It's a savage addiction, you just can't function until you get your fix, the cravings gnaw at the back of your mind, pestering constantly until you finally give in and take the foil off that 10 deck and jam one in your trap.
It's an odd thing to be doing really, not sure who invented it or why, frankly I think it was just some loon back in the dark ages. There are warnings about kids doing it infact I've been in two schools and a college that completely banned it so why is it us adults are allowed to do it freely?
You start on a brand, usually the cheapest and most readily available, you know the ones in the blue pack with the white on it, or maybe it's the green ones that got you hooked eh? Either way it's usually someone else lending you one that gets you going. From then on you're buying ten packs regularly, you either stick with that brand or you experiment, a lot of people have just moved to that brand which does 14 packs, but not me, I have my brand.
Then once you’ve got a brand you find yourself getting arsey if offered one of a different kind but you don't really care and most of the time you'll take anything to just make the damn cravings go away. Except menthol, nobody likes menthol really, no idea why that lunatic always carries them (there's always one in any group who has the damn menthol ones, god knows why they taste foul).
Soon enough you find yourself on 20 a day and it's no fun any more, you're doing it because you have to not because you want to, you're spending ridiculous amounts on it and you know it's wrong but you can't help yourself.
It's only a 5 minute thing and you know it, there's always the one who can drag one out for 10 minutes but he's just kidding himself, either way it's a short lived buzz and you end up with a funny taste in your mouth and your breath tastes kinda weird.
The remnants of this filthy habit are found lying all over the streets and local councils literally spend millions a year trying to clean up but we just keep dropping more and more, the empty packets the discarded remains just keep building up and we don't stop.
Our society is rife with addicts, slaves to this strange habit and still we do nothing, we watch as more and more people get hooked every day, and you know I can't help but ask myself:

Why oh why did I take up chewing gum?