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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tobacco Education & Assistance Program <br /> <br /> O133AC <br /> <br /> E6U 77ON# ASSIS C4~ <br /> <br /> <br /> AROGRAl~ <br /> <br /> www.kickthenic.net <br /> <br /> Providing Free "Quit Smoking" Groups and Intervention Training to Health Care Providers on Hawaii Island <br /> A program of Community Links Hawaii <br /> <br /> April 22, 2008 <br /> Aloha, <br /> <br /> My name is Cara Sadira, and I am a Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist. I run the Tobacco <br /> Education & Assistance Program. I am writing to again express my full support of regulating smoking <br /> on beaches. I am in support of this proposed legislation out of concern for the smokers that I help to <br /> quit smoking. p t e u 5C v t" rY cCtc l6+ IEl QVC1 ~_s k?, <br /> <br /> Current medical research has proven that smoking is NOT a habit, it is an addictive drug, absorbed by <br /> the brain that makes the brain completely dependent. The brain changes that occur from nicotine <br /> addiction do not go away. The brain remains permanently altered. For this reason, it is incredibly <br /> difficult for smokers to quit smoking, for good. To allow this addictive drug to freely circulate through <br /> the air in public parks and beaches seriously affects the lives of people who have gone through the <br /> incredibly difficult process of quitting smoking. While at the park or beach, they are involuntarily <br /> exposed to the very addictive drug that they have worked so hard to purge from their system. Once this <br /> drug again enters the system, the brain again conducts processes in the manner of addiction (as the <br /> brain has already been altered from the original smoking addiction). In short, we are exposing our <br /> constituents to a dangerous, addictive drug that kills, often triggering relapse, just because they <br /> decided to go to the beach. <br /> <br /> It is absolutely a consideration that ex-smokers in contact with tobacco smoke may be triggered to <br /> again take up smoking, and again become addicted to this dangerous drug that claims 460,000 lives <br /> annually in the U.S. For smokers, the main concern that they articulate to me is that they will be <br /> gasping for air, unable to breathe, with lungs collapsing from abuse, dependent upon an oxygen tank, <br /> and unfortunately, cigarettes for proper brain and bodily function at the end of their lives. They are <br /> also concerned with the hold that the addiction has over them. They mint have cigarettes in hand. <br /> They must spend their hand-camed money, and they must engage in a process that they know is <br /> dangerous for their health, just to have normal brain function. It is not right to expose them to this <br /> substance in the air they breathe on our beaches after they have worked so hard to stay off of it. <br /> <br /> Thenk you, <br /> <br /> Cara Sadira <br /> Contact: Cara Sadim Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist * Phone: (808) 5574838 ' Fax: 1-866-825-7496 <br /> E-mail cara&kicklhenie.net* Address: P.O. Box 2087, Keaau, HI96749COMM. No. 442AL <br /> Ref. Tozeresemp 4I1 <br /> Ref. Dcrfe APR 22 200a <br />