My Smokers' Rights: Plus a few questions for my fellow addicts.

Originally posted by Chorlton
No thats quite definatly known about and well researched unlike your ideas of telephones

I Have to admit I was being "cheecky". That is how you in the UK put it, right?

Your knowledge of Paris is limited then?

You are correct. But if Paris has a reputaion of being a smoker freindly environment why did you choose to go there?

So you dont break wind then?

Yep, I do but to purposly do it to some one is considered rude and disgusting over here in the states.

I bow to you oh drug taking superman

Thank you for finally admiting that I am right.

reply to post by SimiusDei


Great topic. Great OP.

For hand-rolled I can highly recommend the series by Peter Stokkebye Tobaksfabrik A/S from Denmark.

A variety of flavor for every mood.

Virginia to Turkish it's a lot of fun.

e.g. Bali Shag (brand) Golden Shag with 200 papers = USD9.95

Folks might be interested in the health benefits of moderate tobacco use.

A fool and his money. . .should be happy they got together in the first place.

Thinking on a larger scale here, it's become quite clear (and quite quickly, too) that smoking cigarettes has got to be one of the highest forms of ignorance to exist. And for a community that is committed to denying ignorance (x10 x3), it seems kind of ironic that smoking cigarettes is such a popular subject!

My opinions are not meant to put anyone down, but I just find it fascinating that so many people here are "all for smoking". It seems to me like we have some tobacco company rep's here!

I used to work at a store where smokes are sold, and by Jove if we didn't sell A LOT! (right next to lottery tickets) What I was seeing was not people "benefiting from it's health effects", but quite the opposite. Disintegration of human lives who believe they are not strong enough let go, or who just don't want to. When I used to smoke (and I did it because I ignorantly enjoyed the image it gave off, like a character from a classic black and white film), I felt like #. But I kept doing it, because I thought "what else would I do when my friends/co-workers went out for their hourly smoke?"

Well, let's just say, when you walk around this world with an open mind and open eyes, you come to understand things about daily life and connect it all to a larger scale. And in this larger scale, you see their is no intelligent place for things like smoking cigarettes. Things like that are things I label "Distractions From The Bigger Picture".

oh, I can think of a few things that equal cigs as far as "ignorance" goes, and I bet there are a few anti-smokers our there who partake of these.....

campfires
perfumes, scented detergents, air fresheners, and incense...
hair dyes,
hair perms,
swimming in indoor pools,
and of course, there's that big one.....drinking alcohol
and, then there's the big one......YOUR CAR!! which nearly all anti-smokers will rise up to support their right to use...

matter of fact, I think the only people out there that are more "ignorant" are those that hop in their car and drive across town to their favorite beauty salon to have their hair dyed and permed, and then a quick swing by the neighborhood walmart to pick up a new pair of shoes to add to the six pairs they already have. then to drive home, to their stainmaster carpets, their nice smelling, air freshened home, to cook their dinner in their teflon coated pans.....or on the bar-b-que....all the while thinking they are safe because.....those horrid cigarettes are no where to be seen!!! oh ya, I forgot about their $1.50 bottle of tap water they've been suckered into buy at the grocers because they think it's healthier....not to mention that quick drive to the gym for their daily excercise, maybe even in an indoor pool.....when well, if they had left the car at home and made their rounds on foot, they would have had all the excercise they needed!!


ya know what, in the over 40 years of my life, I bet I have traveled more miles on foot than I have in a car, I'd be willing to bet that the workers of kodak has spent less production hours to provide me with the photo materials I need to support my photography hobby (there isn't a photography hobby and never was one), or to put it even more bluntly.....I bet there has been less production hours spent in producing the crap that I have bought in my lifetime than is spent producing the crap the typical person buys in five years!! overall, even considering the shs...I would bet that 80% of the american population is contributing far more in the production of pollution and toxic chemicals than I do in a year....

and that, my dear...IS the bigger picture!!!
if you buy the product, you have contributed in producing the toxic waste involved in producing that product.....and this generation of anti-smoking, health fanatical whiners are the biggest consumers of crap that have ever existed on the face of the earth!!!

My favourite smoking story is as follows:

I used to catch the main line express train from the British Midlands to London everyday. This was in the days when they had one smoking carriage on a 12 car train. As you can understand I found this useful because you could often get a seat in this carriage, even when the others are full

The train always stopped at Milton Keynes (a town about mid-way) and picked up herds of commuters heading into London. One day was particularly busy and this guy sat down in front of me and after about 5 minutes he started complaining about the smoke. Considering that as smokers we have to constantly give in to the will of others, stand outside in the rain, not smoke in pubs etc I found this a bit of a cheek.

Eleven carriages on that train are provided and this guy has the nerve to complain because people are smoking in the one carriage that you are allowed to smoke in. The guy started to get harrangued by all of the smokers sitting around him, he tried to argue his point but eventually he got up and left to stand up in another carriage...

Eventually the minority has to give in to the will of the majority but as a member of that minority it was nice to see the tables turned for a change.

my favorite one is the girl at work, who is 10 to 15 years younger than me by the way.....always snipping at me when I cough....well, smoke another cigarette....
the girl has missed far more work because she's sick than I have.....

and well, considering the crap we're breething in at work, alot of us end up coughing alot.....
so much for smokers being out of work more I guess....doesn't seem to be true in my view of the world. maybe there should be a new illness....the "I don't wanna work, just let me sit home with my little ones and collect the government check.." our production seems to be affected more by that one than the smoker's ill health.

dawnstar, you are correct, there are plenty ignorant things to fill the world over. (as they do) But if you are suggesting to me that smoking cigarettes lacks ignorance, I would like further explination on your part.

I'm not sure where any logic fits in to the whole smoking scene, other than the fact that smoking is some kind of social crutch. And deciding on my own that HEY! I don't need a social crutch, nor then do I need any involvement in smoking... I did my mental and physical self a favor by not lighting up anymore.

If this were a thread about vehicles and campfires and getting pissed, you can garuntee you'd find me posting my concerns of ignorance there as well. But seeing as though it is clearly about smoking, and clearly about smokers who get easily offended when their $#!% habbit is understandably knocked.... then lets keep to the topic shall we.

It's a good chunk of the bigger picture. But it sounds to me as though assumptions are being made about myself, as though because I respectfully have acknowledged my concerns with the ignorance in smoking, I am some kind of finatical health freak who purhcases bottled water and drives to wal-mart to buy pleather shoes that I do not need... then you are off your rocker. Assumptions are nice and comfy, I do realize, but they are seldom correct.

The truth is actually that I agree with you and your concerns about the rest of the consumeristic world we live in, where people are fed bull$#!% and buy into it as if it were going out of style. I completely agree. But the fact of the matter is that just because I have also acknowledged the ignorance in smoking, does not make me a "certain way". I draw and paint nicely too, but that doesn't mean I live in an artsy high-rise apartment in downtown New York, with chic bohemian tapestry and hang out in jazz clubs on Friday nights.

Aside from the hostility, I enjoyed your post!

reply to post by SimiusDei


I smoked Gauloises from France for 10 years.

Then the French stopped shipping it here to the states when they found out they could get sued because people got cancer from smoking their tobacco. They said, "are you for real?", and pulled the plug.

So, now I can't get my tasty Gauloises anymore because of our nanny, doily laws.

/sigh

newest idea to hit..
ban employees from smoking outside, down the street, in nearby parking lots...

bangornews.com...

reply to post by The Universe


How is coming in here and calling all of us who smoke ignorant NOT putting us down?

Why exactly are we ignorant for smoking? Did you ever stop to think that maybe some of us don't view smoking as being as hazardous as others do?

Personally, I worry more about those hormone injected and genetically modified foods that they sell us all.

If you want to blame ANYTHING for cancer, I think that would be a good place to start.


Naturally, smoking isn't GOOD for you, but calling someone ignorant for their desire to smoke is, well, ignorant.


Jasn

My personal favourite baccy is Cutters Choice, with the thinnest silver rizla and an extra slim Swan filter tip. Hmmmmm smokey loveliness. If I'm feeling particularly suave I may use a liquorice paper to add a sweet flavour - however, these can be a bit rich especially when combined with Old Holburn.

I must say that it's becoming an increasing test of stamina sitting outside pubs in the evenings enjoying a few pints and smoking freely. I think I've pretty much reached the layering of clothes limit! I remember reading about the problems that Shisha Bars have had since the ban, although I've seen a couple of people sat outside one enjoying a hubble-bubble.

Okay so I quit smoking and i am no longer a proponent of Smoking I however refuse to be the wost kind of hypocrite and ex smoker who can't stand smoke..

If you are going to complain about smoking and how bad smoke is for you
the you need to do a few things first

Quit having bonfires
Quit having barbecues
Quit driving
No campfire either

these all release the same waste except for the car which is far more harmful to everyone than cigarettes ever could be if you stuck 100 people in a room 96 smokers 4 non smokers the non smokers would probably have to leave due to nausea, if however you back your car up to the door of a building with 100 people inside and let the motor run everyone would die in short order...

I guess my point is before we say smokers have no rights let's also remember that constitutionally you have
No right to drive
No right to campfires
No right to barbecue

The above are all privileges

anyway before you start telling people they have no rights understand that what you do will be done to you in time...

P.S. I'd like to thank my wonderful wife for helping me quit by taking my cigarettes to work while hiding 1 or 2 for me to have throughout the day I would not have done it without her..

Respectfully
GEO

[edit on 11/16/2007 by geocom]

While I myself am not a Smoker they recently put the smoking age up in the UK to 18 (from 16) yet they plan on putting the VOTING age DOWN.
How on earth your government can say with one hand that you are old enough to choose who can run your own country but not old enough to decide wheter or not to light up is beyond my comprehension.

I personally am in favour of the smoking age in the UK being lowered back down to 16, as even though it has gone up... there are still underage smokers There's just more of them now because the bar has been risen


Hahaha

Nah seriously though, this world is getting too nanny state, Health freaks will disagree but Healthy people are too worried about being killed to go out and live.

If someone lighting up in the same room as me shaves 5 seconds off of my life, I don't care, quite frankly.

[edit on 16-11-2007 by Chowzor]

I don't wanna get off topic, but I'm dying to say this:

Once everyone quits smoking, what will they ban next when people are still dying from lung cancer?

[edit on 16-11-2007 by guavas]

Once everyone quits smoking, what will they ban next when people are still dying from lung cancer?

Carbon Dioxide We won't be allowed to exhale.

I smoke Drum tobacco like the OP using the freebie Job papers. A carton is around $37 here, and a drum of tobacco (around 200-250 cigarettes) is $10. A drum will last me about a month or more.

Originally posted by mazzroth

It also has this property were it kills small organism's as well, like say a contaigen ?.

[edit on 28-8-2007 by mazzroth]

I just wanted to put in a little comment about this as well... People can take it how they will...

When I was living in Florida a couple years back, about the time I first joined ATS, a military doctor on base told me I had the beginnings of a pneumonia infection. He told me how to fight it and wrote me a prescription. On the way to get it filled I noticed that when I lit up I didn't feel any of the symptoms I went to the doctor initially for.

I was strapped for cash and wanted to not have to spend what little I had on the prescription and since I already had a carton of jades, I just lit up whenever I felt a cough... I felt great after only a couple of days and went back to the doc who said he couldn't find it anymore. I told him what happened and of course he gave me the standard lecture about smoking...

This is just something that happened to me and definitely not a recommendation

reply to post by Shaker


Interesting!

How much did you smoke?

F

Here's what I find funny. I don't smoke, although I do dip. It seems odd to me that smokers come up to me on a daily basis and tell me that I should stop using smokeless tobacco because it's gross, disgusting, nasty -insert synonym here-. May be a little off-topic, but i just thought I'd put my two cents in.

All about acceptance/respect.

If I accept and respect myself, I will accept/respect you.

Nothing wrong with smoking, drinking, etc.
Again this comment is from one perspective.

If you go blow smoke in someones face, thats not to cool - but then again the person who you blew smoke in their face probably was judging you thus brought this upon themselves.

Words are tricky indeed. Above is more philosophical and can be easily misunderstood.
Point with anything is moderation. This means more than just how much you do something but in the manner in which you do it. (i.e., how a smoker treats a non-smoker or even that matter how a non-smoker treats the smoker.)

I will say that I dont like cigs - but that is due to the fact that it has additives.
So that is nothing against the smoke itself. Maybe you guys should grow your own tobacco, may be better off.

Peace

dAlen

I used to get bronchitis as a kid, every year like clockwork. When I started smoking in my early teens, I stopped getting it.

I figure it probably has nothing to do with the butts, but you never know. Maybe the hot smoke dries out my airways and stops the organisms from breeding in the moisture.

I still get a cold every now and then, but for the most part I'm the picture of health, and I smoke a pack and a half a day - Camels, the brand more doctors smoke. I'm almost thirty, and my blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart-rate are normal. I've been smoking for sixteen years.



One final point: any doctor worth his/her salt will tell you that stress is a huge risk factor for pulmonary disease. Smoking reduces stress. You may still blow a gasket from an increased heart rate, but at least you were relatively relaxed when it happened.



People who don't smoke really have no frame of reference for the discussion. They want to believe they know all the facts, but when it comes down to it, they're just repeating a bunch of crap that they were force-fed. Very few of them follow up, do the research, investigate the claims of the anti-smoking lobby. Mostly they just regurgitate whatever random authority figure X sticks down their throat.

Of all places, ATS should strive to be free of that sort of mindless lip-service to the status quo.

I've said my peace, now I'm gonna go smoke butts, drink beers, and watch a bunch of steroidal hulks smash each other into the turf for a few hours. Go Giants...