Addiction and subtraction

Here's a confession: I have a deep aversion to alcohol, cigarettes and drugs of any kind. 

I won't go to the extent of admitting that i hate everyone who drink, smoke or smoke up. But yes, i'll concede that it's distressing to see people, especially the young ones, giving in to temptations. The culture peddled by modernity is not only dangerous but also short-lived. You can't carry on long with these kinds of habits. It's humanly impossible. Your body gives up on you sooner than you guess. A lot of our actions in a party are defined by others. You want to gel in. Be part of the group so you act like the others. You chug because they ask you. You smoke because they pass the fag. You smoke up because the joint was rolled in your honour. In most cases, it's butt obviously/joint account/beer pressure from the surrounding. It's difficult to persuade someone to join you in a sapling project but it's a lot easier to convince them that addictives are cool. Like someone wise once said, if there is a problem, trail the money and see where it leads to. In this generation's case, cash is in surplus. Our fathers and grandfathers didn't have the luxury (or the inclination?) to spend it on booze and cigarettes and weed. If at all they indulged, it was an occasional happenstance. Today's youth are earning big and spending bigger. It's difficult to reason with them. Abstinence is viewed as a symptom of weakness. As absurd as that may sound. After working 12 hours a day, they'd rather hit a noisy club to relax instead of going home to a hot shower. The logic in these scenarios are so skewed that rationality goes out of the window faster than the smoke rings. If you boil down a conversation with them to quitting at once, they'll muse about death. "In the end, we are all going to die" is the usual refrain. But the problem is, it's not about your life alone. With addictive agents active in your existence, you often end up affecting others' lives—intentionally or unintentionally. And that sucks.