Did you ever wonder why so many Americans still smoke cigarettes?

By David McClelland

I must tell you that I am fortunate to be from a family of non-smokers and I give my parents full credit for the fact that neither my sister nor I ever smoked. I know that it is a tremendous blessing.

I just finished re-reading John Grisham's 1996 best-selling novel, Runaway Jury, which became a 2003 American drama/thriller movie by the same name, starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz. Runaway Jury is about a precedent setting lawsuit against a tobacco manufacturer brought by the widow of a chain-smoker. She sued the tobacco company claiming that they intentionally caused her husband to become addicted to their cigarettes and that he later died of lung cancer as a direct result. It is dramatic and, if you haven't yet read the book or seen the movie, I recommend both.

I believe that it was Hustler magazine which, many years ago, published color photos of a man's lungs after he had smoked cigarettes for about 30 years. I don't know if the photos were doctored (please forgive the pun), but the lungs were black and it is difficult to believe that any smokers who saw those photos would fail to quit smoking that very day.

We have lost many famous people to lung cancer. John Wayne's name comes to mind. I recall that he had a lung (and four ribs) removed and continued to act until after he made his last film in 1976, The Shootist. After giving up cigarettes, he later began to chew tobacco and smoke cigars. He died in 1979 at age 72.

The state mandates that those who choose to ride motorcycles wear helmets. I believe that our schools, public and private, should, likewise, be required to include the extreme risks of smoking in their health classes and to pound the dangers home. Such classes should be mandatory for 100% of the students and there should be refreshers courses every year.