That I was made redundant from my job around the time that I started smoking has not escaped my notice. The idea that I was neither talented enough nor resourceful enough to stop myself from falling off the cliff edge into unemployment was compounded by the general anxiety of the pandemic. I can see how it was not so much about the feeling itself — any non-smoker who has taken a drag of a cigarette knows that the faintly sick head rush it prompts borders on the unpleasant — but more about a bit of self-indulgent nihilism. The world was going to shit and I had nothing to lose.
Agrawal points also to a more practical truth about lockdown that could have contributed to the uptick in smoking. ‘Official tobacco advertising was banned decades ago,’ he says. ‘But it still occurs in the form of product placement — which is unregulated — on TV, social media, in music videos and gaming videos. The fact that lots of people have been spending much more time at home, probably watching TV or gaming, may have contributed to these recent statistics.’
Journalist Lauren Etter’s new, widely acclaimed The Devil’s Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul And The Addiction Of A New Generation traces the recent history of big tobacco and how, in the name of ‘moving fast and breaking things’, the Silicon Valley vaping brand disrupted its way into the hearts and minds of Gen Z — and created a new generation of nicotine-addicted teenagers.
‘I think with young people in particular, many were out of work, out of school,’ says Agrawal. ‘You’re at a loss, bored, anxious — and then you’re exposed to images of this thing, which normalises it.’ For me, things worked out, and life moved on — my self-esteem recovered. But the smoking remains. Still, as Agrawal reminds me: ‘Whatever reason someone starts, there are a million better reasons to quit.’ A mantra to live by.
