Editor’s Corner

My mother was a cigarette smoker, and it killed her.

Oh, the official cause of death was any number of manners: multiple organ failure, obesity and congestive heart failure to name a few.

But it was her life-long love affair with unfiltered Lucky Strikes that did her in. A pack of cigarettes a day definitely didn’t keep the doctors away.

I remember in high school, my friend Jacque and I would alter the cigarettes of my mom and his dad. We would take some of the tobacco out and stuff other things in its place, like more paper. That didn’t go over too well, as you would expect, especially for Jacque, whose totalitarian father let him have it.

Our hearts were in the right place. We cared and loved our parents and wanted them to live long, healthy lives.

Unfortunately, neither of them did.

Cigarettes, they’re killers.

That’s why it’s important to continue educating people on just how many people cigarettes kill each year. Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared Jan. 20-27 as Oklahoma Quit Week.

“Smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in Oklahoma,” said Meagan Carter, rural health improvement specialist at the Oklahoma Hospital Association with the Hospitals Helping Patients Quit (HHPQ) program. “Tobacco kills more Oklahomans than AIDS, murder, suicide, alcohol, illegal drug use and auto accidents combined. Quitting tobacco isn’t easy, but it is possible. We want to make sure those who desire to quit, have all the right tools to be successful.”

Nearly one in five Oklahoma adults smoke cigarettes and 52.1% of the state’s adults are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the state’s data. One in 10 high school students smoke in Oklahoma, and 27.8% of high school students report using e-cigarettes. Smoking costs Oklahoma $1.62 billion in annual health care costs and $2.1 billion in lost productivity.

My mother died in 1998. Man, I sure miss her. I miss her smarts, her humor, her unconditional love and her guidance. She loved to read books and eat popcorn, two loves I inherited from her.

But her need to chase a nicotine high with another long drag of a Lucky Strike also robbed my son of the same things.

Myles was only 5 when my mom died.

He never experienced a deep, rich relationship with his grandma Jo. She’s a distant memory for him.

She had wanted to pass her love of cooking Mexican food down to him – homemade tortillas, tamales and enchiladas. She looked forward to teaching Myles to be a master Scrabble player, like she taught me to be.

Oh I rue the missed life lessons and long conversations they never had a chance to have.

Every state in the country needs to ramp up its spending on tobacco prevention programs. A study from 2018 found that the states continue to spend only a small fraction of the billions in tobacco revenue on programs to help prevent kids from using tobacco and help smokers quit.

According to the report, not a single state currently funds tobacco prevention programs at the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and only two states – Alaska and California – provide more than 70 percent of the recommended funding.

That’s a shame. Every state, including Oklahoma, needs to do more in their prevention efforts.

Our state’s Quit Week and related social media campaigns is a good start to keep the fight against tobacco top of mind. And we need to press our lawmakers to institute more prevention programs and spend the money that was earmarked from that settlement the way it was intended.

I think most of all, though, we need to look at those in our own lives who smoke and challenge them to quit. I wouldn’t go quite as far as Jacque and I did in our efforts, but the life they save – their own – could have a lasting and trickle-down effect on the many others who love them.

Thomas R. Martinez is the editor of the Watonga Republican and the Geary Star.