“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You've seen the iconic picture of a soldier with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but that could soon be a thing of the past.
A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.
According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.
The Defense Department's top health officials are studying the report's suggestions and will make recommendations to the Pentagon's policy team and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The study recommends phasing out tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars over a five- to 10-year period…”
The CNN story goes on to say that many in the military object to a ban on smoking.
The military is so upset with the idea of gays in the military, and we know that about 10% of the military is gay, I think we should offer a deal …It could be you can smoke if you agree to gays in the military. Smile
I was never in the military and I do not and never had smoked. I think smoking is very bad for health. If you put a ban on tobacco I fear you will just have people smoking and hiding it.
When I started working hospital security you could smoke in the hospital. Years later you could smoke in certain areas. Then it got were you could not smoke in the hospital period. One hospital that I worked at did not allow smoking in the parking lot.
The hospital that did not allow smoking even in the parking lot, Menorah Medical Center, I worked for them part-time for a year. When I got hired in they had just had a major fire caused by smoking. One entire floor was shut down due to major fire damage.
I can remember making my rounds inside, I was working midnight shift, and coming to a dark ICU waiting room and I could see the glow from a cigarette. The guy smoking put the cigarette under a sofa in the waiting room when he say me. We also had people at that hospital disconnect smoke detectors so they could smoke in a bathroom.
During the day time when you drive down Troost, a street in front of MMC, you would see a mass of people in white uniforms smoking on the sidewalk. On midnights we let people smoke right outside the door in the parking lot. We had cameras and microphones at the doors. The area was a high crime area if we had made people walk out to the street we would have seen some of them back smelling of gun smoke and with bullet holes in their lungs.
Yes smoking is very bad for people. I do not know what the answer is with a smoking bad. Like I said I do not smoke.
I do know a major medical problem for the military and that is Alcoholism. Heavy alcohol and binge drinking happen all the time the military. I worked with a number of guys that were retired from the military and they suffered from Alcoholism. I think every hospital that I worked at had one or more security officers fired for being drunk on duty. I had family members that had been in the military and drank like fish. One got his 20 years and retired but I do not know how he made it. I was drunk all the time. I had an uncle that was a hell of a nice guy but he was in WWII in the USMC and was in heavy combat and he did not drink when he went in the USMC. When he came out of the USMC he was a falling down, in the gutter, drunk. He was that way all his life. He never got any help for his problems.
Both my mother and father suffered from Alcoholism. It killed my father at age 65. They were not in the military but I have seen up close and personal the damage that alcohol does to people, family, kids and the nation.
In the ER of hospitals are filled every night with people drunk. You want to reduce health care cost do something about Alcoholism. I hated to go to work on Friday and Saturday night. I knew when I got to work there would be drunks waiting for me in the ER and I knew that I would be fighting them and arresting them.
We all know about Prohibition in the United States. I know we have problems with Alcoholism in the military. I do not see anything happening because it is a “third rail” issue. No one in Congress wants to touch that third rail issue. If President Obama wanted to do something about Alcoholism in the United States and the military think about what would happen. He would have every NASCAR fan, football fan…hell he would have everyone after him. Anyone could beat him in an election. Hell I could run and beat him if he stood up and took on Alcoholism.
If it between smoking and alcohol I think the military should start working full time and hard to cut down drinking in the military.
I think the states should start taxing alcohol more and more. The federal government should tax more but needs to hang back and do it on a much smaller scale because we do not need it to become THE issue that decides who is elected to Congress or who is elected President of the United States.
This post is so long I do not remember if I told you or not… I do not drink. I never had been a drinker. I can remember as a small my father letting me have a drink of his beer. I also remember that the first word I could spell was “beer.” That is before I started school. I must have been 3or 4 years old or younger. Jim, my father, would tell Betty, my mother, to get some “ B E E R” at the store. He would spell it out. I am not sure how long it took me to learn that it was beer and then he would spell it and I would say it.
Believe me Alcoholism is a major problem in the United States. My father had DWI arrests. My mother had a major car accident after she left a bar drunk. They used to take me to the bars with them. I know a number of times they left me in the car outside the bar. One time I got a nose bleed. I used to get a lot of nose bleeds when I was a kid.
I can remember when I became a Boy Scout I refused to go to the bar with them. I told them I was a Boy Scout and could not be going to a bar. They would leave me home alone. That was fine with me. I would read the dictionary and listen to march and classical music. About age 14 or so I got a shortwave radio and that became my hobby. That became my number one interest and activity.
