General Cigarette Smoking complaint thread

I've got no beef with people using adhesive patches to get their recreational or medicinal nicotine requirements

I don't think smoking is good for me, but I don't like the holier-than-thou prescriptive attitude which seems to be prevalent in these parts including (but not limited to): crime, parenting, political correctness and environmental issues.

You are right about the plethora of scientific, and not so scientific data out there though.

dave

PS: Did anyone see the film "Equilibrium" last night ? Christian Bale looking the model of repressed angst. I'm sure it was set in Zürich.

Now you're being really daft! Many of the social things are in bars anyway. I organised and attended many of them last year and offer the following observations:

- the smokers were in a minority.

- some smokers simply started smoking while in the group, whereas others didn't smoke within the group if they felt they were "alone".

- I never heard a non-smoker complain about a smoker.

- Smokers tended to gravitate towards each other.

I think these observations are typical. I was able to make them from both sides of the fence, as I spent the first two-thirds of last year trying to give up.

Furthermore, there are 3500 englishforum members, most of them unconnected. So whatever you read online doesn't represent everyone's point of view, and they also won't be showing up en masse.

I think the problem with tobacco products is that they are normally burnt and this produces smoke which a lot of people is extremely annoying. For many people it reduces the number of times they go out and socialise.

The cancerous nature of smoking has definitely increased the need for banning smoking in public places but I think even if there were no health concerns there would have been a movement for smoke free restaurants as when you eat food and drink a good wine you want to use all your senses and not have the experience ruined by someone smoking nearby.

I suppose as a non smoker and I have never smoked it is difficult for me to understand why someone can't go for a few hours without a cigarette.

Have fun

Martin

I think that's the crux of the matter. Until you know the hell of a smoker's addiction, then you can't comprehend. It isn't a habit, as some call it, it is an addiction. Tobacco can be harder to quit than heroin or cocaine.

The whyquit.com website has some very interesting information about nicotine addiction. Sadly, there are a lot of misconceptions about smoking and just how easy (or should I say difficult) it is to quit.

Hi

Please could you let me know what's all about the new anti-smoking 'law' at Switzerland and by when?

Smoking is an addiction, especially once you reach the 20 years with the habit. The cigarrette is one of your fingers and the worst is that smoking relaxes your brain so working in a stressful environment and a cigarrette are just going together for me. Wonderful breaks with the lot smokers from the company for instance

Quite difficult to give up... but of course I agree with the smoke free pubs like will be in UK soon or at least separate areas to start with.

No matter men or women, in UK people smoke quite a lot but I need to say than suprised me at Switzerland the relaxed law about it.

Thanks

Hi Shell,

thanks for the link. It tells me really we should be doing all we can to stop people starting to smoke. It also says to me that the Government should encourage/regulate the cigarette companies to produce nicotine free cigarettes...in fact they could give the companies 3 years to only produce nicotine free cigarettes. That way the drug addiction would not be there and it would be easier for people to make choices.

Should not be a problem we have sugar free drinks....and the cigarette companies don't believe that nicotine is addictive so where would the problem be.

Have fun

Martin

Heck, we could ask the cigarette companies to just put in something that makes cigarettes smell good while we're at it!

Actually, thinking about it, one way to get cigarette companies to attract younger consumers would be to do precisely that. Remember how attractive those old "scratch-n-sniff" stickers were back in the 80's? Great hits with elementary school-age kids. Toddlers just looove stuff that smells like it could be candy....

Make cigarettes smell like candy, just add an extra molecule of vanillin here and there, and you would get lots of (new, young!) customers.

For the chemists in the forum, any reason why this hasn't been done before? Seems to me like a quick way to boost up the sales...

Cigarette makers have spent billions trying to find a less harmful way of smoking, reduce smoke, etc, etc

The end result was a very bad cigarette (taste wise). The only brand that has come up with something genuinely good and slightly less of a danger is American Spirit, by cutting additives (you can feel the difference actually, less of a bad head after a monster smoking session and it feels different when smoking it).

Incidentally, if some posters here do go back to the north-west and want to start a little import business for my benefit, strictly legal quantities obviously, contact me

Obnoxious , self-righteous, whining little f#cks. My biggest fear is that if I quit smoking, I'll become one of you...Don't take that wrong. I have something to tell you non-smokers that I know for a fact that you don't know, and I feel it's my duty to pass on information at all times.

Ready?

Non-smokers die every day.

Enjoy your evening.

See, I know that you entertain this eternal life fantasy because you've chosen not to smoke, but let me be the first to POP that bubble and bring you hurtling back to reality....You're dead too. - Bill Hicks

genius

Sure.

Usually less gruesomely with more of our limbs and lungs still attached and functioning.

Yeah, but at least I won't smell gross when I am alive.

....genius.

Pffffft!!

Actually I couldn't care less about the health of smokers, but if if I'm ever around you I wont feel the need to hold back any stinky fart bombs

We can pollute and offend each other equally!

It's a pity you cannot put together a coherent argument, but can only resort to childish playground name calling. You are not helping your cause - if indeed you have one.

It is obvious that you have little experience of life and have never witnessed the miserable, demeaning death of a smoker, as cancer eats their insides away.

Having experienced this with close friends, I cannot remain silent as I hear of others who seem blind to these dangers. If I am perceived as one more of the "Obnoxious, self-righteous, whining little f#cks." Then so be it. But it does sound like a nerve what hit there?

I like this post, especially the self-righteous bit. I think its redressed the balance a bit.

dave

Just to point out, there is no guarantee you won't get cancer if you don't smoke. There is no guarantee you will get cancer if you do smoke. As was stated earlier, we all die. Even the healthiest of people get stricken with diseases and die horrible deaths. Time and time again I've read that even if you smoked for 10 years your risk of cancer, although not as low and a non-smoker, readily decreases once you quit.

As far as the vehement ex-smokers go, I think it's kind of like a defence mechanism they have to employ so as not to start smoking again.

Maybe that was my problem, even though I quit for a long time I still enjoyed hanging out with the smokers.

One last comment, when I quit smoking I kept waiting for these wonderful health benefits that I always read about to happen. Never came. I felt exactly the same before I quit and after I quit, which I should point out, was good. I've always been active though and a healthy eater. I dunno. Now that I'm smoking again. . . I don't feel any different either.

At the end of the day I just don't get it.

WHY do people smoke? It costs a fortune, you stink, age quicker and heve a very high chance of dying an early painful death. Why do it?

Did it deviate into 'Spliffing' for really good smokes?

like everything, it depends how much you want to quit to begin with. My personal experience: it took my dad one day to quit, after 30 years of 2 packs a day, in his hospital bed after the first hearth- attack. My mum waited two more years to quite till her first attack hit her.

It probably emerged from some babbling toker describing his "Spiffing ! Ablsolutely Spiffing Splif"

dave