I'll quit when this carton is empty. Promise.
On Smoking
331–340 of 403 posts
Re: On Smoking
#332Anectode. A few years ago, the "neutral pack" was introduced in France, and for some reason, it was decided that the pack would be so neutral as to not even mention the exact composition of the cigarettes themselve.
(You can get a CSV with the ingredients from some offical website. Whatever.)
One day, I was waiting in line to buy newspapers (the same stores typicall sell tabacco and press here. (And newspapers are that thing... well, too long to explain.))
A supposedly very nice lady was outraged that she could not get the exact composition of her cigarettes any more.
20 years of improv comedy, and I could not come up with "what, you're afraid they might put something bad in it ?"
That lady is probably on Facebook at this exact moment, wondering about the pandemic. And she might have relevant questions, and insane answers.
Thinking about smoking is hard.
Try not to do it if you can.
Re: On Smoking
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
1 in 12 adults had met the criteria for abuse or dependence at some point. 1 in 12 aren't present drinking themselves to death and it is highly likely that this figure that has gone up substantially has more to do with our screwed up society and less with the properties of alcohol. Notably 90% of Americans have drank alcohol at some point without becoming addicts which one can't be said of nicotine.
> 1 in 12 adults had met the criteria for abuse or dependence at some point. That year, not some point in their lives. Nicotine is very addictive, but it's not an order of magnitude (10x) more addictive than alcohol.
>That year, not some point in their lives.
What could be possibly so special about this year that you're so adamant to talk about it?
Also, nice website, definitely not partisan.
Re: On Smoking
#334Since there seem to be past smokers in this thread, can any of you chime in for me what smoking did or does for you? I don't mean this as a insult, but I've never understood the addiction, at this point I feel like it's impossible for me to experience, and I don't desire to. I've smoked maybe a dozen or so times in my life, each time a dumb decision often for comedic effect where I asked myself afterwards, "am I addi…
Primarily it gave me something to do when I was nervous, worked up or indecisive. That is the way I see it in hindsight. It was also a good way to meet and chat up with people I would not interact with at work. I quit it one fine day four-five years back and haven't gone back to it. I have tried to smoke in a couple of occasions, but I just hated the taste in my mouth. At that point it felt like I had indeed kicked the habit.
Re: On Smoking
#335Anectode. A few years ago, the "neutral pack" was introduced in France, and for some reason, it was decided that the pack would be so neutral as to not even mention the exact composition of the cigarettes themselve. (You can get a CSV with the ingredients from some offical website. Whatever.) One day, I was waiting in line to buy newspapers (the same stores typicall sell tabacco and press here. (And newspapers are th…
It is true, they put all manner of stuff in it to make it hit faster/harder, to numb your throat so you can smoke more/inhale deeper, etc. Here's a nice overview from some EU body: https://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_l...
Re: On Smoking
#336More than 10 years after quitting smoking, I was standing on a balcony in NYC with a few friends from Italy. They lit up as we drank and talked, and while I didn’t have a true desire to smoke one with them, the thought crossed my mind. What would it be like? Just one cigarette to remind me of when I was young? I think buried deep in our minds once we’ve started smoking and no matter how long after we quit is this question of what it might be like to try it one more time.
Re: On Smoking
#337I started smoking when i went to study in China. Someone gifted me an expensive brand of cigarette, and I kept it hidden in a drawer for two weeks as I didn't smoke. One very cold day with no where to go and nothing to do, I took the pack out and lit one stick. My did it have a lovely scent. The heat it created inside me was also soothing. It took me about a week and half to finish the pack of 21 cigs. I couldn't aff…
Related to this, a lot of the reason smokers around me smoke is to just go outside. It’s an excuse to hang out on the porch. You might think that such a societal excuse isn’t needed, but it’s a powerful force.
I worked at a few places that allowed smokers extra breaks because of their "need". When others asked for the same breaks, they were denied them.
It didn't really go over well, but nobody cared enough to really fight it publicly. I suspect the morale problem it caused cost a lot more than those short breaks would have.
Re: On Smoking
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your stats in absolutely no way counters my claim about addiction. Almost everyone who smokes to any degree becomes addicted and a regular user. Tens (100 million+) of millions of Americans drink occasionally with no addiction. Alcohol is a dangerous drug in every dimension, and I specifically said that. But their addiction profiles are dramatically different.
This is an absolutely ridiculous claim given the number of people I know who've had a first cigarette and not touched a second. Business Insider claims 76% of the population have smoked and 24% have become addicted, while 92% have consumed alcohol and 14% have become addicted[0]. That's nowhere near "almost everyone", it's 31%, and 15% for alcohol. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/most-addictive-substances...
"given the number of people I know who've had a first cigarette and not touched a second"
Okay, now exclude people who did that as children, an experience after which they had zero access to cigarettes. That same survey if demanding an adult experience would be much, much closer.
Everyone has a "Jimmy lit up a smoke and I took a drag and coughed my guts out when I was 9" story.
Overwhelmingly people either had a problem smoking (one that they had to quit through extreme effort), or they never smoked cigarettes at all as adults.
The one "exception" I can recall is a "social" smoker who would tell everyone that she controlled it by only smoking when she drank/at social events, a consequence of which was that she sought drinking opportunities at every venue. She was a problem smoker that turned it into also being a problem drinker.
Re: On Smoking
#339I never understood why we need these black & white labels when it comes to substance usage. Obviously, never smoking any tobacco whatsoever is the healthiest option. But so is never drinking any alcohol or never eating any sweets. But it should also be obvious that every cigarette you do not smoke and every beer you do not drink as well as every chocolate bar you do not eat is an improvement for your health. I don't…
I've heard of quite a few studies that show that some amount of alcohol and chocolate are good for you. I've never heard the same about smoking, though.
Re: On Smoking
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smoking is magnitudes more addictive than alcohol. Regardless, a lot of people do ask why anyone would drink alcohol, given that it offers up an enormous array of detrimental health effects, the possibility of addiction and social troubles (DUI, violence, etc), and as a mental "holiday" altered state is an incredibly poor mechanism. Alcohol hangs around because it was accessible in earlier eras. There will come a tim…
> Alcohol hangs around because it was accessible in earlier eras. There will come a time, I suspect in the very near future, when it will look ridiculous. Where having a `drink' will be an anachronism Why do you think this? It seems an extremely puritan outlook, I'm a bit sceptical that puritanism is saleable without enforcement of society-wide religious norms. Smoking, sure, but smoking is not at all like alcohol co…
Given that I think cannabis, MDMA, pyslocybin and other drugs are far superior to alcohol, I don't think most people would categorize my beliefs as puritanical. If anything it's puritanical "old ways" beliefs that keeps alcohol as the primary drug despite an enormous array of extreme negatives.