My grandmother died of lung cancer.  She was a cigarette smoker for over thirty years and smoking ultimately killed her.  It was horrible to watch her suffer as she struggled to breathe during her final days.  You would think that this experience would have been enough of a deterrent for me to avoid smoking at any cost, but it wasn't.  One day, a friend in college passed me a cigarette and it began my addiction to a dangerous habit.     I smoked on an off for about eight years and finally quit, cold-turkey, in 2007.  It was  definitely a difficult habit to kick but, I am proud to say that I have not smoked a cigarette in almost ten years.  Due to my experiences with tobacco, I am constantly warning my high school students about the dangers of smoking.  Unfortunately, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars on promotions, in places where children can see them.  They promote cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to young people and funnel a lot of that money into advertising that … [Read more...]