The best metaphor for the smoking addiction and how it has gotten so many millions of people hooked is gambling. Gambling is a major addiction in the United States for many people.
They go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas and bet their whole paycheck, sometimes cash advances on credit, or worse, their life savings, trying to win big money. But why are all the casinos big, shiny, well-lit, beautiful buildings that thrive even in hard times? Because they let you have some 'little' winnings during the big losses, and that keeps you playing, paying, until they've drained everything you brought or borrowed, and sometimes even more. Gambling takes away your drive to work, your real dream, it takes away your drive to succeed, and it does it with little false hopes and big let downs. It's a set up. It's a scam. It's a hook. Gambling robs you of your money, which is a horror story in itself, but smoking robs you of EVERY DOLLAR AND YOUR HEALTH.
Worldwide, tobacco use causes five million deaths per year, and current trends show it will cause more than EIGHT MILLION DEATHS ANNUALLY by 2030. Most of those smokers started out just smoking one or two cigarettes a day, just gambling a "little bit" with their health. Now, they smoke one, two, even three packs a day and can't quit. Or can they?
Real vs. fake momentumEach cigarette gives you just a little fix of nicotine (about 100 mg of potency thanks to ammonia), which provides a little hit of confidence, or of relaxation, by helping your brain distribute a chemical that is foreign to your system, only to keep you coming back for more, until you get sick, spend thousands and thousands on chemotherapy and radiation, and until you eventually die.
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