their pacifiers. Those things light up when you inhale and even make that burning sound that a real drag on a cig makes; it must be the same feeling for smokers as when Nintendo introduced Gameboy to throngs of Zelda-crazed nerds. It’s not going to help anyone quit, why would it? E-cigs provide an equal amount of nicotine as smokes but allow the user to ’smoke’ anywhere he/she pleases, which means they’ll use them more often thanks to convenience.

Like I said before, cigarettes never seemed glamorous to me but with the introduction of the E-cig, my friends can once again sit inside the bar with everyone else. While they may not be banished outside to partake of their dirty habit, now they can all whip out their age 18+ glorified toys and broadcast their addiction to every single lady in the place.

If it was ever glamorous for them to smoke, I didn’t see it.Now older and wiser, I see people who are so addicted to nicotine that they’ll publicly suck a toy cig just so they don’t have to go outside; because once you grow up a little, smoking behind the bleachers isn’t the renegade image it once was and depending on a plastic savior is a sad but true testament to having some growing up to do still.

I guess you could say that I was an extremely incessant smoker. I could easily light up while having a heart to heart about someone dying of cancer, scrumptiously inhale, exhale and nod my head in agreement at how heartless the disease is. At first word that my grandfather died of heart failure, directly related to smoking, I immediately ran and lit up for comfort. You may ramble off a million reasons for me to quit and I’ll come back with a million and one reasons not to. Sadly, this is very typical of a nicotine addict, whose fear of a slow looming death is oddly fleeting and whose want and will to quit seem powerless over the desire to smoke.

I’ve smoked for 23 years, which is just shy of two thirds of my entire life. I fear the damage that can’t be undone that will most inevitably pay me a visit in the coming years.
Unless you are one of those very fortunate people who wake up one day with an epiphany and quit cold turkey, you WILL need help.

I was approached by Jenny, a member of Commune, to join a smoker’s cessation group. She lured a small crew of us in with the appeal of meeting at a local hangout spot, generous incentives for positive progress and basically a new approach to quitting. As someone who tried anything and everything already, why not? It was social, it was fun and it was geared towards positive change. Our weekly progress was tested through an accurate, innovative method, tracked and we were rewarded the more we cut down. The people in the group, all habitual smokers, began to compare their progress on a weekly basis, pat their neighbors on the back for success and it became a group effort. People were really trying. It was not a structured circle where we would stand up and say, “Hello…My name is Dawn and I’m a nicotine addict”…nor was there any berating and looking down upon. Commune was there to sincerely help, supplying us with informative materials and tools to understand our individual smoking habits, in addition to its effect on the world around us. It was the first time in my entire life that I quit smoking for more than three days. Ever. Once I had that head start, which I think was the missing link to quitting, I knew that when I was truly ready, that I could do it.

I am two months SMOKE FREE and sincerely believe that the help from the Commune cessation group was exactly what I needed. I wasn’t answering only to myself. I had my group peers and Jenny aware of my progress, and for the first time I wanted to do a good job. I truly believe that the weekly positive affirmation when I did well was exactly what I needed. The group experience set the foundation and from that point on, I knew I could quit if I really wanted to…and if I, the biggest lover of ciggies ever known to man, and the longest smoker of the worst caliber can do it, so can you! I urge you to try Commune’s approach. It was a truly effective concept, cleverly disguised as fun.

Thank you so much for helping me!

Dawnie

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7475259.stm

They’re back and ready to take over the 3^rd world. Who you might ask who would target the most vulnerable, disease-ridden, war torn parts of the world in hopes to find a new market to target? Well Big Tobacco of course! You’d be hard pressed to find Camel sponsoring the new Faint tour or kiosking at the hottest club openings, but take a trip out to Nigeria and billboards scrape the sides of venues, whose shows are usually without age discrimination.

Youth culture has always been susceptible to the pressures of big business trying to sway this moldable market to buy their products. As a whole, our demographic is one of the most attractive; we have a large disposable income, lack of real life financial responsibilities, and are impressionable to the point that the products we buy today we will stay loyal to in the future. Due to heavy legislation and regulatory statutes by our government, US teens and young adults have been “protected” from the heavy-handed tactics of big tobacco. In recent years smoking has become almost taboo, and at the very least inaccessible in most public areas. Though as a young person living in America I have a bone or two to pick with the feds, they’ve done a moderately, good job on overhauling underage access to tobacco as well as keeping Big Tobacco’s sleazy marketing tactics away from our “fragile” eyes. This unfortunately is not the case when we research the youth market abroad.

In the US it is illegal to sell cigarettes individually if not contained in their original packaging, but in places like Nigeria this is standard practice. By selling cigs individually, stores make more money, and kids have an easier time paying for just one. In the US Big Tobacco is not allowed to have billboards of any kind, promote their products in magazines that target a specific youth market, and are unable to outwardly promote their products through large events where youth are the target venue. Check out a concert in Africa or East Asia and you just might see Big Tobacco’s logos posted on the entrance. As a culture I believe we’ve taken a big stand against the man and Big Tobacco, but with every action there’s a reaction. Big Tobacco has found a new, fresh, and willing market for its products, without a push from countries like the US, and organizations dedicated toward universal health and prosperity the world will see a greater epidemic of addicted or dead persons at the hands of tobacco products. Its awareness people, let’s take action!