I smoke because I want to

a reply to: N3k9Ni

I think it's more about inundating everyone around you with 2nd hand smoke, which is just as dangerous as the inhaled smoke.I smoked cigarettes for years, and then quit, and then started back and now I do the vapor thing. I don't have a problem going to an area away from others, and I don't care what they say about me because, people are gonna judge because their lives suck and it just makes them feel better about themselves and because ...well, I simply just don't care lol.

originally posted by: beijingyank
Being a smoker in America isn't fun. I got addicted in the Army. I can't stop, and although I know I should stop, I don't want to. There are few things I enjoy in life more than a cigarette. It's a main reason I am in China. China is a smoking paradise. Cigarettes are plentiful, cheap and first rate Virginia tobacco. There is no shunning or put downs for people that smoke in China. Friends greet each other with a cigarette. Ashtrays are in almost every home. I am not prejudiced in employment and by society as well. Smoking laws have been introduced. They are seen as the new imperialism. The Chinese won the Anti-Japanese War, they won't live by their rules.
a reply to: N3k9Ni

Yeah, all hat sounds horrible. But if you enjoy it, good for you.

Maaaaaaan I thought you were talkin about pot

originally posted by: Gordi The Drummer
[BigG stands up]
Hello,
My name is Gordi, and I'm a NON-Smoker.

I feel so ashamed now, because I'm oppressing all of the smokers and restricting their right to inhale tobacco smoke.
It used to be ok.
Any and every time that I wanted to go out for a drink or a meal, I would be able to "enjoy" the stale, 2nd hand smoke of all those around me.
Every mouthful of food had that yummy stale smoke flavour for me to enjoy!
My parents would know that I'd been in the local pub the second I got home, simply from the smell of stale smoke on my clothes.
Happy days.

But then something happened.
They worked out that all this 2nd hand smoke was actually bad for me.
(The only difference between the smoke that I was breathing and the smoke that the smoker was breathing, is that their smoke was being filtered to remove at least some of the bad stuff, and mine (being 2nd hand) was not filtered at all.)

So, here in Scotland, they banned smoking in the pubs and restaurants, and later in all places of work too.
Now, when I go to a pub, restaurant or cafe it actually smells nice, fresh even.
I am not being forced to inhale 2nd hand smoke every time I decide that I'd like to go... anywhere!

Who'd have thought? Fresh air is great.

I'm all for personal freedoms, and against unnecessary legislation.
But smokers in general just didn't seem to get how horrible, nasty and disgusting smoking was/is to non-smokers, and by allowing it to continue in public places, we were in effect forcing non-smokers to inhale the un-filtered 2nd hand smoke of the smokers, every time they went into a public place.

Is that right?
Is that fair?

Smokers should have the right to smoke.
But that right shouldn't ever trump the right of the non-smoker to have access to fresh air instead of 2nd hand smoke.
Premises here have made great efforts to provide smokers shelters, covered areas where you can safely smoke no matter the weather, and that seems to work well.
It's all about common sense and recognising the rights of others.

As a quick postscript to this -
A previous employer of mine did not allow smoking on their premises, so all of the smokers were allowed to go outside to smoke.
They used to go in groups together to enjoy the social aspect of smoking and sharing a gossip, but that left the non-smokers (like me) "holding the fort" back in the office. My workload was being multiplied by having to cover for the large group of smokers who left the building 5 or 6 times a day, every day, for maybe 10 minutes at a time.
I began to think that this was unfair, and was curious about the social aspect of their group, so one day I joined them for a quick "fresh air" break and guess what....

I got called into the managers office to be reprimanded because I didn't smoke!!
I managed to turn it around by pointing out that all of the smokers were effectively getting an extra HOURS BREAK EVERY DAY and that I was covering for them, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. IMHO

kindest regards
G

Hello fellow drummer,

You are forgetting all the glorious years of playing in smoke filled rooms while gigging. I certainly made a lot of money playing the smoke filled taverns and pubs, before I was allowed to be a legal patron. But laws are different for talent.
And funny enough, the cover to pay the band started dropping off once smoking was banned in public houses and other small music venues. The same complaint you see from bar workers today who worked at bars at that same time.

You talk a fair amount about the right to smoke, and non smokers rights. But forget to mention that it is the non smoker's right to not be a patron in the establishments that do allow smoking? Why is that?

I get what you are saying about smokers break's. I've never been in a situation where smokers get more breaks than non-smokers. What I have seen, is guys that take 20 minutes to use the restroom three times a day outside of their break time. Same problem, different issue. What is the solution when the issue isn't related to smoking? Do we just suck it up?

There's no argument here. Smoking is a horrible habit and tobacco kills millions of people every year. Smokers are selfish and dumb. They sound like crybabies too. I didn't complain before, but I definitely enjoy restaurants and bars now that smokers don't infringe upon my right to breathe non #ty air.

Smokers, you make the air #ty. Stop being retarded.

a reply to: N3k9Ni


In Australia they're talking about taxing cigarettes to $40 a packet - in the 90s they were like $10 bucks

Good luck affording tha habit now

a reply to: N3k9Ni

California just passed more tobacco taxes, e-cig regulations, and are looking at raising the smoking age to 21...meanwhile in the SAME timeframe legalized physician assisted suicide. Now I'm not against either of these but it seems pretty hypocritical to want to protect lives with one bill and literally allow people to end it in another

as long as you dont blow it in my face smoke your life away. when my clothes smell like your breath we have a problem.

a reply to: N3k9Ni

Rant away. You want to call it a freedom issue? Fine. I had the "freedom" to grow up in a house with two smokers, and now have asthma. Nope, sorry, you don't have a right to pollute my air. I should b able to co into a restaurant or bar without worrying about my breathing being inhibited by smoke. It doesn't have to be blown in one's face to be a problem, either. The stuff gets all over. You can smell it in the cars and homes of smokers, and in their clothes. Even outside places, it can bother me. As in, grab an inhaler-type bother me. So, rant away, and keep it out of my air, thanks.

Smokers, some of them, are some of the rudest, most selfish people around! Some can be very considerate; not smoking inside, being sure to clean up their butts, etc. Others, though, are utterly rude. My own parents were of the latter sort. Tossing butts out windows instead of using ashtrays, smoking heavily inside cars, blowing it wherever inside, and don't dare complain! You are supposed to LIKE breathing that crap. Well, no thanks! I LOVE paces with no smoking in public. I can actually go to a bar and breathe, whereas I couldn't before. You want to call enjoying that spiteful, and claim harm? Toss in a couple of new lungs, asthma free, and then we'll talk.

I think a positive step would be for all the main countries to pass legislation forbidding any additives to cigarette tobacco. My understanding is that there are up to 100 different chemicals added and the tobacco companies dont have to identify them. So why are they added?...

Ban the additives, take it back to good old 'baccy' by itself and see how many people
A) like them, &
B) remain addicted to them.

originally posted by: Avtur
I think a positive step would be for all the main countries to pass legislation forbidding any additives to cigarette tobacco. My understanding is that there are up to 100 different chemicals added and the tobacco companies dont have to identify them. So why are they added?...

Ban the additives, take it back to good old 'baccy' by itself and see how many people
A) like them, &
B) remain addicted to them.

The additives, many of which are carcinogens have been meticulously researched by tobacco scientists to do the worst damage they can do to your lungs.

While all of the big tobacco companies were flat out lying and saying they didn't think nicotine is addictive, they had their scientists coming up with formulas so that when you take a puff of smoke the nicotine would get to your brain faster.

You see it goes to the lungs, and the junk they put in it slowly eat away at your lungs, purposefully, so the nicotine penetrates into your blood stream and gets to your brain quicker. The nicotine triggers the release of dopamine in the brain. Most brains become addicted to the nicotine. And whilst, they once released dopamine normally, they become dependent on the nicotine to trigger the release of it. Thus nicotine addiction.

So you see, those additives are purposefully put in their to rot away your lungs, so you can get your nicotine fix quicker, making you more addicted to the cigarette.

I worked as a tobacco cessation counselor for many years, and probably talked to over 10,000 people trying to quit during that time. It was very very rare to find a grown up that had just started smoking. Almost all of them started as kids, due to various reasons. And by the time they were grown ups they were addicted. And most of them didn't want to smoke and had tried several times to quit.

You would be amazed at how many of those people were extremely ill and dying. It was mind-blowing how many people I spoke to every day with very serious medical conditions.

And just for the record, it is not just the carcinogen filled smoke that is bad for you. Nicotine itself causes high blood pressure and heart disease.

So many people drop dead of a heart attack regularly, in their late 40's and early 50's from the damage nicotine itself casues the heart.

It's simply filthy and disgusting and a real plague on human society.

The cigarette is manufactured to slowly murder you.

To the OP that is whinny about his "right." Do it. I respect that right. But don't put that crap in my face and act like you are a decent human being.

a reply to: JarofRice
thanks Jarofrice, for that good information. Just confirms my suspicions about the stuff.

a reply to: N3k9Ni

NO you smoke because you are addicted.

a reply to: truthseeker84

Well, as heat travels across electronics (if the vapor path is designed in such a way that heat and possibly moisture pass directly over them,) they can out-gas certain substances that can be toxic (having a great deal of trouble finding the specifics at the moment for some reason, but I've read about it many times when researching vaporizer safety.) A lot of vaporizers use food grade materials which, theoretically, should prevent this from happening, though that doesn't necessarily apply to the electronic components (heating element, etc.)

Also, depending on the solution being vaped, there may be solvents which are carcinogens (acetaldehyde for example,) and at some temperatures even formaldehyde. (Though in the case of the latter, almost no one would ever vape at those temps.)

I'm sorry I can't take the time to properly delve into it again and provide more specifics at the moment (let alone post any links, because most of them aren't appropriate for ATS as the context isn't exactly e-cigs, even though the principle is the same.) I'm dealing with some health related personal stuff at the moment and am on a bit less frequently than I normally would be. I may actually have to take some time away from the computer entirely to be honest.

It's an interesting topic though and there are tons of resources online about them if you take the time to really go digging.

For the most part, I suspect vaping is largely safe, but there are concerns I have and the FDA is raising some as well. My overall point is just that I hold the opinion that while I find it reasonable to prohibit actual smoking in certain places for the protection of non smokers' health, vaping should be more readily tolerated. Again, IMO.

Peace.

a reply to: N3k9Ni

You smoke because you enjoy it because.... your brain was rewired to enjoy it. Did you enjoy your first cigarette? Second? Third? Did it taste good? Did you start when you were fairly young and immature? Subject to peer pressure to look cool? Because it costs money. Its bad for your health. Is bad for the health of people around you. Your breath stinks. Your clothes stink. Your car stinks. Your house stinks. So is there anything at all good about it other than you enjoy it? Its an addictive habit, which means your brain wants it. Needs it. Tells you to use it after a meal. With a drink. When you are unhappy. Celebrating. and so on. Amazing how something can be so many things to you. You use it when you are up or down. And logically you know its full of poisons, toxins, kills people. Its your brain being controlled, but not by you. You are its puppet. Do you enjoy that? Or avoid thinking about it?

originally posted by: N3k9Ni

...and I know damn well that I have never harmed anyone else as long as I have lived.

Might wanna read about a guy called Andy Kaufman.

Brilliant comedian, never smoked, yet died of lung cancer at age 35 from second hand smoke.

Remember that part where you don't like people FORCING things on you??? Enjoy your vice, but don't force your habit to affect my life thanks.

originally posted by: 8675309jenny

originally posted by: N3k9Ni

...and I know damn well that I have never harmed anyone else as long as I have lived.

Might wanna read about a guy called Andy Kaufman.

Brilliant comedian, never smoked, yet died of lung cancer at age 35 from second hand smoke.

Remember that part where you don't like people FORCING things on you??? Enjoy your vice, but don't force your habit to affect my life thanks.

A lot of people on ATS know who Art Bell is. I remember listening to his talk show at night back in the late 90's I believe it was "Coast to Coast" which is now hosted by George Noorey.

He was a huge chain smoker and his wife was asthmatic. If I remember correctly it was during one of his talk shows, or afterwards, that she went into an asthma attack and died.

I have always wondered, for good reason, if his smoking contributed to her death, and if he ever felt even a little bit responsible for it.

It's too bad either way.

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme

....You talk a fair amount about the right to smoke, and non smokers rights. But forget to mention that it is the non smoker's right to not be a patron in the establishments that do allow smoking? Why is that?

Hello there!
Because it's a non-issue. A Smoker has the right to "not be a patron" of non-smoking establishments too.
BUT - when EVERY establishment allowed smoking, the non-smoker had no choice (of establishment).
Every pub, club, hotel, restaurant, cafe etc allowed smoking, so there was no clean-air place for non-smokers to go.
Breathing the clean air isn't going to adversely effect the smoker in the same way that breathing the 2nd hand smoke is bad for the non-smoker, but the smoker can always leave the building for a smoke, the non-smoker can't leave the room for every breath!

I get what you are saying about smokers break's. I've never been in a situation where smokers get more breaks than non-smokers. What I have seen, is guys that take 20 minutes to use the restroom three times a day outside of their break time. Same problem, different issue. What is the solution when the issue isn't related to smoking? Do we just suck it up?

Up to individual management and company policy I suppose.
The employer would have to establish WHY some individual was taking extensively long breaks and act accordingly on an individual basis. (Might be a medical condition for example.)
I don't see toilet breaks as being the same issue btw.
You can choose whether to take up smoking or not, but I don't know of anyone who has successfully decided not to ever go to the toilet.

cheers!
G

i smoke because i enjoy it. and also because i enjoy the addiction it provokes. i can stay some hours without a smoke i don´t mind. when i go to a restaurant and the smokers go outside i often stay at the table. i will smoke later- on the way home or at home. for that kind of moments i have other little addictions like desserts,coffee and beer.
where i live the smoking prohibition in restaurants and bars was not a big deal. people like to go out on the streets and smoke and talk. nobody really cares because weather is usually good here.what bothers me is that since then nobody uses ash-trays anymore...

it is possible to smoke without bothering others and i try my best. the thought that my smoke could be inconvenient for others is inconvenient for me.
and i dont like to smoke like a maniac when i´m outside. i like to think that i can control my addictions and live happily with them instead of always being worried about them.
thats when the addiction is a problem and not a joy. and problems make people sick.
they sell pure rolling tobacco without additives.
smoking a good tobacco relaxes and smells nice imo
some people forget about how to cultivate their addictions. now addictions are seen as uncontrollable bad habits instead of cultivated enjoyable habits.
go figure.
driving around in a car can be a joy and maybe an addiction too.
and it´s dangerous too for the driver and for others... and all the smog!
but thats ok of course.

Ah... smoking. It's been five months and I could cry thinking about it.
I love smoking.
But I hate being a slave to anything or anyone, and cigarettes would take control every time, they had to be stopped.

I always tried to be respectful of others though, I think that is reasonable and expected in a society.