I smoke because I want to

originally posted by: NateTheAnimator
a reply to: N3k9Ni

I am angry with the government. What have I ever done to any of them that led them to believe it's ok to treat me like a criminal? I have never done anything illegal in all my years. I have always worked hard and paid my taxes and I know damn well that I have never harmed anyone else as long as I have lived.

I could be wrong but I don't think the government has too much to do with keeping business owner's from allowing their clientele to smoke on private property...If a private restaurant/bar owner has a 'no-smoking' policy,you have to respect that policy. Your the only one being selfish by demanding private business owner's change their policy's to suit your preference.

Also your not a criminal...Last time I checked smoking tobacco for the most part is completely legal.

It's become a public health law in most states in the US. No smoking in bars, restaurants, offices, near entrances and in some places in NYC, even some places OUTSIDE. There are a few bars that received a special permit as they were also a cigar seller and no smoking would effect their bottom line, but those are far and few between.

There are a few neighborhood pubs here that put ashtrays out at midnight that I know of.

The city I live in also passed a law making electronic cigarettes part of that law, but few places pay attention to that.

N3k9Ni

Here is a scenario for you,

What if say I enjoyed flogging the ole dolphin in public. It's something I enjoy and see nothing wrong with it. Say I was in a booth next to you and your family at a restaurant and I'm just doing my own thing, going to town with something I enjoy and feel the government should not stop me from doing. I reach that pivotal moment and BOOM the fireworks go off and my bi-product of what I enjoy lands all over you and your family.

Would you be okay with that?

a reply to: N3k9Ni

It could be worse mate. In Australia the government has declared 'war on smokers', a pack of cigarettes now costs over $30... I'm paying $35 a day just for the right to smoke a plant!

To be totally honest, I'd be just fine with all their stupid bans on smoking in enclosed public spaces, if I wasn't being forced to fork out 250 bloody dollars a week just to be entitled to the right of indulging in the practice of smoking tobacco.

Raising the price of cigarettes may have started from a public health initiative, but they've now raised them to the point where its just plain extortion!

You've only conditioned your mind to think that way which makes justifying the right to harm yourself less of a resistive counter-thought. If your body could talk, it would tell you that it doesn't want or enjoy your smoking. Beyond that, you may have to convince yourself that you like getting chemotherapy.

originally posted by: eisegesis
Beyond that, you may have to convince yourself that you like getting chemotherapy.

No one gets out alive anyway... Non-smokers are so annoying, how they sit on their high horse acting as if they'll live forever, because they don't smoke cigarettes, lol.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

If you want to flog the dolphin in public, that's up to you. There's plenty of room outside to move away from you. If you want to do it in an establishment that allows it, that's fine. I will go to one that doesn't allow it. Pretty simple solution, really.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

I was going to use letting out really smelly, greasy, disgusting farts as my analogy... but your analogy works too.

What one does in their own home is their business, but what one does in public becomes everyone else's business.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa
The generally tend to live longer, with a higher quality of life, less medical expense, and not having wilfully thrown so much money down the drain in having done so, at least. I plan on rejoining their ranks again.

Quit deceiving yourself, you're not smoking because you decide to. You don't keep putting up with the 'extortion' because you enjoy the habit. Own up to it and put in the work to break your chains and end the cycle. Save your money for something you actually DO choose and enjoy.

If all extortion served to drive home the fact that my 'habit' is addictive and costly, I might become an active fan of extortion.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I have a sudden desire to airlift cartons of smokes to Australia.

I am a ardent smoker as you might guess by the user name i picked for myself , But i always respected a non smoker and would never light up a cigarette if any non smoker was around , smoke in a car , restaurant or near children .

But the p.c police went crazy years ago when they stopped everyone smoking in public and even tried to stop the public smoking on the high streets , they were just stopped on this by a small margin .

Places in the U.K like J.D Witherspoon had the right idea and buisness model for this a smoking and non smoking section , i do not remember getting any say in all this by any government or body

30 % of bar staff have been paid off and 100 licensed premises close a week every week due to this blanket ban , yet not one place is allowed to stay smoking where i live

People like me stay at home now for a drink at least we can smoke , but if any government employee is coming to visit / work in your home you have to stop smoking 2 hours before hand , try telling that to the police if they come to arrest you

I wonder what the future holds now the p.c crew have their foots in the door

a reply to: N3k9Ni

Where I live, the government has put a ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants. Some bar owners tried to fight it and were closed down and/or arrested.

I stand corrected!
Did they also ban smoking in public places?

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa

originally posted by: eisegesis
Beyond that, you may have to convince yourself that you like getting chemotherapy.

No one gets out alive anyway... Non-smokers are so annoying, how they sit on their high horse acting as if they'll live forever, because they don't smoke cigarettes, lol.

Right, because there's no such thing as "the bigger picture."

A quick search...

U.S. taxpayers bear 60% of the cost of smoking-related diseases, study finds

Cigarette smoking generates as much as $170 billion in annual health care spending in the United States, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at Georgia State University's School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and RTI International.

High horse my ass. People can obviously choose to die faster, but in the meantime, have helped develop a cancerous tumor on my wallet.

•$45 billion in of Medicare spending per year,
•$39.9 billion in Medicaid spending per year and
•$23.8 billion in spending for other government-sponsored insurance programs per year.

The researchers concluded smoking accounts for 8.7 percent of annual healthcare spending in the U.S.

Non-smokers are so annoying...

ETA: Non-smokers find your smoke annoying, but generally keep their mouths shut unless directly affected by it. What will guarantee our "annoying" presence, is when threads like this are created to specifically provoke discussion pertaining to the moral and societal perceptions related to smoking cigarettes.

originally posted by: Prezbo369
It's about forcing others to inhale your smoke and bear the stink of tobacco (or w/e), all because you want to smoke.

You don't get to inflict that on other people, not anymore.

Walking by someone smoking will not kill you. Sitting next to someone in a restaurant for an hour who is smoking, will not kill you.

Sitting next to someone in an enclosed space for 10 years straight, who is smoking, that may kill you. They aren't even sure if that will unless you have allergies or asthma.

There are much worse chemicals to breathe walking down the street.

You sound as if you were being flogged with a lash with nails in it.

a reply to: NateTheAnimator

Smoking outside hasn't been banned...yet. Some of the cities around here tried to ban smoking in public parks and baseball stadiums. That didn't go through.

The original ban was going to apply to bars, restaurants and casinos. The casinos threatened to move out and take the tax revenue with them. Casinos were exempted. Go figure.

a reply to: eisegesis

With the amount of tax the Government puts on cigarettes where I live, I think I can rest assured with a fully clear conscious... when it comes to the tax payer being forced to pay my medical bills, from any health complications that may occur due to my choice to smoke.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: N3k9Ni
I'd be just fine with all their stupid bans on smoking in enclosed public spaces, if I wasn't being forced to fork out 250 bloody dollars a week just to be entitled to the right of indulging in the practice of smoking tobacco.

You think banning smoking in "enclosed public spaces" is stupid? That's the very type of space that needs a ban. Otherwise I am forced to breathe your smoke. I have the right to be free of that.

No one gets out alive anyway... Non-smokers are so annoying, how they sit on their high horse acting as if they'll live forever, because they don't smoke cigarettes, lol.

Lol. Right. No one gets out alive, however, statistically speaking, non-smokers will live longer, contribute more, be healthier, and not be as much a burden on the health system. Simply put, it costs society more to keep you alive. Yet you're worth less. You take more sick days. Other people have to clean up after you. Other people have to actively avoid you. Why should the rest of us pay for that?

And you've got this attitude of being derisive of other people who choose to be healthier than you do and take fewer risks. Your criticism is duly noted and disregarded. You're the one who needs to get a life here. Well, at least as much as you have left of it.

originally posted by: N3k9Ni
I smoke because I want to, I enjoy it, it’s as simple as that.

I think that you used to smoke because you wanted to. This minute, my mind is thinking of a cold can of pepsi and a cig. It still calls to me. (*tries to calm down, takes a deep drag on low nic cola flavored e cig -it is actually kickin cola flavor, I get my nicotine and cola in 1 place now. Ok, NOT going to buy cigs or borrow a marlboro light from the neighbor*)

Eventually, the 1,000 chemicals in that cigarette and the combustion taking place, wears on your body. It will effect your breathing, thereby effecting your sleep. It will effect your skin and nails. Many will be prone to wrinkles from smoking, dry skin and brittle nails. You will be tired because you didn't sleep well and you will be more tired due to the carbon monoxide content in your blood.

You will start coughing in the morning. You will think, at first, that you need a humidifier. Then you will think the room is dusty. Then you might think it is some type of adult onset allergy. Then you will realize what it actually is.

One day, you will be counting pennies to reach $7 or $8 or $9 or more to get a pack of cigarettes and you will not have it. You will panic. This will happen several times. You will look for ones you put out that weren't finished.

People will whine at you that you smell like cigarettes...well too bad for them, they are probably wearing some horrible perfume anyway.

I don't believe you are always enjoying it now. I am glad you have looked at vaping.

People who drives cars create more polution than my cigarettes, if you feel the need to cross the street to come tell me smoking
Is bad, dont waste your time, i really couldent care less.

originally posted by: reldra
Walking by someone smoking will not kill you. Sitting next to someone in a restaurant for an hour who is smoking, will not kill you.

Why should anybody have to put up with someone else's smoke and stink?

Nobody has the right to impose it on anybody else.

Sitting next to someone in an enclosed space for 10 years straight, who is smoking, that may kill you. They aren't even sure if that will unless you have allergies or asthma.

It could kill you and at the very least it's very detrimental to your health. Why should anyone's health be affected purely because you want to smoke?

It's incredibly arrogant to think your urge to smoke supersedes another's health.

There are much worse chemicals to breathe walking down the street.

Transport is kinda essential to society at this point whereas smoking is a personal habit and so isn't....

You sound as if you were being flogged with a lash with nails in it.

And you sound asthough you think you have the right to impose your habit on other people.

SPOILER ALERT: you don't...

originally posted by: Prezbo369

originally posted by: reldra
Walking by someone smoking will not kill you. Sitting next to someone in a restaurant for an hour who is smoking, will not kill you.

Why should anybody have to put up with someone else's smoke and stink?

Nobody has the right to impose it on anybody else.

Sitting next to someone in an enclosed space for 10 years straight, who is smoking, that may kill you. They aren't even sure if that will unless you have allergies or asthma.

It could kill you and at the very least it's very detrimental to your health. Why should anyone's health be affected purely because you want to smoke?

It's incredibly arrogant to think your urge to smoke supersedes another's health.

There are much worse chemicals to breathe walking down the street.

Transport is kinda essential to society at this point whereas smoking is a personal habit and so isn't....

You sound as if you were being flogged with a lash with nails in it.

And you sound asthough you think you have the right to impose your habit on other people.

SPOILER ALERT: you don't...

There are much worse things. I could just as well tell people they must all get rid of their cars, but I don't. I could tell men that wear Axe or Polo make me feel like I am being suffocated by a pine tree forest as they walk by, but I don't.

spoiler alert: I haven't smoked since October, 2012, but I haven't lost my mind in the time being either.