又中又英｜To go cold turkey

It requires strong willpower to quit smoking. I know because I was a chain smoker as a young journalist many years ago. A chain smoker is someone who smokes one cigarette after another. Deadline pressures and trying to get news exclusives made me chain-smoke. It eased my stress. One day, many years ago, I decided to go cold turkey when my throat hurt, and I could hardly talk from smoking too much. To go cold turkey means to suddenly and completely stop using drugs, alcohol, or tobacco that people are addicted to.

I no longer smoke but will never forget how difficult it was to go cold turkey. The government, which regularly increases tobacco tax to discourage smoking, recently proposed new laws to further make smokers quit. These include a total ban on electronic cigarettes and flavoured tobacco, and expanding public areas where smoking is banned. Henry Tong Sau-chai of the Council on Smoking and Health asked why the government has not banned shisha, which is also called hookah or water pipe. Hookahs, popular in the Middle East, use flavoured tobacco.

Hookahs are legal in Hong Kong and popular in Lan Kwai Fong and other outside bars. Tong Sau-chai’s question made me wonder why the government focuses on cigarettes but not cigars or pipes, which are also harmful. I smoked a pipe for fun when I was young, and cigars when I joined friends in Guangdong before the pandemic. I gave them up long ago. It is right to discourage smoking, but cold turkey is hard for many smokers. As a former smoker, I worry about those who can’t go cold turkey but can’t afford higher cigarette prices.

要戒烟，实在需要很强的意志。我深明此理，因为我多年前当年轻记者时，就曾是个 chain smoker——a chain smoker就是一支接一支地吸烟的烟民。赶死线的压力以及奋力争取独家新闻令我烟驳烟（chain-smoke），这能缓和我的压力。许多年前的一天，我因抽烟过多而喉咙刺痛，亦差不多说不出话来了，以致我决定要彻底戒烟（go cold turkey）。To go cold turkey是指突然及彻底地戒掉某样成瘾的习惯，例如药物、酒精又或烟草。

我现在已不再抽烟，但永远忘不了要完全戒烟（go cold turkey）是有多艰难。政府为了阻止市民吸烟，一直有定期增加烟草税，最近又提出新法例，进一步推动烟民戒烟。这包括全面禁止电子烟和调味烟，以及扩大禁烟的公众范围。香港吸烟与健康委员会的汤修齐质问政府为何还未禁止水烟 shisha，它可被称为 hookah。Hookahs用的是有味的烟草，在中东尤为受欢迎。 

水烟（hookahs）在香港是合法的，在兰桂坊和一些户外酒吧亦甚受欢迎。汤修齐的提问令我思忖为何政府只是专注于香烟，而非雪茄或烟斗之类，这些也是有害的。我年轻的时候，也曾为了好玩而抽过烟斗，新冠疫情前在广东也跟朋友们抽过雪茄。这些我都已经戒了很久了。不鼓励吸烟是对的，但要彻底戒烟（cold turkey）对许多烟民来说确实很难。身为前烟民，我担心那些戒不掉烟瘾（can’t go cold turkey）但又负担不起更贵烟价的人。
 
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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻