# Image of smoking today?



## tonystanton

What's people's impressions on the current image of smoking. 
Do you think that kids growing up now will still be as fascinated by it as 'we' all were? 
Because the glamorising of smoking has proved to be a disaster. Tragic for many. 
I'm feel awful I spent 10 years doing it, mind you it is nice. 
I just hope that maybe the buck can stop somewhere here, and the young uns don't buy into it.


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## Weston

I do not see it in and around Nashville as much as I used to. It has pretty much been banished to out of the way places outdoors, because people even complained about the smoke hovering around building entrances and exits -- and rightly so. 

I think we as a culture have gone about it the right way. We have never tried to ban the practice. That would backfire worse than the current "war on drugs." Nor have we over-stigmatized the victims of the tobacco industry. We have merely made it gradually less and less tolerated -- not by authorities, but by peers. I'm not sure how that was done but it seems to be working. I'm sure kids will still do it to rebel, but it's not portrayed as cool anywhere I've seen. Maybe I'm sheltered.


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## Pyotr

I was a smoker, on and off, for about 15 years. I haven't had one in quite awhile. My impression is that cigarettes are more expensive these days with higher taxes. I don't see too many people smoking in public anymore. I do not watch many new TV shows but I notice less smoking by movie characters. Would be good if they could somehow ban smoking by TV/movie characters. I'm sure there would be less smokers if they did, but that's not very practical.


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## jani

Smoking is bad.... mmkay...


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## Ingélou

I grew up with smokers. My father gave up after a heart attack, and Taggart gave up seven years into our marriage. He couldn't do it directly - they're so addictive - but for a year or two he smoked a pipe, and that was easier to give up. We had to repaint the ceiling, and his teeth took six months to shed their brown-ness. His parents were the proverbial chimneys and I dreaded their visits. Both died in their seventies of smoking-related illnesses.

Fewer people smoke today. When I was young there was a presumption in favour. I once sat in a non-smoking train carriage. I was a student & I complained to the guard when a man lit up - he supported the smoker! That couldn't happen today.

But smoking is still considered to have a fashionable, streetwise, rebellious, edgy quality to it. Playwrights and actors include it in plays, despite some in the audience protesting. And when I taught in sixth-form college (1990s) there were still a lot of 16 to 18 year olds who took it up - never mind despite the warnings of parents & teachers, but because of them.

Alas.


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## Krummhorn

Back in my early days, smoking was an accepted 'social' practice; there were no public restrictions on where anyone could light up.

I am a former smoker ... and lit up those coffin nails for 39 years. I quit, cold turkey, in late 2004 - and have not smoked since, nor have I had any cravings whatsoever.

After I quit, I could then smell it on peoples clothing and on their breath ... egads, I used to smell like that too ... literally a walking ashtray, and no _butts_ about it. :lol:

I do however feel that smokers rights are being abused/violated ... this is a legal activity for any person of the legal age to do ... it is their right to do so, just as others can consume alcohol in public places. If a person truly wants to end their life sooner, then that is their choice and right to do so.

My Dad smoked a pipe ... died 23 years ago from esophageal cancer ... Mom, who died 21 years (heart attack) and never smoked.

I truly believe our government is in error trying to penalize and single out smokers unfairly ... imo, a _real_ killer is alcohol, like when driving ... how many reports to we hear of a traffic accident that says "the driver was smoking a cigarette"? No, the report says alcohol was involved, 99.9% of the time.

The tax rates keep being hoisted on smoking items ... and seldom on alcohol ... I wonder why. The phrase by the surgeon general: _smoking can be dangerous to your health._ Is there not any surgeon general warning on beer cans ... (?).

I am not against the consumption of alcohol ... again, it is (like smoking) a legal activity by anyone of the legal age in their respective region/country, and smokers and drinker alike do have rights that are being violated, like being told by an employer that they cannot smoke, even at home, or face losing their jobs. That is so very wrong ... so wrong, imho.

Kh ♫


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## Taggart

Problem is so called passive smoking. We had an entertainer called Roy Castle who was a non-smoker but died of lung cancer in 1994, 2 years after being diagnosed. He blamed his illness on passive smoking through playing a trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.

As a student, I remember watching the communal tv in a room where everybody smoked. When the lights went up, the top half of the room was full of smoke. Similarly, in my parent's house when we cleared it after their deaths, a number of items - pictures etc - were stained with a film of tar and nicotine.

Don't agree with the idea of encouraging suicidal behaviour particularly when it can affect others - bit like encouraging bad driving.

As to alcohol, I think that will be coming next in the UK. In the US where you don't have general free medical care, I think it's different because insurance policies which you pay for will set conditions on what you can expect if you make yourself ill. In the UK where we do have socialized medicine, we don't have that "luxury" so we have to control people's behaviour in other ways e.g. a tax per unit of alcohol.

You can't (unfortunately) have a general right to the pursuit of happiness because one person's "happiness" may be another person's discomfort.

All of this imho.


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## Sid James

> What's people's impressions on the current image of smoking.


In a word: antisocial.



> ...
> Do you think that kids growing up now will still be as fascinated by it as 'we' all were?
> ...


I think yes, as young people have a tendency to rebel, but I think the society around them is (has been for a while) changing regarding perceptions of smoking. I think as they grow older, even if its seen as cool in their teens (or tweens?), it gets less and less cool after that. The difference between you as a smoker and non smokers becomes increasingly market. Its banned virtually everywhere indoors now, except from private homes, and also banned near entrances of public buildings and offices, on the grounds of hostpitals, in parks, on railways stations, and so on. Smokers now have basically become pariahs. I'm not saying they are, its an addiction and not their fault, I'm saying thats how they're preceived.


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## Ravndal

Smokers smells bad. But I'm not going to lie. I'm a party-smoker. I smoke everytime I drink with people.


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## moody

Taggart said:


> Problem is so called passive smoking. We had an entertainer called Roy Castle who was a non-smoker but died of lung cancer in 1994, 2 years after being diagnosed. He blamed his illness on passive smoking through playing a trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.
> 
> As a student, I remember watching the communal tv in a room where everybody smoked. When the lights went up, the top half of the room was full of smoke. Similarly, in my parent's house when we cleared it after their deaths, a number of items - pictures etc - were stained with a film of tar and nicotine.
> 
> Don't agree with the idea of encouraging suicidal behaviour particularly when it can affect others - bit like encouraging bad driving.
> 
> As to alcohol, I think that will be coming next in the UK. In the US where you don't have general free medical care, I think it's different because insurance policies which you pay for will set conditions on what you can expect if you make yourself ill. In the UK where we do have socialized medicine, we don't have that "luxury" so we have to control people's behaviour in other ways e.g. a tax per unit of alcohol.
> 
> You can't (unfortunately) have a general right to the pursuit of happiness because one person's "happiness" may be another person's discomfort.
> 
> All of this imho.


This is a side of you that I don't like so much.


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## elgar's ghost

I think one of the next instalments of the 'salami tactics' policy used to further marginalise smoking will be to ban smoking in all vehicles, at least while they are on the move and then in time maybe altogether. Difficult to enforce maybe, but even as a smoker I can see a strong case for outlawing it in this particular instance.


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## Ukko

elgars ghost said:


> I think one of the next instalments of the 'salami tactics' policy used to further marginalise smoking will be to ban smoking in all vehicles, at least while they are on the move and then in time maybe altogether. Difficult to enforce maybe, but even as a smoker I can see a strong case for outlawing it in this particular instance.


Ah Jeez. Smoking is stupid - but stupid shouldn't be illegal.


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## KenOC

“...and a woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."

--Rudyard Kipling


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## Mesa

I plan on giving up soon, nothing to do with the comfort of others, moreso the inexorable increase of prices is bothering me. When i was a wee lad it were about 2 quid for 10 Windsor Blue, cheap but functional British cigarette, now they are over £4. Not smoked not-rollups regularly in years but there's no way i could possibly afford to.

As for being a smoker, i smoke in my own house or outside when i'm anywhere, i never litter cigarette ends, and i enjoy it (A thrill that becomes diluted, you tend to go from enjoying each one to about one every 10 or 20). I take reasonable consideration to the habit and don't do it if it would make anyone uncomfortable. As for the smell, a man can develop his smooth Virginia musk, just because i smell of tobacco doesn't stop non smokers from smelling like tea tree oil or raw meat or cheap perfume.


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## Crudblud

I thought the anti-smoking campaigns were ridiculous when I smoked and I still think they're ridiculous now. I can't stand those non-smokers who get on their high horses about it or people who walk up to groups of smokers and start coughing ("that's a bad cough you've got there, good job you don't smoke!"). I say let the smokers grow their tumours in peace, you've already kicked them out of public transportation and buildings, that's enough.


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## Kieran

Mad Men has made it look cool again. I'm a non smoker but I don't mind others smoking. In Vienna they smoke in bars and it almost felt nostalgic. I love the smell of tobacco. I know, it's not healthy, I understand the concerns and sympathise with people who have lost loved ones, but life sometimes needs things that aren't healthy. It's part of the tapestry. Having said that, most smokers I know are trying to give them up, as far too costly.

I agree with crud above, about the tension between smokers and non. There's no need for the cabaret act, if somebody is smoking in a designated area, then non-smokers shouldn't be prudishly fake-coughing and laying a guilt trip on them...


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## Ingélou

KenOC said:


> "...and a woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
> 
> --Rudyard Kipling


A woman is *only* a woman - get your scansion right! 

But much as I love Kipling (who doesn't?), he didn't have a clue about women!


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## Ingélou

moody said:


> This is a side of you that I don't like so much.


Shame. But you should make allowances for someone who has lost his parents and most of his uncles and aunts to smoking-related diseases. When I went out socially with my parents in law, my eyes were streaming, I felt sick, and usually had to take a break outside for five minutes to restore my breathing function. That's what it used to be like in Scotland. I hope it's got better now.

How gracious of some of you to say you don't mind or quite like the smell of smoking. Oh well, that's all right then.


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## moody

Ingenue said:


> Shame. But you should make allowances for someone who has lost his parents and most of his uncles and aunts to smoking-related diseases. When I went out socially with my parents in law, my eyes were streaming, I felt sick, and usually had to take a break outside for five minutes to restore my breathing function. That's what it used to be like in Scotland. I hope it's got better now.
> 
> How gracious of some of you to say you don't mind or quite like the smell of smoking. Oh well, that's all right then.


So you want to control smoking and you want to control drinking. What next I wonder?
I'm dying from a smoking related illness but I don't want to control anyone .


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## Ingélou

I am really sorry to hear that, and hope your health does not deteriorate too fast.

You can never stop smoking, drinking and drug abuse. People are people. Controlling health abuses, particularly as they affect children or young people, however, is the compassionate and mature thing to do. 

It's made things a lot pleasanter, the smoking ban in public places. Drinking has got out of hand in this country among young people - cirrhosis of the liver being seen in 30 year olds, for example. So something has to be done to help. This doesn't make one a tyrant, any more than trying to curb drinking in the gin century (18th) or in Victorian times did.


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## Andreas

Webern









Shostakovich









Schoenberg


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## Taggart

moody said:


> This is a side of you that I don't like so much.


Which one - left, right, front, back, top, bottom?


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## Taggart

Mesa said:


> I plan on giving up soon, nothing to do with the comfort of others, moreso the inexorable increase of prices is bothering me. When i was a wee lad it were about 2 quid for 10 Windsor Blue, cheap but functional British cigarette, now they are over £4. Not smoked not-rollups regularly in years but there's no way i could possibly afford to.


You're showing your age. When I were a lad you could get 5 woodbine for 1/- ! Them were the days, you could have a ***, a drink, go to the pictures and still have change out of half a crown.


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## Kieran

moody said:


> So you want to control smoking and you want to control drinking. What next I wonder?
> I'm dying from a smoking related illness but I don't want to control anyone .


I think controlling harmful substances and aiming for a healthier society is the thing of good government, isn't it? It isn't controlling people - it's damage limitation. Now, I don't mind smoke and smokers, but I think both Taggart and Ingenue have been clear on their reasons and their reasons are unimpeachable, far as I can make out...


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## moody

Kieran said:


> I think controlling harmful substances and aiming for a healthier society is the thing of good government, isn't it? It isn't controlling people - it's damage limitation. Now, I don't mind smoke and smokers, but I think both Taggart and Ingenue have been clear on their reasons and their reasons are unimpeachable, far as I can make out...


Your opinion on this is your own of course,but I'm closer to the problem than you are and don't believe in state control.
I presume you don't smoke or drink.or eat fatty foods,or candy,or ice cream.etc, more people are dying from bad diets ,should we legislate at the supermarket till ? Nonsense!


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## Kieran

moody said:


> Your opinion on this is your own of course,but I'm closer to the problem than you are and don't believe in state control.
> I presume you don't smoke or drink.or eat fatty foods,or candy,or ice cream.etc, more people are dying from bad diets ,should we legislate at the supermarket till ? Nonsense!


I'm sorry that smoke related illness is killing you, I really am,because I like seeing you around here, but that's no reason why you should attack Taggart. I agree with you about unhealthy eating and drinking (both of which I do) and I wrote about this kind of thing in my first post on the thread, but I see what Taggart meant and don't think you should have reacted the way you did...


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## moody

Kieran said:


> I'm sorry that smoke related illness is killing you, I really am,because I like seeing you around here, but that's no reason why you should attack Taggart. I agree with you about unhealthy eating and drinking (both of which I do) and I wrote about this kind of thing in my first post on the thread, but I see what Taggart meant and don't think you should have reacted the way you did...


I.m not much interested in what you think of my reaction and it was Ingenue in any case wasn't it ?
I should not have got into this and didn't join TC for this type of nonsense.
I will make no further comment !


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## BlazeGlory

I have come to the conclusion that discussing smoking is almost as bad as actually performing the act.


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## Kieran

moody said:


> I.m not much interested in what you think of my reaction and it was Ingenue in any case wasn't it ?
> I should not have got into this and didn't join TC for this type of nonsense.
> I will make no further comment !


It was Taggart.

And if you weren't "moody" in your response I'd be disappointed in ya!


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## Ingélou

The OP asked about the image of smoking. I think that it still is seen as attractive in some quarters. Drinking, especially of wines, is also 'cool'. What is different now from when I was young was that it is fashionable for women to get plastered. For my group of gals, it was taboo. And since women's livers can't take much alcohol, it's a real shame. 

The more the elders fulminate, however, the more attractive a habit is for the young. I had a friend once who researched the effects of anti-smoking drives in schools in the 1970s, and the results bore out this very point.


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## Ukko

"But for the record, moody didn't like Taggart's point and I decided to wade in on my Man's behalf. Probably a silly idea... 

Yeah, probably.

I used to be puzzled by the way so many 'liberals' push for Big Brother government. I've since decided it's simply an example of 'compartmentalized' thinking.


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## Ingélou

Interesting thought. 
Since you quote me at the beginning of it - a quote I took off almost at once - I am wondering if you mean Taggart & me by 'liberals' and 'big brother government'. Point of information - we are not liberals, and we don't like 'big brother government'. We just think it's nicer not to have our lungs clogged in public places. Smokers can do what they want in their own space. 

You may be right about the wider generalisation, of course. e.g. a lot of 'liberals' on social issues in the UK are very keen on stopping local protests to windfarms and so on. (I am not part of any such protest; it's just an observation.)


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## BlazeGlory

A dialogue from one of my favorite Honeymooners episodes:

Ed Norton: Hey Ralphie Boy! You mind if I smoke?

Ralph Kramden: Norton! I don't care if you BURN!


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## Ingélou

Reminds me of the famous Marilyn Monroe quote...


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## deggial

Andreas said:


> http://www.classical-composers.org/img/webern_2.jpg
> Webern
> 
> http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/55581999/Dmitri+Shostakovich+Shostakovich.png
> Shostakovich
> 
> 
> __
> https://flic.kr/p/6
> Schoenberg


the pictures get ominously bigger... could be an anti-smoking advert


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## moody

Taggart said:


> You're showing your age. When I were a lad you could get 5 woodbine for 1/- ! Them were the days, you could have a ***, a drink, go to the pictures and still have change out of half a crown.


A *** means something else to Americans.


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## Taggart

moody said:


> A *** means something else to Americans.


I didn't know they had ******* in American Public schools! Oh hang on, the US Public schools are like our comprehensive, so it's private schools in the US that have *******.


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## Ukko

moody said:


> A *** means something else to Americans.


The altered meaning is fairly recent, a shortening of '******'. Before that, a US *** was a cigarette. Slang words emulsify swiftly.


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## Taggart

Hilltroll72 said:


> The altered meaning is fairly recent, a shortening of '******'. Before that, a US *** was a cigarette. Slang words emulsify swiftly.


Oh, you have meatballs too?


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## Ryan

It's cool as **** and you know it


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## SixFootScowl

I smoked for about ten years, about 2.5 packs a day (not sure what they have today, but it was 20 cigarettes per pack back then). Quit over 35 years ago.


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## Albert7

I don't like smoking at all. Allergic to it all.

I avoid smokers due to my terrible reaction.


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## ArtMusic

I try to avoid smokers. I do not smoke.


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## brotagonist

I have never been a smoker. Tobacco smoke gives me headaches, particularly when I'm in a confined space. It also gives me stuffed airways and a rasping throat. I don't like the smell of smokers. I'm against vaping, too. It's just a ruse to get people hooked on even purer nicotine at even higher dosages than possible from cigarettes. Nicotine is not cool.


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## Ingélou

If I see someone on TV smoking now, I feel uneasy & sorry, having known of so many older people who've died of smoking-related conditions. 
The few times I've been to the theatre and it's been part of the production that an actor lights up, I feel outraged. And that one cigarette pollutes the whole auditorium.
Ugh - I'm with James VI and I on this one!


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## Pugg

ArtMusic said:


> I try to avoid smokers. I do not smoke.


Me to, our house is a _no smoking area_, except for the garden for the die harts.


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## Art Rock

Having had to struggle with second-hand smoke for a large part of my life (I always got migraines when I was near people smoking for a prolonged time), I'm very glad that society has turned around on this in the past two decades. I never understood the "cool" aspect either.


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## Proms Fanatic

The incongruity of the legislation regarding smoking and alcohol has always astounded me. 

Alcohol leads to a broadly similar number of deaths/bad health effects for both the user and other people as smoking does. Yet we allow people to drink as much as they like and drink what they like, allow advertising for drinking etc etc. For smoking, it's banned in public places, advertising and even basic brand recognition is massively prohibited.

Why is there such a big difference in the attitude to these two vices?


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## Ingélou

Proms Fanatic said:


> The incongruity of the legislation regarding smoking and alcohol has always astounded me.
> 
> Alcohol leads to a broadly similar number of deaths/bad health effects for both the user and other people as smoking does. Yet we allow people to drink as much as they like and drink what they like, allow advertising for drinking etc etc. For smoking, it's banned in public places, advertising and even basic brand recognition is massively prohibited.
> 
> Why is there such a big difference in the attitude to these two vices?


Because a drinker doesn't pollute the air and spread health risks?
I have no objection if people want to smoke cigarettes in private - just not in my space.

Passive smoking does kill. The trumpeter & comedian Roy Castle (a non-smoker) died of lung cancer after a lifetime of working in smoky clubs, a point that was made earlier on this thread.

There's history in banning alcohol (American Prohibition) & it doesn't seem to work. I agree that drinking is over-glamorised, however.


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## Proms Fanatic

Drinkers are more aggressive, more risk-taking, cause deaths/injuries through drink driving. If anything, drinking to excess might be more dangerous to the public at large than passive smoking.


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## Ingélou

Yes, but there are already penalties against drink-driving & many local areas have a ban on drinking alcohol outdoors. I quite agree that there should be more public awareness of drinking, but as with American prohibition, banning it would just lead to it going underground and maybe to gangs too.

I am not 'for drink' - the exact opposite, actually - but the same kind of measures that have been taken against smoking are just not practical.

The police could crack down on binge drinking in city centres, as well as stepping up random breath tests, though.


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## isorhythm

It's interesting that among young people in the U.S., smoking has remained cool all this time, despite everyone knowing that it's deadly. I used to smoke occasionally, though never regularly. I know people who smoked a lot. Most people seem to wise up by age 30 or so. There's nothing good about it - it's just poison. But I wonder why it can't shake its cool image.


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## Ingélou

One of my friends did a research project on anti-smoking education in the 1970s and found that it was often counter-productive. The more that teachers hammered the evils of smoking, the more the kids smoked - teen rebellion is always cool. 'Tis the way of the world...


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## Guest

In Britain sixty years ago 60% of men and nearly half of women smoked. It's now down to about 20%. So it's not cool as it was.

And I (like many people) am extremely glad of the ban on public smoking. I remember for years when I got home from an evening out in a crowded place, my clothes and hair stank of tobacco. Bleurgh. And I was breathing that stuff.


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## Ingélou

What the younger generation have been spared is to get on a train that had travelled down from Glasgow in the 1960s or 1970s. Tobacco essence had seeped into the upholstery, so that even a seat in a non-smoking carriage was like sitting in an ash-tray. 

I have nothing against Glaswegians who smoke, btw - I married one. But thankfully, he has been smoke free for over 30 years now.


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## Bulldog

I remain a smoking person who smokes anything that comes my way. Before the anti-smoking brigade went nuts, I was a very considerate smoker but not any longer. I've adjusted to the smoking bans in restaurants and other buildings - no problem.

Just yesterday in Albuquerque, a drunk driver killed 2 people and seriously injured a few more in an SUV; the guy had two previous convictions for driving while intoxicated. Of course, the booze will keep flowing as long as politicians and judges keep guzzling the stuff.


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## isorhythm

New York City banned smoking in restaurants, bars and cafes in 2003. People complained, but most have come around. I for one like being able to go out and come home not reeking of stale cigarette smoke.

A couple years ago the city also banned smoking in public parks, but this ban is never enforced. In general smoke is not a problem in open air, but people throwing their cigarette butts on the ground sadly is.


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## Bulldog

Just curious as to why you feel that butts on the ground represents a problem. I doubt that people are picking up those butts and smoking them.


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## Mahlerian

Bulldog said:


> Just curious as to why you feel that butts on the ground represents a problem. I doubt that people are picking up those butts and smoking them.


It's ugly, for one thing.

For those wondering, I don't smoke, never have, have always disliked the smell, used to be unable to even be in the same room with a smoker.


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## brotagonist

I have had lots of smoker friends and I have always been the one who had to make concessions and suffer for their vices.


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## Bulldog

Mahlerian said:


> It's ugly, for one thing.


That's true; I've never heard anyone say that cig. butts have aesthetic appeal.

My pet peeve is dog poop on sidewalks and in public parks.


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## QuietGuy

I was a heavy smoker for ~40 years, and now have COPD/Emphysema and on oxygen 24/7. I started at a young age, and no one ever did anything to stop me once they knew... However I can't blame others. I had plenty of time to quit in those 40 years, and never did. Luckily, I quit 5 years ago, so at least I'm not still smoking. It's not easy constantly being tethered to an oxygen tube. But, I have only myself to blame....

Quitting is a good idea, and the patches worked for me.


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## Mahlerian

Bulldog said:


> That's true; I've never heard anyone say that cig. butts have aesthetic appeal.
> 
> My pet peeve is dog poop on sidewalks and in public parks.


I agree. People should clean up after their pets, too.


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## Ingélou

QuietGuy said:


> I was a heavy smoker for ~40 years, and now have COPD/Emphysema and on oxygen 24/7. I started at a young age, and no one ever did anything to stop me once they knew... However I can't blame others. I had plenty of time to quit in those 40 years, and never did. Luckily, I quit 5 years ago, so at least I'm not still smoking. It's not easy constantly being tethered to an oxygen tube. But, I have only myself to blame....
> 
> Quitting is a good idea, and the patches worked for me.


Oh, sorry to hear this! How good of you to use your own experience to warn others. I have known a few people (including relatives) who have not only been in denial about their smoking-related illnesses, but who have got nasty with anyone who asked about it.
Very best wishes that your condition does not get worse (& if possible improves).


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## Ingélou

Mahlerian said:


> I agree. People should clean up after their pets, too.


When I was a dog-owner, it used to infuriate me, people not picking up, because I always did & it just makes people very anti-dog. I sometimes confronted people who didn't, and they were really horrible about it.


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## SixFootScowl

Mahlerian said:


> I agree. People should clean up after their pets, too.


And clean up from their lawn chemical applications. I the spring we hate to go for walks in the neighborhood because many will spread pesticide/herbicide granules on their lawns and they not sweep it off the sidewalk when they are done. This is not the kind of stuff I want brought back in the house for the dog to get into. Often it is so bad that the dog goes for her walks in the street.

Tree trimming too. Many don't keep their trees trimmed for sidewalk clearance and or turning sight clearance for cars at corner lots (and must figure lower branches in the rain).

Much of this is pure ignorance and/or thoughtlessness.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

I can't stand seeing littered cigarettes, it takes some nerve to just throw something like that on the ground in communal space. I've met plenty of super-nice smokers but come on.


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## brotagonist

Mahlerian said:


> I agree. People should clean up after their pets, too.


And not use civic parks as dog toilets!


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## Celloman

I have never been a smoker and I never will.

I'm fine with the laws against public smoking, but I don't think that smokers should be taxed for buying cigarettes. They're expensive enough anyway and the health consequences should be enough to dissuade anybody. Why punish them for it?


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## SixFootScowl

Celloman said:


> I have never been a smoker and I never will.
> 
> I'm fine with the laws against public smoking, but I don't think that smokers should be taxed for buying cigarettes. They're expensive enough anyway and the health consequences should be enough to dissuade anybody. Why punish them for it?


Unless the tax is used to ease the burden of smoking related diseases from being borne by the non-smoking population. After all, group health insurance policies spread the cost over all members, so the healthier ones pay for part of the care of the sickly ones. This is good in general but not good when it subsidizes lack of good health practices or unhealthy habits.


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## KenOC

In California, punitive cigarette taxes are used to fund early childhood education. No connection with treating smoking-related diseases so far as I can see.

The latest hoorah is e-cigs, which are greatly under attack and being treated the same as regular cigarettes as far as restrictions in some cities, and are being increasingly considered as a new source of tax revenues. Never mind that they seem to be much less damaging than cigarettes (I have smoked them for a couple of years and my cough is long gone) and are almost certainly a preferable alternative.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> In California, punitive cigarette taxes are used to fund early childhood education. No connection with treating smoking-related diseases so far as I can see.
> 
> The latest hoorah is e-cigs, which are greatly under attack and being treated the same as regular cigarettes as far as restrictions in some cities, and are being increasingly considered as a new source of tax revenues. Never mind that they seem to be much less damaging than cigarettes (I have smoked them for a couple of years and my cough is long gone) and are almost certainly a preferable alternative.


The way I quit was chewing on/sucking on toothpicks. It worked great, except I had to get off the toothpicks. I chewed them for about five years straight. Carried them in a pocket container whereever I went. Then one day I was on a date and I couldn't stand it any longer, so pulled out a toothpick and stuck it in my mouth. She looked at me and said, "oh gross." Then I quit the toothpicks.:lol:


----------



## isorhythm

Bulldog said:


> Just curious as to why you feel that butts on the ground represents a problem. I doubt that people are picking up those butts and smoking them.


On the street, not such a big deal, since the street sweepers will get them.

But in parks they're unsightly litter, and they build up.


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## clavichorder

"Image of smoking today" makes me think of two things. The trendiness of both E cigs and marijuana.


----------



## Blake

It still carries a certain cool, rebellious look... at least until you die. But hey, we all die, right? Let's just hope it's not too painful on the way out.


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## Sloe

When I see people smoke I think: At least they can´t judge me for my unhealthy habits.
By the way let people smoke freely outdoors. I do not feel any smell.
I was listening to a reportage about Hong Kong from 1958 were they said you can buy a pack of Lucky Strike for what today would be one USD. For that price I would smoke too. Tobacco products just get more and more expensive.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Me Smoking yesterday


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## Bellinilover

I'm old enough to remember when restaurants had smoking sections; my impression is that since public smoking was outlawed here in the US, Americans in general look down on smoking and smokers and think things like, "Why would anyone jeopardize his or her health in that way?" Personally, I don't understand it either; on the other hand, I've never smoked in my life, so maybe I just don't "get" just how addictive it can be.

In short, I don't believe that most Americans today think of cool, old-Hollywood types like Humphrey Bogart when they think of smokers.


----------



## Bellinilover

Ingélou said:


> I grew up with smokers. My father gave up after a heart attack, and Taggart gave up seven years into our marriage. He couldn't do it directly - they're so addictive - but for a year or two he smoked a pipe, and that was easier to give up. We had to repaint the ceiling, and his teeth took six months to shed their brown-ness. His parents were the proverbial chimneys and I dreaded their visits. Both died in their seventies of smoking-related illnesses.
> 
> Fewer people smoke today. When I was young there was a presumption in favour. I once sat in a non-smoking train carriage. I was a student & I complained to the guard when a man lit up - he supported the smoker! That couldn't happen today.
> 
> But smoking is still considered to have a fashionable, streetwise, rebellious, edgy quality to it. Playwrights and actors include it in plays, despite some in the audience protesting. And when I taught in sixth-form college (1990s) there were still a lot of 16 to 18 year olds who took it up - never mind despite the warnings of parents & teachers, but because of them.
> 
> Alas.


Regarding your last paragraph: In the US I think that was more or less true in the 1990's (I remember some of my "cool" high school classmates smoking) -- today, not so much.


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## Pugg

I am glad they made those packets with all those diseases pictures, alas smoking still increasing.


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## Sloe

Bellinilover said:


> I'm old enough to remember when restaurants had smoking sections; my impression is that since public smoking was outlawed here in the US, Americans in general look down on smoking and smokers and think things like, "Why would anyone jeopardize his or her health in that way?" Personally, I don't understand it either; on the other hand, I've never smoked in my life, so maybe I just don't "get" just how addictive it can be.
> 
> In short, I don't believe that most Americans today think of cool, old-Hollywood types like Humphrey Bogart when they think of smokers.


It was at least here 11 years ago smoking was banned on restaurants so you don´t have to be that old to remember it.
Humphrey Bogart died from throat cancer at the age of 57 so probably that is what a lot of people think of.


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## Sloe

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Me Smoking yesterday
> View attachment 88701


Smoking turn you into a bird?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Sloe said:


> Smoking turn you into a bird?


All depends on what your smoking.........


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## Sloe

Pugg said:


> I am glad they made those packets with all those diseases pictures, alas smoking still increasing.


I think it have gone too far now less than 10 % of the population smoke were I live and the average smoker smokes maybe 10 cigarettes per day compared that once the average person smoked 10 cigarettes per day. It is enough everyone knows it is dangerous the only ones who smoke are those that are just indifferent some people have unhealthy habits. Another thing just as there have been more and more regulations on tobacco the regulations for alcohol have been loosened while the tolerance for alcohol have raised and so have the alcohol consumption there are lots of people who have to take a bear or a glass of wine when they wake up in the morning and it is the last thing they take when they go to bed and they need to get an intake of alcohol with some regularity during the day a habit that is very similar to the daily smoker the difference is with that behaviour you will destroy not only your health but also your life and the life for the people around you.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> All depends on what your smoking.........


............................................


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## James Mann

Pugg said:


> I am glad they made those packets with all those diseases pictures, alas smoking still increasing.


Those pictures will never stop someone that is already addicted. Putting the price up won't help either, it'll just add to more burglaries and assault of shop owners. If they get banned, it'll only become a black market thing and people with buy them overseas where it isn't banned.

You can't win can you?

I gave up those dreadful things around 25 years ago, I admire all that are able to do the same


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## Ingélou

Bellinilover said:


> Regarding your last paragraph ('And when I taught in sixth-form college (1990s) there were still a lot of 16 to 18 year olds who took it up - never mind despite the warnings of parents & teachers, but because of them.): In the US I think that was more or less true in the 1990's (I remember some of my "cool" high school classmates smoking) -- today, not so much.


I am relieved & pleased to hear it


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## Dr Johnson

I gave up 15 years ago. Even if I wanted to smoke I couldn't afford it now.

I agree with James Mann that prohibition would do more harm than good.


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## Dr Johnson

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Me Smoking yesterday
> View attachment 88701


Did you look like that before you took up smoking?


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## Pugg

James Mann said:


> Those pictures will never stop someone that is already addicted. Putting the price up won't help either, it'll just add to more burglaries and assault of shop owners. If they get banned, it'll only become a black market thing and people with buy them overseas where it isn't banned.
> 
> You can't win can you?
> 
> I gave up those dreadful things around 25 years ago, I admire all that are able to do the same


I never started in the first place, first off all: it's not cool, second that awful taste smokers have in their mouths, like putting your tongue in an astray .
I do stop there, you get my point I think.
tink


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## James Mann

Pugg said:


> I never started in the first place, first off all: it's not cool, second that awful taste smokers have in their mouths, like putting your tongue in an astray .
> I do stop there, you get my point I think.
> tink


I'm happy for you Pugg, but in your post you stated that you are "glad they made those packets with all those diseases pictures", but I stated they will never and are not working.


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## MoonlightSonata

I tend to avoid that sort of thing, but at school I've heard of plenty of people doing all sorts of drugs, but never smoking tobacco. Perhaps _that_ message, at least, is getting through?


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## Sloe

MoonlightSonata said:


> I tend to avoid that sort of thing on the whole but at school I've heard of plenty of people doing all sorts of drugs, but never smoking tobacco. Perhaps _that_ message, at least, is getting through?


It is a way of compensating their own bad habits like Larry Hagman who banned smoking on Dallas while himself excessively used all sort of drugs.


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## Ingélou

Pugg said:


> I never started in the first place, first off all: it's not cool, second that awful taste smokers have in their mouths, like putting your tongue in an astray .
> I do stop there, you get my point I think.
> tink


For about a month, when I was 22, I tried smoking those menthol cigarettes - I'd just got engaged, & Taggart smoked at the time.

I gave up - or rather, failed to persevere - when I visited my Gran and we had a sing-song round her piano. She said smoking would go for my voice, which persuaded me.

But I think I'd have given up anyway, after visiting Tag's parents - the whole house was yellow and misty and all one's clothes and hair started to smell like an ash tray. My in-laws were thoroughly addicted and when they developed bad coughs & Tag's aunt got lung cancer, they still wouldn't blame smoking. After all, my aunt-in-law's doctor smoked - as probably most doctors did in Scotland in the 1980s.

It's very sad.


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## Sloe

Ingélou said:


> For about a month, when I was 22, I tried smoking those menthol cigarettes - I'd just got engaged, & Taggart smoked at the time.
> 
> I gave up - or rather, failed to persevere - when I visited my Gran and we had a sing-song round her piano. She said smoking would go for my voice, which persuaded me.
> 
> But I think I'd have given up anyway, after visiting Tag's parents - the whole house was yellow and misty and all one's clothes and hair started to smell like an ash tray. My in-laws were thoroughly addicted and when they developed bad coughs & Tag's aunt got lung cancer, they still wouldn't blame smoking. After all, my aunt-in-law's doctor smoked - as probably most doctors did in Scotland in the 1980s.
> 
> It's very sad.


I decided to start smoking once I bought a lighter and a pack of cigarettes that just happened to be Marlboro red 100´s the pack was so big and hard and when I lighted a cigarette I felt uncomfortable just holding it and decided smoking is too complicated so it is not for me.


----------



## Dr Johnson

"And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid git"

_(I'm So Tired, Lennon/McCartney)_


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dr Johnson said:


> Did you look like that before you took up smoking?


only some times, when smoking a lot I become a lizard occasionally!


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## Pugg

James Mann said:


> I'm happy for you Pugg, but in your post you stated that you are "glad they made those packets with all those diseases pictures", but I stated they will never and are not working.


In that case, you are 100% right.
I know from friends that smoking in the U.K, is twice the price then in my country and down under even more.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> In that case, you are 100% right.
> I know from friends that smoking in the U.K, is twice the price then in my country and down under even more.


Yep its about $20 buck a pack if you smoke those rolled things - yuck don't like them at all is pipe- old school for me all the way!


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## Pugg

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Yep its about $20 buck a pack if you smoke those rolled things - yuck don't like them at all is pipe- old school for me all the way!


They should make them 10 times that amount, filthy habit.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I can think of other habits


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## Pugg

With a smelling mouth, awful teeth, sore throats and cancer on your longs.....


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I smoke but don't inhale- just ask Bill Clinton :lol: and list time I looked my longs were ok.........


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## KenOC

I switched to e-cigs a few years ago. My smoker's cough is long gone and I don't know of any nasty side effects. And the dollar savings are enormous!

BBC just published an article on this:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37338992


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## Sloe

Pugg said:


> They should make them 10 times that amount, filthy habit.


A tax is fair to make people think before they buy it but those who use it should be able to afford it.


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## Pugg

Sloe said:


> A tax is fair to make people think before they buy it but those who use it should be able to afford it.


That's the problem, more tax should putting people off, alas no, smokers just moaning about the price.


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## Judith

Pugg said:


> They should make them 10 times that amount, filthy habit.


I agree. In the UK they don't allow smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants so people smoke outside. When I walk past I have to breathe it in which isn't fair!! I just hate the smoke!!


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## Sloe

Judith said:


> I agree. In the UK they don't allow smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants so people smoke outside. When I walk past I have to breathe it in which isn't fair!! I just hate the smoke!!


When I am outside I can sit right next to someone smoking outside without notice it.


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## Sloe

Bellinilover said:


> Personally, I don't understand it either; on the other hand, I've never smoked in my life, so maybe I just don't "get" just how addictive it can be.


I use smokeless tobacco daily and I can say it is about this addictive you can function normally without it but you just miss it a lot. I think smoking tobacco is somewhat less addictive since most smokers don´t smoke for most part of their time.


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## Pugg

Judith said:


> I agree. In the UK they don't allow smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants so people smoke outside. When I walk past I have to breathe it in which isn't fair!! I just hate the smoke!!


How about the waiting places for trams and buses, smoking like idiot's before the next one comes.


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## KenOC

I'm always amazed by the number of people who now are "allergic" to tobacco smoke. There were no such people in my youth. A new and frightening disease, it seems!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> How about the waiting places for trams and buses, smoking like idiot's before the next one comes.


Did you call. You know this thread is call Image of Smoking today, so here is me yesterday, which is the day before today..


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## Potiphera

Pugg said:


> How about the waiting places for trams and buses, smoking like idiot's before the next one comes.


I have seen people take the last long drag on ciggy before getting on the bus. 
Sometimes the drivers get off the bus for a *** break.
I've seen some passengers roll up a cigarette before they get off! `
People lighting up a *** as soon as church service or a funeral is over. 
Mothers with babies and toddlers smoking. 
Outside shop doorways people smoking , I have to say the majority are women, some look glassy eyed and in a trance like state whilst dragging on a ***, transporting them to smokers heaven! Or what ever high it gives them.

Think I'll take to wearing the Niqab. So I don't have to breathe it all in!


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## Potiphera

Does Cannabis have less additives/chemicals than ordinary cigarettes?


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## Sonata

KenOC said:


> I'm always amazed by the number of people who now are "allergic" to tobacco smoke. There were no such people in my youth. A new and frightening disease, it seems!


It surprises you? I fail to see how someone's eyes watering, throat hurting, and lungs getting irritated is "surprising". it is a toxic substance and the body is reacting accordingly. I'm sure there WERE such people in your youth and you simply did not notice. Or people are using the term allergy when not strictly accurate, but allergy or intolerance, it can make people miserable whether you believe it or not.


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## Sonata

Potiphera said:


> Does Cannabis have less additives/chemicals than ordinary cigarettes?


It doesn't have the tar that cigarette do, but the heat of the smoke does its own damage. Smoking either can lead to COPD. I have not found any specific stats as to lung cancer association with marijuana smoke, either positive or negative.There are some differences in smoking a joint versus using a bong method because the former introduces chemicals from combustion of the joint paper as well.


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## SixFootScowl

I once got a Greyhound bus to pull over to the side of the road and the driver announce that the bus was not moving again until my cigarette was put out. Needless to say, I snuffed out the cigarette.

When I first started smoking, I smoked eight Kools in a row and got a mild case of nicotine poisoning. Had the dry heaves for a while. 

Glad I quit about 37 years ago after a 10-year 2.5-pack-a-day-habit.


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## znapschatz

KenOC said:


> I'm always amazed by the number of people who now are "allergic" to tobacco smoke. There were no such people in my youth. A new and frightening disease, it seems!


Your observation may be correct, but there is more to the issue.

Decades ago, we were all so inundated with tobacco smoke that our bodies were habituated to it. My parents, like most American couples at the time, both smoked and I grew up to be a smoker. It was everywhere; restaurants, movie theaters, college classrooms, retail stores, hospitals etc. that smoking was permitted. In that era I was a heavy smoker and smoked everywhere it was allowed, which then was just about everywhere.

When finally giving them up and living in a smoke free environment for a while, I became sensitive to not only cigarettes burning in my vicinity, but being in rooms in which no one had been presently smoking but where smoking had taken place. It was never a pleasant sensation, but when strongly exposed, my eyes would burn, sinuses stuffed, sore throat and headache. These are all allergic symptoms.

What had happened, explained my family doctor, was that my tobacco allergic body had reverted to its original reactive state.
Not everyone is allergic to tobacco, but estimates of those who are run as high as 40%. When a body cannot avoid an allergen, it adapts. One of the adaptations, ironically enough, is addiction. It could be that as many as 40% of all habitual smokers took up the habit out of allergic adaptation to tobacco. Many ex-smokers give up cigarettes and have no symptoms around smoke, but they had not been allergic. People smoke for a lot of reasons.

There are enough non-smokers, ex-smokers and mandated smoke free areas in our world that now, freed from the adaptation cycle, more people are reverting to the reactive response to tobacco, and that most likely accounts for your perception.


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## Sloe

znapschatz said:


> When finally giving them up and living in a smoke free environment for a while, I became sensitive to not only cigarettes burning in my vicinity, but being in rooms in which no one had been presently smoking but where smoking had taken place. It was never a pleasant sensation, but when strongly exposed, my eyes would burn, sinuses stuffed, sore throat and headache. These are all allergic symptoms.


Some people have stronger smelling senses than others. Mine are rather low.
I can feel if someone have been smoking a few minutes ago if I am right next to them otherwise not. Others think smokers smell like ash trays all the time. I only feel smoke when I am indoors others think a bus stop is overwhelmed by smoke.


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## Sloe

Sonata said:


> It doesn't have the tar that cigarette do, but the heat of the smoke does its own damage. Smoking either can lead to COPD. I have not found any specific stats as to lung cancer association with marijuana smoke, either positive or negative.There are some differences in smoking a joint versus using a bong method because the former introduces chemicals from combustion of the joint paper as well.


You inhale smoke I think that alone increase the risk of lung cancer. Cooking over an open fire increases the risk of lung cancer. Whatever if you smoke marijuana once or twice every day you probably have less risk of getting lung cancer than if you smoke tobacco or whatever 10-20 times per day.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Some more images of smoking today.....


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## Sloe

My favourite smoker is the Cancer Man from the X-files:










Such people exist but I guess lots of smokers think they can just as well be without it if they can not put it in their mouth.It is not only the actual nicotine that is a part of the addiction.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I like this one too- call it composers smoking


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## SixFootScowl

Seems so irreverent the cigarette in his hand here:


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## Sloe

Florestan said:


> Seems so irreverent the cigarette in his hand here:


He was just compensating that he had no baton to hold.
Three men who died too early smoking 
in a row. No doubt that it is unhealthy.


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## ArtMusic

Smoking is harming to your health. Pure and simple.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

ArtMusic said:


> Smoking is harming to your health. Pure and simple.


so is breathing to excess


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## ArtMusic

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> so is breathing to excess


Who breathes to excess as a habit compared with smoking?


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## Meyerbeer Smith

I don't smoke, but I object to excessive anti-smoking legislation, removing smoking from TV and movies (tobacco bowdlerisation), and the stigmatisation of smokers.


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## KenOC

The anti-smoking forces have been a boon to some states (mine for instance) by allowing a large "sin tax" on tobacco products. That not being sufficient, some states have seized a monopoly on gambling (which was formerly totally illegal) to further increase their revenues, via lotteries, or through taxation of formerly illegal drugs (marijuana). There is no end to the voraciousness of governments. Sorry folks, it's true.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Still formerly illegal drugs (marijuana) here and most places, get life in some south east Asian countries for that stuff


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## znapschatz

SimonTemplar said:


> I don't smoke, but I object to excessive anti-smoking legislation, removing smoking from TV and movies (tobacco bowdlerisation), and the stigmatisation of smokers.


Oh, I don't think any of that is excessive. Tobacco use is quite a bit down from where it was in olden times, largely attributable to all those anti-smoking measures. People have the right to breath unpolluted air, and de-glamorizing smoke is helpful in lowering its prevalence in the general culture. Personally, I believe that a libertarian attitude on tobacco smoke ends where my nose begins.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

ArtMusic said:


> Who breathes to excess as a habit compared with smoking?


Have you tried it lately, quite a buzz!


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## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Have you tried it lately, quite a buzz!


Yeah man. When I was in high school I thought it would be cool to hyperventilate, so between classes I stooped to the floor and breathed like mad then got up quick holding my breath. I passed out and my buddies had to catch me so I would not get hurt falling to the floor. Came too laying on the floor looking up at these guys. Can't remember if they were laughing or stunned. Freaky experience and I would not recommend it.


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## Sloe

znapschatz said:


> Oh, I don't think any of that is excessive. Tobacco use is quite a bit down from where it was in olden times, largely attributable to all those anti-smoking measures. People have the right to breath unpolluted air, and de-glamorizing smoke is helpful in lowering its prevalence in the general culture. Personally, I believe that a libertarian attitude on tobacco smoke ends where my nose begins.


Simon Templar lives in Australia were a pack of cigarettes cost as much as so much alcohol that I can get so drunk that I will see double and be in trance like alcoholic state for the rest of the day or get somewhat drunk for two days I just think it is better if people smoke a pack of cigarettes every day than getting drunk every day. Also if you want to use tobacco in Australia you have to smoke because they have a ban on smokeless tobacco products.


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## znapschatz

Sloe said:


> Simon Templar lives in Australia were a pack of cigarettes cost as much as so much alcohol that I can get so drunk that I will see double and be in trance like alcoholic state for the rest of the day or get somewhat drunk for two days I just think it is better if people smoke a pack of cigarettes every day than getting drunk every day. Also if you want to use tobacco in Australia you have to smoke because they have a ban on smokeless tobacco products.


My guess, however, is that medical costs are much less than they are in the US, so emphysema and lung cancer treatments are more affordable, while alcohol rehabilitation, a long, drawn out affair, would be more expensive. It all evens out. :cheers:


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## SixFootScowl

Sloe said:


> ... Also if you want to use tobacco in Australia you have to smoke because they have a ban on smokeless tobacco products.


Blown away is my romantic thought that if nowhere else in the world, total freedom might exist in Australia. A shame. There is no where to run to, not even Antartica--that is regulated too!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Florestan said:


> Blown away is my romantic thought that if nowhere else in the world, total freedom might exist in Australia. A shame. There is no where to run to, not even Antartica--that is regulated too!


Yeah we smoke real smoke, not that fake stuff........

Actually there are ecigarettes here in Oz, I tried an eCigar with high strength Nicotine stuff- nearly blow my head off.

I'll stick to having my parasympathomimetic alkaloid in a pipe thanks..........


----------



## znapschatz

Florestan said:


> Blown away is my romantic thought that if nowhere else in the world, total freedom might exist in Australia. A shame. There is no where to run to, not even Antartica--that is regulated too!


As long as people live in groups, total freedom is a fantasy, and that's true even if you live alone.


----------



## Dr Johnson




----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dr Johnson said:


>


Maybe cigs combined with hard drugs is the answer- only prob is you end up looking like Keith...........


----------



## Dr Johnson

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Maybe cigs combined with hard drugs is the answer- only prob is you end up looking like Keith...........


Live long enough and we will all end up looking like Keith.

But perhaps not so happy.


----------



## Abraham Lincoln




----------



## James Mann

Abraham Lincoln said:


>


Smokemon

When you have grand kids, you find out sometime


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

James Mann said:


> Smokemon
> 
> When you have grand kids, you find out sometime


where do I get one!


----------



## James Mann

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> where do I get one!


I assume at the local convenience store, but they can't be sold to minors, despite the contradictory purpose of Smokemon being for children...


----------



## Bellinilover

Okay, I'm going to have to revise my answer of three years ago: 

As a never-smoker born in 1977, I'm honestly surprised by how many people (old and younger) in my part of the country still smoke. I say "still" because I'd sort of assumed that the Surgeon General's warning, combined with the ban on smoking inside public buildings here in the USA, very taboo/inconvenient. So, I don't know if it's the Southern culture (I live in Virginia, which of course has always grown tobacco), or just the fact that the older smokers find it too hard to quit and the younger ones want a stress reliever and think they're invincible, but it seems like every other person I see walking around on the street in my city smokes cigarettes.

I did mention this to a friend of mine who lives in Portland, Oregon, and she said smoking is rare there.


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## ECraigR

Smoking is pretty rare here in Albany NY. I struggle with smoking, technically quit a few years ago but when the booze starts flowing I start smoking. But there are very few people my age, late 20s, that smoke here. It seems natural that there’d be regional variations.


----------



## starthrower

I don't how people can afford groceries if they spend 80 dollars a week for a carton of cigarettes? When I was a teenager a carton of cigs was 5 bucks.


----------



## Strange Magic

As a thirty-year smoker, I'm glad I gave it up some 35 years ago and started saving the money. I would be dead probably years ago, had I continued. Between cigarettes today, lottery tickets, and Starbucks (or equivalent coffee), people are destroying their economic futures. If that daily expenditure was saved even in a savings account, let alone a decent IRA mutual fund, there might be some hope for masses of people. If I were still smoking (and still alive as a smoker) today, I'd be on welfare, or homeless.


----------



## Larkenfield

As a former smoker, I couldn’t taper off and quit. I had to do it cold turkey. The first three days were the roughest. Then it took a full two weeks to get the craving out of my system and I was free. It was worth it because food was better, breathing was better, life was better. What helped is that I exercised to help get the toxins out of my body and do something positive for myself after being self-destructive and negative with cigarettes. I’ve never gone back and my lungs are in good shape after all these years. If I hadn’t decided to quit, I probably wouldn’t be here today because my father died of emphysema and he was a lifelong smoker. The cigarette companies do not care whether you live or die and I grew to resent that as a further motivation to quit.


----------



## starthrower

Strange Magic said:


> As a thirty-year smoker, I'm glad I gave it up some 35 years ago and started saving the money. I would be dead probably years ago, had I continued. Between cigarettes today, lottery tickets, and Starbucks (or equivalent coffee), people are destroying their economic futures. If that daily expenditure was saved even in a savings account, let alone a decent IRA mutual fund, there might be some hope for masses of people. If I were still smoking (and still alive as a smoker) today, I'd be on welfare, or homeless.


I've never wasted a dime on lottery tickets, and I like drinking coffee at home unless I'm on vacation. I drive right by Starbucks. Everybody's working like slaves today and pissing away their paychecks on fast food. And the young women spend money making themselves ugly with tattoos.


----------

