*slaps on nicotine patch*

So, this thread is for anything related to smoking.

Are there any smokers on this board? What do you smoke, how many per day, for how long? When, why and how did you start?

How about quitters? (I'm aboard the bandwagon again, after a few months' relapse...)

Oh, this thread is for the non-smokers, too (if you promise not to blow too much of that fresh air into our faces). What are your thoughts on smoking? Were you ever tempted?

And what are the smoking laws like where you live?

Here in Holland smoking is banned in all public indoor areas, except in separate ventilated smoking rooms the staff doesn't have to enter. Smoking cannabis is allowed in so called coffee shops, but it has to be pure or cut with "herbal smoking mixtures" - no tobacco allowed in the mix, except in sealed areas. (So yes, in theory, health officials could turn up to inspect your joint to make sure it's just pot.)

In Belgium, really tiny cafés are exempt from the smoking ban. The ones where smoking is allowed are subject to severe restrictions on what kind of food they're allowed to serve. For example, potatoes are forbidden.

All my family smoke like chimneys, except one of my sisters, and my big brother gave up a while ago, in his forties, but misses it. My dad smoked a minimum of 40 high tar cigs a day from the age of 14 to 68, when he died of lung cancer. (I imagine he didn't start off at 40-plus a day, but had certainly got there by the time he reached adulthood.) My mum tried to get my non-smoking sister to start smoking, with the idea that it might calm her down! My mum still smokes, again about 40 a day.

I smoked Lambert and Butler when I was about 14, but gave it up a few months later when I realised I was starting to enjoy it.

Never smoked, primarily because it's such an expensive habit and I have never found the smell of cigarettes even a bit appealling.

Never smoked, because I never felt the need. Plus my grandmother died of emphysema, which puts you off rather thoroughly. Also I should not be allowed to have a super-hot burning thing in my hand. Nobody needs me dropping burning objects all over the place.

I'm a 'if you must' kind of person. I'll happily go stand outside to carry on conversations with the smokers, but I hold to the family standard of smokers smoking outside where the furnishings don't suffer. The smell of a cigarette just smoked reminds me of being wee, but stale smoke and lots of smoke are both quite nasty to me (and if pot is in the equation, makes me a coughing mess). My dad and uncle both smoke cigars on occasion and I love the smell, but wouldn't do it myself. I have absolutely no illusions on my inability to deal with smoke, never mind how nice it might be.

We have the total ban on smoking in workplaces. So everywhere has little shelters now outside. The number of smokers drops precipitately in the winter!

Tis, why are potatoes forbidden?

quote:

Originally posted by Marvinmarymac:
Tis, why are potatoes forbidden?

My theory is that it is because potatoes and tobacco both came into Europe from the US at around the same time, and the Neologism Police therefore determined that the two must be enjoyed separately.

Dad still smokes - he's currently rolling his own. However, the taxes just went ridiculous, so we shall see whether he weans himself off them or pays the price.

I used to smoke clove cigarettes. Only outside though 'cos they're extremely stinky. I'm not tempted to set fire to one now, they're lung busters, but I do sniff the few left in the package.

i quit about 4 years ago now but had been smoking on and off and trying to quit on and off for about 10 years.

was always a 6-10 a day kinda gal unless it was a night out and then i would smoke more.

glad i dont anymore though - i didnt even like the smell when i was smoking

i do have moments when i listen to one of my 'smoking songs' that i think it would be nice, but thats only to be expected lol

quote:

Originally posted by Hive:

quote:

Originally posted by Marvinmarymac:
Tis, why are potatoes forbidden?

My theory is that it is because potatoes and tobacco both came into Europe from the US at around the same time, and the Neologism Police therefore determined that the two must be enjoyed separately.

That's far more exciting than my suggestion, that potatoes tend to trap the odours of things around them, and cigarette smoke makes a lousy aerosol marinade.

quote:

Originally posted by Hive:

quote:

Originally posted by Marvinmarymac:
Tis, why are potatoes forbidden?

My theory is that it is because potatoes and tobacco both came into Europe from the US at around the same time, and the Neologism Police therefore determined that the two must be enjoyed separately.

Yeah, not too much bad Peruvian influence allowed at once!

Actually, I think it's more a question of limiting the number of establishments that can make use of the smoking ban exemption. In order to qualify, the place has to serve "only light meals" and get less than 30% of their income from food - basically meaning it can't be a real restaurant. There's apparently an official, somewhat surreal list of food items they aren't allowed to serve, including potato in any form or fashion. Because, um, I guess a potato on the side turns a light meal into a heavy one?

(Although I have to admit I like Dweller's theory more. If I have to live in a world where potatoes can get banned, I'd much prefer it to be to protect their delicate flavour. )

Hmm, damn. Saw this topic, saw it was started by Tis and thought, "Hot damn, shouldn't this be in Flame Wars?!" and eagerly clicked on the thread. Imagine my disappointment.

Never smoked, never had a desire to try it, and am rather allergic to it. Most of my friends who smoke are very considerate about trying to keep the smoke away when we're out together, and smoke outside (or have a designated room in their house for smoking). More and more I appreciate smoke-free restaurants and music venues, but can tolerate it if the ventilation is good enough (though even if I'm not bothered by it at the event, my clothes STINK afterward, which is always annoying).

Very occasionally I'll enjoy a clove if I've been drinking and if someone offers. I refuse to buy my own, though, as I'm sure it's a slippery slope. Addiction is one of the things that really scare me.

If others are smoking, I have no problem being around them especially if it's a social setting. I find it's much easier to tolerate if the smoker is someone you're with, compared to walking behind someone smoking on the sidewalk.

My dad is finally quitting after...40? years of smoking up to 2 packs a day. Partially for tax/money reasons but mostly for health reasons. My mom having to go on oxygen for a week earlier this year was a pretty big wake up call for him. Yes, I know the pneumonia gave her the asthma but living with a smoker doesn't help!

So, due to growing up with dad, I NEVER had the inclination to try smoking. Already knew far too much about it.

Has anyone else heard that putting cigarettes under the FDA is going to basically ban clove cigarettes? If this is true, this upsets me. Ban all or none, folks.

The smoking ban here is great, in that you can go somewhere and not have your clothes stink afterwards. One downside is that people seem ever more determined, as a result, to smoke themselves silly in the street, regardless of how many people there are around them. I hate someone striding in front of me, lighting up, and I get a face full of their smoke. I hate being huddled under a bus shelter in the rain, and having three people (illegally) light up around me, forcing me to choose between being stinky or wet. I especially hate it when they tap their cigarette without looking - when kidlet was small, I had to point out more than once that people had actually tapped their fag ash into his pushchair! (I live in a crowded bit of a crowded city.)

My parents used to smoke one cigarette a day, then quit when I was young when they heard that it might be bad for me. Apparently, other smokers have more difficulty quitting than they did.

I am allergic to cigarette smoke, which would make it difficult to get starting smoking, I'd think.

I do enjoy locking smoking friends out of the house, especially if it's raining outside.

My dad smokes, working on quitting but has taken a lot of recent time to work on other health-issues to ensure life-longevity. So I support him in whatever he does.

And I'm fiercely against smoking cigarettes in that I never would, and would encourage friends not to if they were to ask me, but I absolutely can't stand anti-smoking people or campaigns. They tend to be oppressive and manipulate facts and information just like they accuse tobacco companies of doing. I think the movie Thank You For Smoking was pretty balanced in its portrayal and showed the wrongs of both sides.

quote:

Originally posted by I'm a pretty boink-boink!:
I do enjoy locking smoking friends out of the house, especially if it's raining outside.

That's how my cousin stopped smoking when he was 17. There's only so much of an Irish summer where you can smoke outside, and my mother wouldn't let him smoke in the house. Yes, she is actually that conniving.

I've had all of one drag off a cigarette in my life. I was mad and wanted to calm down and stole my friend's smoke and just about died coughing. I like how cigarette smoke smells when it's fresh, and even the slight smoky smell when someone comes in after smoking, but I hate the stale cigarette smell in cars or homes when a person regularly smokes indoors.

My parents both smoked, but my Mom quit when pregnant with me, and my Dad moved to smoking only at the office.

My best friend smoked about a pack a day for a long time, and then quit, and then started again, and then quit again for good about 5 years ago now. She used the patch, and said she thought the clear ones worked better for some reason. Her husband had a terrible time stopping, and he was on the patch for far longer than the recommended time period, but he eventually stopped smoking, too. Noelle ate a lot of sunflower seeds so she had something to do with her hands and mouth when she got a craving. She also knit, for the same reason.

I smoke for 15 years now and everytime i do the count it's like money burned.
but i can't stop... i did when pregnant and start again, only 5 a day ... but still is.

my both parents are smokers, dad had to stop after a heart attack and mom still is. vince is not.

hell of cig...

i like a good cigar once in a while too... with a good islay single malt

Péné

reminds me of a K'sChoice song : i smoke a lot ...

Péné

I am totally addicted, but I have never smoked.

When I was acting in Grease, the director had us smoking on stage. I didn't inhale (it looks convincing enough from audience distance), but I found myself thinking "I can't wait to rehearse that scene again."

That was when I realized something needed to change before opening night...

(I had to have gotten addicted 2nd hand from my Dad when I was a kid because we hadn't been fake-smoking for very long.)