Stressed, broke smokers struggle with habit

A human interest piece from the nincompoops at MSNBC.

"As household budgets shrink, some smokers are forced to choose: Pay the bills? Or buy cigarettes?"

There's a choice?

Apparently. Just like the discretionary mortgage payment.

"'We had a light bill that needed to be paid, so we paid a third of it so we could have cigarette money,' said Leonard Perry, a pack-a-day Doral smoker from Elkhart, Ind. 'We’ve done that a couple times. It kind of works out but it makes it rough for the next week.'

Perry, 55, worked at American Hauler, a cargo trailer manufacturer, before being laid off two years ago. Sometimes he collects scrap metal for cigarette money. 'My woman’s workin’, so that helps me out there,' he said. But his wife has her own pack-a-day Marlboro habit to support.”

She HAS to.

"For the Perrys and other smokers, the incentive to kick the habit has perhaps never been stronger. The economic downturn continues to wear on, and this spring smokers were hit with the largest federal tax increase ever on cigarettes.

But reason doesn't always rule out, says Dr. David Abrams, a clinical psychologist and executive director of the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy, which is part of the anti-smoking nonprofit American Legacy Foundation. 'If anybody looked at the pros and cons and weighed the evidence, frankly, we shouldn’t have a single smoker in the country. But the brain's reward centers are very powerful, and they avoid logical reasoning. Seeking immediate pleasure is sometimes something you can’t stop yourself from doing.'

But while experts do say they're seeing more interest in quitting, the support system is collapsing, as some states have exhausted funds for smoking-cessation programs that many smokers, especially lower-income folks, depend on when they decide to quit."

And in these days of s**t-for-brains sick care political decision-making, you know what can be expected for these folks?

Bailout.

Coming soon to a smoker near you.