Cigarettes are a very efficient drug which goes right to the brain. Each puff on a cigarette sends nicotine to the brain within 10 seconds. Immediately, we feel more alert and calm. Sometimes euphoric. It feels good, so we have another puff and another is soon the brain's chemical structure actually changes. It becomes hooked into wanting more and more nicotine to make the effects last. No wonder smoking is so addictive. It isnt easy to quit smoking, you need plenty of willpower and all the help you can get cigarettes and nicotine are an addiction and nicotene is a drug. A drug and a powerful one that can kill you.

Everyone understands what cigarette smoking can do to you and the serious illnesses it causes, but people have become brainwashed, to the point they believe it will not happen to them. Its only now that the social acceptence of smoking is changing. This is reflected in numerous laws banning smoking in public places and the ever increasing taxation on cigarettes. Beating your addiction means being able to stand up and say no when cigarettes are offered to you. This is difficult and requires a lot of willpower but if you have help from smoking patches the task is made that much easier.

Yb Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of Health Malaysia says that Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death in the world today. Currently it is believed to be killing more than 5 million people in the world each year. It is the only legal product, as far as I know, that harms and even kills up to 1 in every 2 of its consumers. Although tobacco-related deaths rarely make the headlines, every 6 seconds somewhere in this world, a victim will succumb to tobacco.

Tun Abdullah said that the anti-smoking habit should be instilled among the young right from school to ensure that they were aware of the negative effects of smoking to prevent them from growing into adults who were smokers.  Tun Abdullah also advised parents who smoke to try to stop the habit as it serves as a bad example to their children. The fifth Prime Minister said he hoped that by not smoking, the younger generation would emerge as outstanding students, sportsmen and also workers and leaders who could contribute towards the nation's success.