Why Dick Can't Stop Smoking

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared in the January 1979 issue of Mother Jones. It has not been textually altered in any way...thus, some of the facts and statements are outdated.]

Every morning my husband coughs and gags for about ten minutes. Some days he wakes up choking. On others he is fine until he stands up, then doubles over retching. After 15 or 20 minutes, he can finish a sentence without gasping, walk across the room without bending over in pain, even pick up our two-year-old son without dropping him. Then he gets dressed, has a cup of coffee and lights his first cigarette of the day.

During the next 16 or so hours that he is awake, he will smoke two packs of cigarettes. He will enjoy only a few puffs, and he will give up smoking at least 40 times. Sometimes he gives it up more than once during the course of a single cigarette. During the 16 years--half of his life--that he has smoked, he has stopped occasionally for a few weeks or even months. In such periods, he is able to do little else but search for an occasion--sad, happy or insignificant, any one will do--to justify having a cigarette.