MARLBORO - WINSTON - L&M - CAMEL - PARLIAMENT - KENT - CLASSIC

Cigarettes are still a valuable tool for society. Tobacco is among the few legal recreational drugs available to every willing adult...

I begin each day perched on my sixth floor patio with a trifecta of "Joes": a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and myself.

When my roommate Joe comes to join me for a cigarette, it's a sight for the rest of the world to behold from six stories down.

My hobby of smoking tobacco began just a year ago, a short stint for anyone who considers themselves a smoker.

Concerned friends and family often asked me why I started to smoke so relatively late in my life.

It wasn't for looks, style, a girl, or to relieve any Hurricane Katrina induced stress.

The depressingly nerdy truth is that I blame Truman Capote's In Cold Blood foremost and second, myself, for chasing that elusive nicotine buzz.

I've since long finished that book and accumulated an unholy tolerance for nicotine. Now, is the time to stop - for good this time - and do it my way.

Cigarettes are still a valuable tool for society.

Tobacco is among the few legal recreational drugs available to every willing adult.

Nicotine is and will always be an extremely addicting substance. For these two reasons, millions of smokers in America can, whether they know it or not, empathize with "hard drug" addicts.

Cravings, withdrawals and satisfaction are three sensations they share everyday. Last, I stand by every assertion in my Dec. 5 article "The benefits and lessons of smoking" extolling the intangible benefits of cigarette smoking.

Breaking the nicotine addiction as swiftly as possible is the first priority of any would-be ex-smoker.

Some ration themselves to a dwindling number of cigarettes a day, many use "Nicotine Replacement Therapy" such as gum, lozenges, and patches.

Each method is fundamentally mistaken. Nicotine is completely flushed from the body in approximately seventy-two hours and physical withdrawal symptoms peak during this time.

Unlike heroin and alcohol withdrawals, these symptoms are neither life-threatening or especially intense.