Smoked out
July 27, 2003 | 12:00am
For a long time, E-Male tried to forget that the tobacco plant is blamed for millions of deaths every year. He even buried the memory of several very dead relatives and acquaintances who never got to the point of lighting their last stick.
E-Male dreamt that he could discover some form of economical and sustainable method to fuel his smoking habit which usually cost smokers like him a fair share of their daily wage. If not for that purpose, he could certainly have some other use for tobacco leaves, like serving as a substitute for the lettuce in his ham and cheese sandwich.
The sheer idiocy of his pet project, quite understandably, did not produce any earth-shaking discoveries that may have cured his darn addiction to cigarettes except that it helped him a good deal in realizing that he’d be better off being a lawyer than being a farmer.
Sad to say, E-Male’s lungs have been on the leafy diet for – cough, cough, ahem, ahem – two decades. Just like most adolescents on the cusp of testing their manhood during those awkward days, E-Male was suckered into cigarette smoking in high school when stuffing a cig between the lips meant being hip, being cool and being a close cousin of James Dean, hence, a sure magnet to chicks.
It was perfectly fine then to be caught with your pants down as long as your cigarette was lit. "Hey babe, can I light your fire?" In a way, peer pressure was ever-present and one really had to light a cig just to ease the pressure. Other than politics and texting, cigarette has become the opiate of the people.
Well, rebuke the ad agencies hired by the tobacco companies during the 80s for transporting the populace into such a smoke-filled paradise where smoking seemed to stimulate a sense of daring among the young; where galloping into Marlboro country and riding on a Camel were tell-tale signs of independence; where the prospects of seeing your Philip Morris getting nipped by a closing elevator door provided a silently cute pickup opportunity with that long-legged blonde.
Talk about role models, the country had a cigar-chomping but sports-oriented President and a chain-smoking action star for a Vice-President who got every one convinced that there was machismo behind the admirable athleticism of leading the country while engaging in smoking marathons on national television.
And while the rest of the Western world was taxing to death tobacco growers and manufacturers, the Philippine market flung its doors wide open to a cancer cargo thus introducing every conceivable brand and kind of cigarettes to an ever-growing number of nicotine addicts.
Unfortunately – cough, cough, cough – more and more Filipinos bought into the marketing scheme. As a matter of fact, Filipinos puff a billion cigarette sticks weekly. No kidding. Even the World Health Organisation has raised alarm bells and warned that more and more youths are taking up smoking in the country. Statistics now show more than half of Filipino children aged seven to 17 now smoke – a 150 percent increase since 1987. At the rate the age of smokers gets lower by the year – a sleek, pop art ad depicting an infant in diaper holding an unlit cigarette – could inspire unborn babies to someday demand a smoking section inside their mother’s wombs!
Finally, government has stepped into the picture and signed into law a tobacco regulatory act that imposes an absolute smoking ban in public places and stops tobacco advertisements by July 2008.The Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 also prohibits the sale and advertisements of tobacco products "within 100m from the perimeter of any education institution" and other areas frequented by the youth.
Under the law, tobacco advertisements will be phased out starting January 1, 2007, and totally banned in mass media effective July 1, 2008. Another key point of the act requires companies to "print health warnings on the front panel of all packages of tobacco products" otherwise the goods will be confiscated and sale of tobacco to minors will be penalized with imprisonment.
Whoopee!
The seriousness of the anti-smoking program has even gone from a negative publicity attack to a positive and potentially economically beneficial campaign. If our yosi kadiri advocates would have their way – and there’s every indication that they would – tobacco may soon be turned into food supplements, antibiotic ointments and skin creams, building materials, paints, pesticides and paper.
Government testing showed that the plant’s seeds, stalks and roots – not just the leaves people smoke – could be used for a wide variety of purposes. For instance, the stems and would be ideal for particle board and dissolving pulps. Tobacco was used as a medicine before it was used for smoking, so why not go herbal and patronize it as antibacterial, antifungal creams or topical analgesics. Heck, village albolaryos were inspired by traditional poultices which covered open wounds and insect bites so why not apply tobacco as a medicament for the sick?
The leaves – which are cured to make cigars and cigarettes – are also rich in protein and is promising as a nutritional supplement. A pungent, minty-smelling oil pressed from seeds can be turned into soap and paint, while whole seeds, which are free of nicotine and high in protein, have potential as animal feed.
Eating tobacco or taking it as medicine is certainly healthier than cultivating cancer cells in one’s system. But then again, this is just a pipedream that requires the populace to first smoke out the Pinoy smoking habit. But before that ever happens, every one must resolve not to smoke any more. Unfortunately, the living dead do not smoke any less.
Email E-Male at argee@justice.com.
E-Male dreamt that he could discover some form of economical and sustainable method to fuel his smoking habit which usually cost smokers like him a fair share of their daily wage. If not for that purpose, he could certainly have some other use for tobacco leaves, like serving as a substitute for the lettuce in his ham and cheese sandwich.
The sheer idiocy of his pet project, quite understandably, did not produce any earth-shaking discoveries that may have cured his darn addiction to cigarettes except that it helped him a good deal in realizing that he’d be better off being a lawyer than being a farmer.
Sad to say, E-Male’s lungs have been on the leafy diet for – cough, cough, ahem, ahem – two decades. Just like most adolescents on the cusp of testing their manhood during those awkward days, E-Male was suckered into cigarette smoking in high school when stuffing a cig between the lips meant being hip, being cool and being a close cousin of James Dean, hence, a sure magnet to chicks.
It was perfectly fine then to be caught with your pants down as long as your cigarette was lit. "Hey babe, can I light your fire?" In a way, peer pressure was ever-present and one really had to light a cig just to ease the pressure. Other than politics and texting, cigarette has become the opiate of the people.
Well, rebuke the ad agencies hired by the tobacco companies during the 80s for transporting the populace into such a smoke-filled paradise where smoking seemed to stimulate a sense of daring among the young; where galloping into Marlboro country and riding on a Camel were tell-tale signs of independence; where the prospects of seeing your Philip Morris getting nipped by a closing elevator door provided a silently cute pickup opportunity with that long-legged blonde.
Talk about role models, the country had a cigar-chomping but sports-oriented President and a chain-smoking action star for a Vice-President who got every one convinced that there was machismo behind the admirable athleticism of leading the country while engaging in smoking marathons on national television.
And while the rest of the Western world was taxing to death tobacco growers and manufacturers, the Philippine market flung its doors wide open to a cancer cargo thus introducing every conceivable brand and kind of cigarettes to an ever-growing number of nicotine addicts.
Unfortunately – cough, cough, cough – more and more Filipinos bought into the marketing scheme. As a matter of fact, Filipinos puff a billion cigarette sticks weekly. No kidding. Even the World Health Organisation has raised alarm bells and warned that more and more youths are taking up smoking in the country. Statistics now show more than half of Filipino children aged seven to 17 now smoke – a 150 percent increase since 1987. At the rate the age of smokers gets lower by the year – a sleek, pop art ad depicting an infant in diaper holding an unlit cigarette – could inspire unborn babies to someday demand a smoking section inside their mother’s wombs!
Finally, government has stepped into the picture and signed into law a tobacco regulatory act that imposes an absolute smoking ban in public places and stops tobacco advertisements by July 2008.The Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 also prohibits the sale and advertisements of tobacco products "within 100m from the perimeter of any education institution" and other areas frequented by the youth.
Under the law, tobacco advertisements will be phased out starting January 1, 2007, and totally banned in mass media effective July 1, 2008. Another key point of the act requires companies to "print health warnings on the front panel of all packages of tobacco products" otherwise the goods will be confiscated and sale of tobacco to minors will be penalized with imprisonment.
Whoopee!
The seriousness of the anti-smoking program has even gone from a negative publicity attack to a positive and potentially economically beneficial campaign. If our yosi kadiri advocates would have their way – and there’s every indication that they would – tobacco may soon be turned into food supplements, antibiotic ointments and skin creams, building materials, paints, pesticides and paper.
Government testing showed that the plant’s seeds, stalks and roots – not just the leaves people smoke – could be used for a wide variety of purposes. For instance, the stems and would be ideal for particle board and dissolving pulps. Tobacco was used as a medicine before it was used for smoking, so why not go herbal and patronize it as antibacterial, antifungal creams or topical analgesics. Heck, village albolaryos were inspired by traditional poultices which covered open wounds and insect bites so why not apply tobacco as a medicament for the sick?
The leaves – which are cured to make cigars and cigarettes – are also rich in protein and is promising as a nutritional supplement. A pungent, minty-smelling oil pressed from seeds can be turned into soap and paint, while whole seeds, which are free of nicotine and high in protein, have potential as animal feed.
Eating tobacco or taking it as medicine is certainly healthier than cultivating cancer cells in one’s system. But then again, this is just a pipedream that requires the populace to first smoke out the Pinoy smoking habit. But before that ever happens, every one must resolve not to smoke any more. Unfortunately, the living dead do not smoke any less.
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