Reply #131: I remember those little 4-packs in the "K" rations. Guys who didn't smoke [View All]

[Ron Green]

would sell or trade them around, but indeed they enabled lots of guys to start, if they hadn't already taken it up by their late teens. Government was then, as now, heavily influenced by the tobacco companies and other big corporations, and its own Surgeon General's warnings hadn't yet made much of an impression on the population. My guess is that in today's military there are many more messages to troops about smoking and their health, whereas 40 years ago we had none, but we did have free cigarettes. The behavior shift of a population regarding such a fundamental addiction as tobacco takes many years, and must be constantly advocated for by various groups who are willing to go up against massive and well-crafted propaganda (look at your Salem ad, above.) I'm catching flak elsewhere on this thread for suggesting that "nanny state" laws are sometimes helpful, even necessary, to effect long-term changes in unhealthy behavior. But you've given a perfect example of what can happen over time: the government no longer gives people 4 cigarettes with their meal, but rather provides better information about smoking and health. Maybe the next step will be, as you mention, to help pay for peoples' quitting.