Quiz: What is the number one killer in Montana? (a) car accidents? (b) hunting accidents? (c) the Unabomber? None of these are correct. Cigarettes and their side effects is the correct answer. The number one killer in Montana is not accidental; it can be prevented.
The Great American Smokeout, an annual tobacco use prevention project, was held on Nov. 21. A booth was set up in the foyer to encourage smokers to try quitting for one day and possibly gain the initiative to quit for good.
"It is the incentive that some people need to quit for a day," said Kristie Adney, a 10 year volunteer with the American Cancer Society. "And hopefully forever."
"The person is not what I'm after," said school nurse, Margie Piersall of the Smokeout. "I'm trying to help people quit or help people never start."
The following is a journal from a student smoker who participated in the Smokeout.
7:45 a.m.: Looking around my room I think, "This is it, this is the day I won't smoke. Maybe I will even quit for good." At the last minute I grab my pack, just to make me feel better.
Period two: So far I'm successful, but I wish I hadn't taken my pack to school. Sitting in the pocket of my flannel, I hear them calling my name.
It's still early so one before third period won't hurt, right?
Period five (before lunch): I still consider my self successful; I've only had one smoke all day.
My craving's getting worse. I keep thinking about how I can't have one, which makes it worse.
Lunch: I had one smoke at the beginning of lunch. (This will be my last.)
Ten minutes before lunch gets over . . . I have another.
No more chances to have a smoke before school got out made it easy not to have another.
After school: I went over to my boyfriend's house, he was smoking. When other people smoke around me, it makes it impossible not to smoke. As a senior, I've been smoking for five years. Sometimes I think the only way I'd be able to quit is to get myself stranded on a desert island.
9:00 p.m.: I've given up. There's always next year, or the year after that.