Marlboro Country

If you are among those who indulge in the “pleasures” of tobacco or ganja products this blog may be one you will want to skip. I have never been the sort of person to let problems slide. You will discover I am not out to win any popularity contests.

It came as quite a surprise when I encountered trail culture to discover the extent of smoking/vaping. Shelters were essentially smoking lounges and almost never did nicotine addicts and pot heads ask permission from other hikers to light up. Cigarette butts and cigar tips are perhaps the most commonly found item in the litter stream on the trail. It never ceased to amaze me that a group of people who supposedly revel in the beauty and splendor of our pristine wilderness would so readily engage in sucking poisonous gasses into their lungs and spewing the stinking remnants into the surrounding environment.

I soon realized that shelters were off limits for me due to the ubiquitous blue haze surrounding them.

Before I began backpacking I did not expect that I would encounter so many people who embraced a practice that is so detrimental to their health and the health of those around them. Benton McKaye, the architect of the Appalachian Trail was seldom photographed without a pipe in his mouth. Bill Bryson in his famous book about his partial journey on the Appalachian Trail revealed that he smoked during his trek. But that was then and this is now. Among the most ignored piece of literature in the world, cigarette packs now spell out clearly the consequences of smoking. I’ll paraphrase the message …

Smoking can harm your children and causes fatal lung disease in non-smokers. It causes fatal head, neck and bladder cancer and stunts fetal growth. It causes heart disease, strokes, COPD, erectile dysfunction, diabetes, cataracts and vascular disease which can require limb amputation.

Could it get any worse?

While I will never understand why anyone in this day and age would try tobacco, I know that there are people who are addicted to nicotine. They have to live with that mistake. Still, it is a nasty habit that they should engage in reluctantly with shame and never assume that it is OK to smoke in front of complete strangers.

At one point I confronted a young hiker who casually lit up a cigarette right next to me. In turn he returned a lengthy lecture on the “live and let live” philosophy of trail life. I replied that “let live” is the point I was trying to make. He insisted he was not an addict and could quit anytime he wanted to. Mark Twain once commented that quitting smoking is one of the easiest things in the world. “I’ve done it one hundred times before!”

My words were wasted on this addict.

There is almost no law enforcement presence on the trail. I encountered only one park ranger over the course of my 2,192 mile journey. However there exists a self-enforced set of rules called the Leave No Trace (LNT) guidelines. In 2019 I read a detailed version that dealt with such weighty measures as preferentially choosing subdued tent colors and the need to swallow your toothpaste instead of spitting it on the ground. There was no mention of cigarette smoking or vaping in and around shelters. I feel certain that other people joined me in petitioning the ATC to include language regarding smoking/vaping in and near shelters on the trail. Thankfully it is now part of LNT.

For those of you who choose to line the pockets of corporate fat cats in North Carolina and other tobacco producing states by indulging in the consumption of cancer sticks I won’t stand in your way. There are thousands of acres adjacent to the trail far from shelters where you can puff to your heart’s content. Suicide comes in many forms; some quicker than others. Just leave me out of it.

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