Smoke Detector

Anne Landman has dedicated her life to being a pain in the ash. Will it make a difference come election time?

A A A Comments By Laura Bond Thursday, Sep 16 2004

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"I have to remind myself that the tobacco industry kills more people than fires, suicide, heroin and crack combined. When I remember that, it reminds me that maybe I should go back in and take a closer look at how they get away with that."

Tony Gallagher

Unfiltered: Tobacco researcher Anne Landman

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On the way out of Grand Junction, I pull up to the Liquor Barn, a massive siding-covered structure near a strip mall and a vast grove of peach trees. At 5 p.m., the parking lot hums with a quitting-time crowd; guys in suits and women in sweatpants leave their cars running while they pop in for six-packs and bottles of wine. More than half return with a pack of cigarettes in their hand.

I'd planned to pick up a pack myself. Instead, I put the car in gear and drive away, hoping the bad FM radio can drown out the itch that's flared up in the bottom of my being. I think about what Karen DeLeeuw said -- that one day not smoking just won't be as hard as it was the day before. When I pull onto I-70, I'm thinking: Maybe today.

But construction on the highway thirty miles out of town makes the trip that much longer. There's nothing but static on the stereo all through Glenwood Canyon. Near Avon, SUVs and trucks hauling ass down curvy mountain passes stress me out so bad I stop to chill out at a Holiday Inn in, where a hippie dude is smoking outside the front door. He smiles as I bum one from him. After fourteen years, what's one more day?

Maybe tomorrow.