Reefer Madness Redux: "Sleeper effect" of cigarettes can last for years - Yahoo! News

This strikes me as completely stupid and lame, the proof that proves nothing, a symptom of a therapeutic society where everything is an addiction. How does this link to the studies that say cutting down on fat does nothing or that smoking Brits are healthier than abstemious Americans? I'm not saying that smoking is good for you. But this sleeper effect business is nonsense on stilts. It reminds me of a kind of Refeer Madness. Will folks in 20 years have satires on this kind of health hysteria? And why do Americans continue to scream about health even as we refuse to pursue national health insurance? The contradiction is agonizing.

Link: "Sleeper effect" of cigarettes can last for years - Yahoo! News.

Scientists have discovered that a single cigarette has a "sleeper effect" that can increase a person's vulnerability for three years or more to becoming a regular smoker.

Comments

[glen]

"nonsense on stilts"

lol!

invokes the rehearsed precarity and spectacle of the circus

[Matt]

Ah, the dreaded sleeper effect. It hits me half a year after quitting, mostly when I cannot sleep.

(But after throwing that full one in the river that night, I have resolved never to buy another pack. Brits? Eh, they all die senile and angry anyway.)

[old]

Health hysteria in US: when people lampoon American culture 1000 years from now, this will be near the top of the list. J. and I have been persistently amused as we have perused literature on health and religion in the 19th century lately (one of the funniest being the strong link, mentioned already in comments at the weblog, between Kellogg's Cornflakes and Seventh Day Adventist positions on health and masturbation).

[Adam Kotsko]

Anymore, I can't get off unless I'm eating a bowl of cornflakes.

[john reeve]

"Anymore, I can't get off unless I'm eating a bowl of cornflakes."

An eggman, eh? How long does it generally take the band to come?