Smoking - do you or don't you?

[blues2cruise]

I would be interested in hearing why people smoke. I understand that many years ago, (prior to all the information about how bad it is for everyone) that smoking was an acceptable and fashionable lifestyle.

However, now that we know more about the evils of smoking, first and secondhand, why do you continue to smoke?

Cigarette smoke is bad enough, but cigars absolutely reek. The cigar smoke may enjoy his stogie, but the majority of folks in your vicinity just about gag when they smell it.

For me it's not just that the smell of smoke (cigarettes, joints, cigars) is repulsive, I also have physiological affects from the second hand smoke.
If I happen to breath in your smoke, my throat starts to choke up and my heart starts to palpitate and beat irregular. I often have to get up and ove to a different seat on the bus because the person who got on was a smoker. The smell is so objectionable. It's even worse when it's someone who has been out beer drinking and smoking.....I can't even begin to describe how awful that smells.

I could rant on til the cows come home about the subject but I would rather this thread didn't become a flame war.

So.....in the name of interest and friendly debate, talk about why you smoke, what you get out of it, how can you afford it, does it affect your social life, do you choose your friends based on smoking, do you even realize how bad you smell....your breath, your hair, your skin, your clothes, your house, your car., etc.,
Do you smoke around your children and if so do you realize what you are doing to them?

Have you any desire to quit? If not, why not?

Have you ever tried to quit? Why did you start again?

Did you smoke, quit, and stayed quit?

Thanks for participating.

[ofblong]

I never started. I lived with second hand smoke until I was taken and put into a foster home when I was 9 years old. (my first two years was second hand pot smoke because my mother smoked it alot). My step father has always smoked and the smell and how dirty the house was made me not want to do it. Well that and when I was 9 I picked a cigeratte up and took one puff. Never wanted to do it again it was so gross. I try not to be around those that do smoke because it now makes me gag and cough. That doesnt mean I will tell someone not to smoke nor will I leave because of it I mean thats just rude. But I do tell them they wont light up in my house nor my vehicles.

[jstark47]

My father was a pipe smoker. I had the same reactions as ofblong- there was nothing attractive about it, it was a dirty, smelly, inconvenient habit. Inconvenient because as years went by, Mom gradually banned him from smoking in more and more places - she would find a bit of burned upholstery and use it as her leverage. First the house, then her car, then his car (..man wasn't allowed to smoke in his own car ).... finally his smoking was banished to the tool shed at the rear of the property. Quite a sight to see him trudge almost 100 yards through snow to the shed just for a smoke. Finally when he was 77 and had triple bypass surgery, he quit. (He just turned 90 on Sunday.)

[fireguzzi]

Smoked for ten years.Really started when I was 16 and by 17 I was smoking a pack a day which is also how much I smoked by the time I quit. But I was more like 11 or 12 when I had my first smoking experience.

I guess I started because of peer pressure and because my dad smoked and I loved the way they smelled when they were first lit. But you are right Blues, the smell that sticks to a smoker reeks. I can't stand it now. Or when I smoked, but I couldn't smell it on myself.
But yeah, peer pressure. My brother and his friend started, so I just followed the pack. To be different and cool of course. Yeah I know, a real individual I was. But thats how it was. My brother was the cool guy so I had to follow.

I had entertained the idea of quitting many times. Even got so far as actually not smoking for about 5 hours. Then I decided I will have a couple of tokes before bed so I could sleep. Yeah right. I smoked a whole cigarette, got up and stayed up for a few more hours smoking just like before.
What made me quit was waking up one morning and it hurt to breathe. I have woken up like that before but just ignored it. But this time it just clicked. What the hell am I doing to myself? It hurts to breathe! That day I went to the drug store and bought some nicotine patches. (what a trip those things are, the dreams are nutty.) I haven't smoked once ever since.
Well I do have a cigar every so often with my aunt. Before my uncle died in a car wreck, him and I were smokin buddies. He always had good cigars to share and it was our bonding "thing". Well now whenever we all get together my aunt will bring cigars and we all enjoy one in his memory.

I think people SHOULD have the right to smoke. But they should be considerate of EVERYONE around them. But that will never happen. There will always be someone who chooses not to be considerate. Or just doesn't have the mental capacity to care about others. And that sucks. But if you want to pay some super rich tobacco company CEO for the pleasure of slowly and painfully killing yourself then thats your choice to make.

No cigarettes in almost three years for me. I should reward myself.

Edited to add: As far as smoking "alternatives" goes, I just wish I could still do it. Good quality stuff tastes and is more pleasurable of a smoke then any fine cigar. (If its low quality it can be very unpleasurable.)
I just cant smoke it anymore because it makes me very self conscious and paranoid. Funny how you can change over time. I used to smoke it every day for years with no effects.

Other then the extreme paranoia and stuff I just wont take even the slightest risk of having it in my house or my person because I have a son that requires that I not be in jail or prison.

[Skier]

Cigarette smoke is bad enough, but cigars absolutely reek. The cigar smoke may enjoy his stogie, but the majority of folks in your vicinity just about gag when they smell it.

This is interesting - I've always found pipe tobacco and cigars to smell vastly superior to cigarettes, even before I started smoking. Quality pipe tobacco and cigars don't have the nasty additives cigarettes have. They are as pure of tobacco as you can ask for.

So.....in the name of interest and friendly debate, talk about why you smoke, what you get out of it, how can you afford it, does it affect your social life, do you choose your friends based on smoking, do you even realize how bad you smell....your breath, your hair, your skin, your clothes, your house, your car., etc.,
Do you smoke around your children and if so do you realize what you are doing to them?

I smoke because it's a relaxing habit to indulge in, on occasion. I enjoy the ritual surrounding pipes and cigars, the smell, the look and tactile feel of everything involved.

Price is easy: I might drop $200 to $300 every two to six months. It really varies on how much I smoke and what, but on average I consume a $3 cigar twice a week during summer. Always funny to hear people ask how you can afford it when they are slurping back their 600 calorie, $5 Starbucks coffee-based drink.

I don't care if my friends smoke or not. I have Mormon friends that abhor anything smoking related and we respect that. No smoking during our time together.

As for smell, I have been smoking cigars for, oh, four years or so. I have coworkers who have been in close proximity of me for years and didn't know I smoked cigars. Even the ones extremely sensitive to tobacco after quitting cigarettes didn't know it. Cigar smoke doesn't infiltrate your clothes and skin like cigarette smoke does. All of the other places/items listed don't apply to me as I either smoke outside or in one of the very few places left indoors to smoke. My car doesn't smell like smoke, neither does my riding suit, etc...

Smokin' around children is something I don't do. Second hand smoke, especially with cigars and pipe tobacco, is still fiercely debated but it's not my call to make that decision for someone else's kids or my own (heaven forbid I actually end up with any).

Have you any desire to quit? If not, why not?

Have you ever tried to quit? Why did you start again?

Did you smoke, quit, and stayed quit?

No desire to quit. No need, as I see it - I'm young and indestructible and those small percentage of pipe and cigar smokers that get cancer can't include me, right? Hell, I ride a motorcycle, chances are much better I'll die in a fiery wreck than smoke pipes and cigars long enough to get cancer.

An interesting distinction between cigarette smokers and pipe/cigar smokers are the pipe/cigar crowd can and do refrain from smoking for weeks or months with no ill effects. No nicotine jitters or the absolute need for a fix. They aren't addicts!

Thanks for participating.

No problem.

[Skier]

This is quoted from sv-wolf's reply in the AA thread. I'm trying to keep things are railed as possible.

Skier, smokers and non-smokers share the common air and there is always a need for negotiation and a need to understand each other.

I agree 100%! That's what I was aiming for: I've no problem making sure those around me when I'm smoking are ok with it. If they aren't we can talk like civilized people and reach a compromise (but I'm more likely to roll over and make the most effort to make sure the non-smokers are happy).

The idea that my views 'have been skewed' as a result of a 'hypersensitivity' is just a way of avoiding real engagement with the problem and I resent its implications. My views emerge directly out of my experience within the community and out my right to assert and exercise my needs as a member of that community. There is nothing skewed about them. They just view the situation from a different vantage point to your own.

From your earlier post, it sounded as if you ran across a lot of smokers that weren't willing to listen to you or respect your right to breathe smoke-free air. Around here those folks are likely to be unaccepted by smokers and non-smokers alike.

To describe an allergy as a 'hypersensitivity' also carries the suggestion that it is somehow 'excessive' or abnormal and can therefore be dismissed. Language of this kind is often used to marginalise views or perspectives that people find uncomfortable or which threaten them in some way. Allergic reactions, like so many other conditions, are a normal and common part of the human condition, as normal and as common as any other variation in human responses to the environment.

I wasn't trying to make light of your physical reaction to smoking; I wanted to make the distinction you are more sensitive to it than others.

Your hurry to return the thread to the subject of alcohol, suggests the same defensiveness and need for avoidance. I think this is a real issue and needs to be addressed in an honest way.

No sir, you misunderstood me. I wanted to keep that thread on topic - we have the ability to make another thread, like this one!

I'm sure none of this was in your mind when you wrote so I'm not intending this to be a personal attack, but your words do exemplify a common respose by smokers to this issue and I'm responding to a whole history of comments of this kind.

And I have no wish to deny your right to smoke if you want to, though I certainly have no regrets about the banning of smoking in public places here in the UK and in much of the rest of Europe.

You present a two-faced argument. You don't want to deny my rights to smoke yet are perfectly fine with letting someone else deny those rights in most places.

Public smoking bans aren't offensive to me, but the government stepping in to privately owned businesses and controlling what happens in there angers me.

[ofblong]

whats funny about what you say skier is I would rather see a smoker smoke outside in the nice huge area we call the atmospher than be stuck in some building with a smoker where the air is confined to one little area. Meaning IMO it should be banned in buildings but not the outside world. Just what I think though.

[blues2cruise]

This is the first summer I have ever been able to have a meal on a restaurant patio. Smoking got banned. Wahoooooooooooo!!!!!!

I spent many years not being able to go places because of smoking. I also spent many lonely times because I could not be around it. My health suffered for years...... from the time I was a kid...because my parents smoked....then when I was married...because my ex smoked.....(I did not know any better way back then).
It wasn't until I moved out on my own that chronic cough cleared up.

I used to go to clubs with people for fun and dancing, but then I would spend the next three days quite ill. I finally had to give it up. Same with restaurants. Several years ago, smoking got banned from indoor public spaces and it was sonice to be able to out for dinner. Clubs and pubs still had smoking so I did not go...but a couple of years ago, smoking got banned there too.
All the hullaballoo about business losing money did not happen. In fact, some places got even busier.

Now the rules are no smoking within 3 metres of a doorway or air intake. It makes it possible to walk into a building now without having to walk through a cloud of smoke. Finally, people like me....and there are plenty.....are finding a place in the world.

[Thumper]

I grew up with a smoker, and as a result have a reactive airway that only tends to be a problem around smokers, perfume, and artificial fragrances. I don't allow smoking in or around my house because of it, and I can't be anywhere in close proximity to a smoker, and CA's smoking laws are a major reason we moved back when the Spouse Thingy retired from the USAF.

Still...I have no problem with outside smoking. I can hold my breath long enough to get by someone smoking outside. I don't appreciate those who hang right near a door where avoiding them s difficult, but I also don't appreciate efforts by do-gooders to ban smoking altogether.

[Skier]

ofblong: We have these nifty gadgets called exhaust fans. Keeps a lot of that evil smoke vented outside to the atmosphere.

I'd really like to see business owners have a choice for being a smoking or non smoking establishment. We'd have those who don't care for smoke/are physically affected by it in the non-smoking businesses and those of us who enjoy poisoning our bodies can do so without fake coughing or other ridiculous behavior some anti-smokers love to employ.

Everyone wins but the government!

So the government makes sure they are seen as the power and not the people.