I don't smoke.
This is mostly due to having asthma since I can remember.
I did try to make cigarettes with some friends once. We could not have been more than 10 years old. We tried to wrap dried lawn grass in notebook paper. I sure hope they weren't using pesticides.

We have had a smoking ban in Ohio since 2006. No smoking inside except for your own home.

I love it for the same reasons Hive mentioned.

We are very close to Kentucky, so the bars and restaurants there are filled to the brim with smokers. I saw a concert over there and when I got home late the wife made me get out of bed and take a shower.

I don't smoke.. I'm allergic to tobacco and nicotine (can't touch a cigarette butt without breaking out in dry hives).. Mom still smokes despite having a mascectomy.. she cut back on her cigarette smoking, but now smokes those mini cigars called "sweeties"..
A lot of my friends smoke and I have a butt-kick on the porch.. and they have to "air themselves out" before coming back in.. or I have a reaction (bronchial tubes close up.. not fun)... I found out I was allergic when, after joining the Navy and not being around smokers for a while, a friend lit up a clove cigarette in a closed car with me in it... it's rather frightening the first time your lungs close shop.. it allieviated a bit once I got into fresh air, but the pain of the bronchial tubes being forced open almost made me pass out.. of course that could have also been the lack of air.. when it happened again.. I was crying in pain..
But it does explain why I was sick all the time at home.. both parents smoked inside..
I also don't like the smell of cigarette smoke.. nor cigars.. I can smell a cigar two cars ahead in traffic with the AC on.. I do like the smell of some pipe blends, but I can't be around those either while it's lit up.. and don't even get me started on cannibis.. I start sneezing..

heeeheee

We did have another smoking thread in flame wars earlier,

found it

I think I explained in there, but yeah my dad also has emphascema, due to smoking and he goes through the cycle:

smoke > cough up blood > go on nicotine gum > eventually go cold no nicotine (its a total grumpy bastard) > get stressed > start smoking again > cough up blood....etc etc

I have never smoked and never will

I have smoked a cigarette once, because I was drunk and told a friend that for every fag he smoked I'd smoke one too until he stopped. Rather backfired when it was decided it would be hugely entertaining to make the tiny posh one smoke. Was told to breathe in then breathe in again, did so, half the cig vanished and was told I was doing it wrong and it was taken away.

Also tried a bit of a cigar once. Did not cough!

Chimney here.
I have smoked for 16 years, nearer to 17: and have always smoked heavily. I quit a couple of times, have tried God knows what.

I've been told off, argued with, cajoled, reasoned with and snarked at. And the only results so far are that i'm getting very good at taking the heat for my -admittedly dsgusting- habit.

quote:

Originally posted by Punkyfins:
Chimney here.
I have smoked for 16 years, nearer to 17: and have always smoked heavily. I quit a couple of times, have tried God knows what.

Nice to see you here, 'fins - I was getting a little lonely, being the only one with black tarred lungs in this thread.
ETA: Oh, Pene too! *waves limply with grayish, gnarly, wrinkled smoker's hand*

Yeah, I started as a wee teenager too. Although I did go through more than 6 non-smoking (procreating) years. It kind of sucks that I started again some time ago. (And quit again, and started again, and quit again...)

This time around, I've actually seen a hypnotherapist a couple of times. It's been... interesting.

Smoked on and off in my teens and 20's. In my 30's I smoked a pack a day even after both my parents were diagnosed with emphysema/COPD. Finally managed to quit because I didn't want to smell like cigarette smoke when I visited my dad in hospice. Watching my father die from his chain-smoking habit was not pretty. Lack of oxygen does some scary things to a person's body and mind.

Do I still want a cigarette sometimes? Yes.

Another thing that turned me off of smoking is that when I was a freshman in high school, I volunteered for the school at the local bingo hall. They'd pay us $25 a night or something ridiculous for every kid that volunteered and it went to our extracurriculars, like band and the lesser sports teams. I did that a lot in my first year and just came to associate smoking with being obsessive, antisocial and creepy.

quote:

Originally posted by Dweller in Darkness:
Another thing that turned me off of smoking is that when I was a freshman in high school, I volunteered for the school at the local bingo hall. They'd pay us $25 a night or something ridiculous for every kid that volunteered and it went to our extracurriculars, like band and the lesser sports teams. I did that a lot in my first year and just came to associate smoking with being obsessive, antisocial and creepy.

So... There were Goths old enough to play Bingo that long ago?

I tried to learn to smoke as a teenager, but my lungs wouldn't have it. I attribute the wisdom of my lungs to the fact that, at 36, I still get carded for alcohol because I have the skin of a 20 year-old. I've also noticed that, since my husband quit, we look almost the same age when before, he looked about 10 years older than me. (He's 1 year older).

quote:

Yeah, I started as a wee teenager too. Although I did go through more than 6 non-smoking (procreating) years. It kind of sucks that I started again some time ago. (And quit again, and started again, and quit again...)

My best was two years without the dreaded tar-sticks. And yes, started again.

I just read the entire old smoking thread. My, we did really, really well on the tangents there!

I just found Schrodinger's Cat! He was here! In 2006! Where is he now? Can someone tell him he has a small grey kitten named after him?!

Yup, used to smoke. Started age 20 (mad - wanted to try hash and took to it like I was born with it) Said I'd give up in 10 years, age 30 - or when/if I ever had kids. So, when I was pregnant with Frog (age 30), I gave up.

(sneaked a few in between babies but haven't had one now for about five years?) Good eh. I miss it though - which is why I have ballooned by three stone in weight since then. I was a thin(ish) person for ages. Bloody cigarettes - I wonder if I'd never started whether I would have stayed slim?

My mom's been interested in the idea of e-cigarettes, for a lot of reasons, but partly because of the hassles in dealing with smoking bans.

I was reading about them, and I'm curious to try them, but in researching, I came across references to Swedish snus (smokeless tobacco), so I started reading about that. It's not harmless, but it's a lot less harmful than cigarettes, so I decided to try it. Yesterday I picked some up at a really wild cigar store in Skokie (lots of men lounging, smoking cigars, playing pool, watching movies. It was less of a shop than a social club, and almost made me want to start smoking cigars!)

Anyway, I'm just experimenting with the snus now, but it does seem to work, and it has an interesting spicy flavor. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Snus! I've never even tried it, but all the ice hockey players I've ever known used it. It's banned in the EU, though (except in Sweden, since they made exemption a precondition to their EU membership in the 90's). But I've heard it's supposed to be less unhealthy than smoking. Is that why you're interested in it?

Are you using the prepackaged little portions, or loose snus?

I know someone who smokes one of the electric cigarettes - it's really very convincing.