I can't believe the amount of people who still smoke

[junecleaver]

In my city, I can't believe the amount of people who are smoking. After all the stuff they say about smoking, the costs, the health problems, the weight gain or loss, the taste loss, the yellow teeth, wrinkles...people still do it. At my college, these young people (between 18 and 25) already are smoking like chimneys. Every time i want to enter a building, there are like 10 people at the door smoking and i pretty much smoke a whole cigarrette without even trying while entering the building.

My fiance works with someone who smokes. For his job he has to drive a truck to several locations, and he told me this guy will smoke the whole time he is driving. He lights one after the other. So my fiance has to smoke about 1000 packs a day and it's not fair. I'm wondering if there is a law on this or something. This should be illegal if it isn't already. It's just as bad as forcing someone to smoke weed.

[dawsongirl]

I don't understand it either. If you're that stupid, fine, slowly kill yourself. But don't take me with you.

[junecleaver]

Originally Posted by dawsongirl

I don't understand it either. If you're that stupid, fine, slowly kill yourself. But don't take me with you.

You could say that secondhand smoke is attempted murder in a way, lol. My great-grandpa smoked, his wife didn't smoke a day in her life, but his wife was the one who died of complications from it.

Before i was in a relationship, I remember being at the mall or something and seeing a cute guy. Then he went outside and lit a cigarrette and it changed my view of him quickly.

[Max Whittaker]

Good marketing.

[mc_light1202]

It's not that easy to quite. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical. I know people that fully understand the risks but can't seem to quit.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by junecleaver

Before i was in a relationship, I remember being at the mall or something and seeing a cute guy. Then he went outside and lit a cigarrette and it changed my view of him quickly.

Oh yeah, total turn off.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by junecleaver

You could say that secondhand smoke is attempted murder in a way, lol. My great-grandpa smoked, his wife didn't smoke a day in her life, but his wife was the one who died of complications from it.

Before i was in a relationship, I remember being at the mall or something and seeing a cute guy. Then he went outside and lit a cigarrette and it changed my view of him quickly.

Attempted murder? Can you be any more dramatic, lol. I'm sure your fiance's co-worker would have to stop smoking if he was told to by HR. People can't smoke indoors or in public anymore, or it's a miracle to find a place where they can. You obviously hate smoking, and that's your right. It's militant non-smokers, such as yourself, that bother me. They treat smokers as if they're second-rate citizens. Some people just picked the habit up young and can't beat it. Some of my good friends smoke, as do relatives, including my stepson. I think it's a disgusting habit myself, and my lung cancer claimed my mother's life, as she smoked probably three packs a day.

Given that, I'm not going to talk smokers down as if they're lowlifes or animals. I hate smoking, but I don't hate the smokers. As a former smoker myself, who quit 20 years ago, I see both sides of it. Some anti-smoking zealots want to have it banned completely. They piss me off more than the smokers.

[Mikado]

When I was a teen, smoking was almost eliminated and even in school you could count the smokers on one hand (Litterally, there was a little courtyard for them and you saw them there at lunch time...all 4-5 of them; sadly, after years of the message getting through, the smoking lobby started playing hardball with product placement in movies and rode the wave of the whole "Break the rules" advertising movement directed at young kids, and even though cigarette advertising was banned, on TV, the "its cool, it breaks the rules " image of smoking got to the kids (possibly because it WAS banned). Most of the smokers i see in this town are 10-19 , ironically 19 is the age when it becomes legal here in Canada.

[Mikado]

I'll say this about second hand smoke, you can smoke around me , if im allowed to choke you with a wire , cause thats how it feels for me when anyone smokes around me.....Smokers say non-smokers coughs are fake cause they are quiet , but, thats my throat constricting, not fake.

Before anyone gets upset, i dont ACTUALLY want to choke anyone, that was just for comparison purposes

[Mikado]

Hey Janice (And i ask this in seriously) since you managed to stop smoking (And congrats on that), do you have any stop smoking advice for Tara and anyone else whod like to quit? (I myself have severe asthma and never started, thankfully)

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Mikado

Hey Janice (And i ask this in seriously) since you managed to stop smoking (And congrats on that), do you have any stop smoking advice for Tara and anyone else whod like to quit? (I myself have severe asthma and never started, thankfully)

Thanks Mikey, but unfortunately, I don't. I always told myself that when the day came that I went over a pack a day, that I would quit. That happened at the same time that I kept getting that heavy chest feeling. I had quit maybe three times over the decade, never lasting for more than a couple of weeks. The final and successful 'quit' wasn't planned.

It was in April of 1988, a Tuesday night, and I was up alone watching Letterman, his old show. My husband was sleeping. I was smoking a cigarette, loved those Newport Lights, lol. Out of the blue, I said to myself that I was going to quit after that cigarette. Then I did! It was the wildest thing. Just spontaneous cold turkey. No cravings, no weight gain...never looked back.

I'm not a particulary religious person. I'm a believer, but I don't go to church or think about religion often. Yet, I always had a sense that this was a gift from God. As if the smoking desire was lifted right out of my body. There you have it. It's my story, and I guess I'm sticking with it.

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by junecleaver

You could say that secondhand smoke is attempted murder in a way, lol. My great-grandpa smoked, his wife didn't smoke a day in her life, but his wife was the one who died of complications from it.

Before i was in a relationship, I remember being at the mall or something and seeing a cute guy. Then he went outside and lit a cigarrette and it changed my view of him quickly.

Not that I'm for smoking - obviously it isn't good. But google the study that the cancer society bases their campaign on second hand smoke on sometime. It was totally bogus and overblown. There is NO evidence that second hand smoke kills - NONE. Other than it being nasty to smell and be around - it isn't deadly. If that were the case, then my cats should have died of cancer, etc. long ago. I've never lost one to anything like that and if anything, most of my cats have lived close to 20 years.

How do you know that your grandpa's wife died directly as a result of his smoking? They can't prove it at all. She could have well died of the same thing whether she was with him or not. Look at the people who get lung cancer like Dana Reeve who never smoked a day in her life or lived with a smoker. Sorry - that excuse just doesn't fly.

More than anything they should ban vehicles - especially buses etc. - they give off a lot more carbon monoxide than a few smokers ever do.

[coffield3]

I don't smoke but i have alot of friend's that do, it is extremely hard to quit trust me i have seen alot of them try. These day's people are not getting second-hand smoke because smoking has been banned in club's pubs work area's and many more place's. If any of my friend's come over to my place they alway's smoke outside, so i never breathe any of their second-hand smoke in. Plus if people want to smoke it's up to them at the end of the day.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by Janice

Attempted murder? Can you be any more dramatic, lol. I'm sure your fiance's co-worker would have to stop smoking if he was told to by HR. People can't smoke indoors or in public anymore, or it's a miracle to find a place where they can. You obviously hate smoking, and that's your right. It's militant non-smokers, such as yourself, that bother me. They treat smokers as if they're second-rate citizens. Some people just picked the habit up young and can't beat it. Some of my good friends smoke, as do relatives, including my stepson. I think it's a disgusting habit myself, and my lung cancer claimed my mother's life, as she smoked probably three packs a day.

Given that, I'm not going to talk smokers down as if they're lowlifes or animals. I hate smoking, but I don't hate the smokers. As a former smoker myself, who quit 20 years ago, I see both sides of it. Some anti-smoking zealots want to have it banned completely. They piss me off more than the smokers.

Very well said!

I have been smoking on and off for years. Do I enjoy a cigarette once and a awhile, yes, but it is extremely hard to quit. It is true, nowadays a smoker is treated like a second class citizen. If it was easy just to stop, I would. It ain't like that though.

It ****ing pisses me off when people bitch and moan about smokers. Did I choose to become a smoker? Yes I did, but I was 16 at the time. I thought it was cool.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Rock Chic

Smoking is so difficult to quit; trust me, if I could, I would quit right now, but, unforunately, I am addicted to this disgusting habit, and trust me, it is not something that I am very proud of; do I wish I had to will power to walk away from cigarettes, you beat. I would give them up in a New York second, but it is very easier said than done. I know cigarettes are gross, expensive, etc. The list in endless, but it one of the hardest habits to break. I for one, never smoke in front of non-smokers. I do not even smoke in my car or in my house; nor, do I smoke around people. I generally smoke with other smokers. Is it a stupid habit, you bet, but, it is a burden that I must deal with, sooner than later; trust me, I have tried to quit many many and I mean, many of times, and I also run to 7-11 and buy a pack..if I could have a magic wand and cast a spell over me to end this habit, I would; just remember, yes, it is a gross habit, but terribly hard to let go of. I admire people who had the endurance and the motivation to finally kick the habit and to become non-smokers. I just wish I had that enormous will power...

Tara, I am with you. Maybe we can help eachother kick the habit? Sort of like SO therapy. lol It is really hard though.