Addiction

I think that it is easy to understate how hard it can be to eliminate an addiction, even one where we know about the potential harms (i.e. smoking). I found this passage really interesting:

One time I had just enough money to put in the electric meter or buy a packet of cigarettes. There I was sat in the dark smoking like a chump trying to comfort myself with the fact that it was not crack.

These sorts of tales really make me ponder whether we should focus more on "harm reduction" and if elimination may not be a quixotic pursuit.