Teaching by example to be addicts.

Took me a while but I found a really peaceful spot on the ship which I suspected would be one place children would not go.
I was wrong.
A mother and her young child of about six or seven, came out so mother could have a fix.
I don't say, smoke a cigarette even though I use to myself, but I was aware, even then, I had a problem.
I was an addict.
I looked at this young woman as she puffed frantically at the cigarette. It was clear the child had been brought because she couldn't be left on her own anywhere and mother drew in her breath through the stick as fast and as hard as she could. It must have burned hot!
The child stood there watching her mother, learning what it was to be a grown up and played absentmindedly whilst she waited. It was clear by the way she played, this was a common occurrence and she stood patiently waiting to get back to what she was doing.
It was at that moment something dawned on me. Is there much difference between nicotine addiction and heroine addiction?
Yes, yes, yes, the terms seem incongruous but  just stop a moment and think about the surface issues here.
Both require frequent top ups and the longer someone takes the substances, the more they require, and more frequently.
Both are now seen as addictions.
Both cost a lot of money to maintain and will come before food quite often, but can come before rent, bills or just staying out of debt.
Do both create a state of homelessness? Not really.
Do both render the person incapable of work? If you think about it, yes, it's just nicotine is still seen as more acceptable, like alcohol addiction. But why?
The costs to our health service is phenomenal when you think of the illnesses associate with them. The future both offer to their subjects is bleak. The financial costs are the least of their problems.
I sat and watched this mother teaching her daughter how to be a grown up woman in their values set and shook my head. In this day and age with all the information out there, why do people still teach smoking by example?
More's to the point, do they even realise?
They are teaching by example to be addicts.