Cigarettes Thread

[aiptasia]

I smoked for about ten years from high school till a few years after college. Went from: Pall Mall to Marlboro red box to Marlboro lights to Vantage to quit. I was a casual smoker, about a half pack a day at the most.

I got my Wife to quit about two years ago. She'd have two cigarettes a day, one in the morning and one at night. She was pretty much quit from the previous five years before that but just couldn't give up the last two cigarettes for a while. Now she's done.

E-cigs are very popular in our area here in Jacksonville, with kiosks even popping up in the mall selling them. I'd be a little wary of inhaling food grade propyline glycol, which is probably healthier than the couple of hundred carcinogens in tobacco, but still... it can cause liver and kidney damage.

I guess it's trendy to "vape" instead of smoke.

 

[Raenon]

I quit in fall of 09 with an ecigarette, and loved them so much within 6 months I opened a small hobby shop online to sell ingredients for "DIY"-ing your own liquid ( homebrewing would be as appropriate a word, and would probably cause fewer English teachers to faint)
6 months in on the hobby shop, and I left my day job and made a full go of it. I love what I do, and feel good about spreading the word about Vaping as an alternative to smoking.
Btw- propylene glycol is in many food stuffs, and used to keep tobacco moist as well. You're already inhaling it when you smoke. PG is also used in many formulary medications, asthma inhalers and nebulizers, and has been piped into hospital ventilation systems since the 40's as a potent and safe bacterial and viral disinfectant. You'd have to drink or inject massive quantities (more than you drink beer) to damage your organs, unless you're a cat (dogs are fine though)
That's also why PG is typically used as RV and boat antifreeze- safe, and barely more expensive than its poisonous cousin diethylene glycol.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

When I lived in the Nashville area for about a year in the late 1970's if you knew where to go you could get cigarettes for .29cents a pack ... name brand too. A carton was $2.90 ... missed the tax man somehow so I was told.

 

[iaefebs]

Yup it's your right to smoke. Thanks for making the rest our health insurance more expensive!

Relax dude, have another bucket of fried chicken.

 

[nymtber]

Anyone who smokes cigarettes now a days is crazy. Not just the health issue, but they now get $9/pack out of you (here in NY) and its just disgusting. I am speaking on that, because I USED to smoke 6 years ago. I will have an occasional small cigar or pipe, but not very often. Once a month tops. Will never touch a cigarette again. Ever.

You can keep smoking if you want, but every time I hop on my bicycle, go for a walk, go snowshoeing, kayaking, etc, I remember why I like to keep my lungs clear!

By the way, quitting is not as impossible as they make it seem, however you do need to WANT to quit, or you never will.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

When I quit quitting (ie when I was finally weaning myself off the nic lozenges) I had a brief relapse with Marlboro Snus. Its the first time I ever hid anything from SWMBO.

They had the added pleasures of fissures on my gums and inner lip and at least one occassion where I poisoned myself and vomited. When I would overdose... on tobacco... which happened often with these things, I would get a mild case of the shakes and would sweat profusely.

Either the tobacco companies are sticking up for the rights of their customers by providing a product that can be used in public without being unsightly or causing smoke or... far more likely... they found an evil way to continue bringing in revenue selling a poison around current adversity.

 

[Qhrumphf]

SWMBO and I have each been smoking more than a decade. I'm partial to Marlboro Reds, but usually end up with the Special Blends cause (at least for now) they're a lot cheaper. But SWMBO just got the Welbutrin prescription to help her quit. So I guess I'm going to have to quit too. I've tried a couple times to quit in the past and failed miserably. Last time I tried, I'm lucky I didn't end up in jail. Hah.

I've long been of the mind that the anti-smoking ads, often funded by the tobacco companies for tax discounts, are just a way of advertising cigarettes on TV legally. They don't make me want to quit. They make me want a cigarette.

 

[Darwin18]

Relax dude, have another bucket of fried chicken.

Point?

 

[Airplanedoc]

Anyone who smokes cigarettes now a days is crazy. Not just the health issue, but they now get $9/pack out of you

Just picked up a pack for my neighbor while I was out. $6/pack here in Greece I mean Illinois

 

[Dan]

I don't always smoke cigarettes, but when I do I smoke Dunhills or Davidoffs.

Wait.. are you that most interesting man in the world guy, who doesn't always drink beer but when he does it's Dos Equis?

 

[lschiavo]

Like beer, our ancestors have used tobacco for milennia. What makes it bad now is the chemicals used to cultivate and preserve it. If anyone is really worried about their heath, switch to organic tobac and quit American processed foods. If everyone traded 1/2oz of good tobacco for 1lb of MacDonalds per day we would all be much healthier. We are off to a good start brewing our own beer.

 

[iaefebs]

Point?

It was a conversation I had with a guy a couple of years ago. He would constantly complain about smoking in the shop. When they made it non smoking I thought it would quiet him down. Instead he started complaining about health care costs from smokers. This was a guy who ate the worst fast food lunches, he actually thought he invented the triple Whopper.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I agree with you in spirit, but I dont think pure tobaccos are much healthier than the adulterated commercial stuff. We know "dip" today as "snuff" because of injuries snuff sniffers sustained from unadultered tobacco (I want to say this was the 16 and 17 hundreds, but I'm not 100% sure). After both a man's nostrils (or a woman's) developed either full-on holes or at the very least pus-filled bloody sores, he would continue to get his fix by putting his snuff between his lip and gums. Over time people wised up, sort of, and started skipping the nose candy and putting it directly into their mouth in a fashion similar to the "chaw" the lower classes were enjoying.

While U.S. Grant definately overindulged in cigars, I dont believe the cigars that gave him lung cancer and ultimately killed him were processed and full of chemicals.

I hate the idea of putting a whole industry out of business (I'm sure there are tons of kind, decent people growing tobacco or running the packing machines or driving the supply trucks, whatever). This country literally would not be here in the form it is now if it werent for the tobacco industry. So, any and all arguments about tobacco are, and have to be, more complicated than pro or anti.

Case in point, I have been trying to convince my father to stop smoking for decades for numerous reasons... however...

I was in a smoky bar, when a gentleman who is a confirmed cocaine user made adorable little coughing noises to indicate the torture his lungs were being subject to. I asked him if a line or two in the bathroom would clear his cough up. Actually, maybe Homer is right, maybe I am a grumpy jerk... lol.

Like beer, our ancestors have used tobacco for milennia. What makes it bad now is the chemicals used to cultivate and preserve it. If anyone is really worried about their heath, switch to organic tobac and quit American processed foods. If everyone traded 1/2oz of good tobacco for 1lb of MacDonalds per day we would all be much healthier. We are off to a good start brewing our own beer.

 

[knotquiteawake]

Wait.. are you that most interesting man in the world guy, who doesn't always drink beer but when he does it's Dos Equis?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bc0WjTT0Ps

well... lets just say that I DO have a beard.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Also, did you know that indigenous peoples in North America were using tobacco tea as an enema? I dont really have a point to telling you that, other than that I want you to be uncomfortable.

 

[glenn514]

I am posting to this thread with much fear and trepidation. I smoked for over 40 years. I must say that I enjoyed it thoroughly! But...I quit for the second...and LAST...time in September 2001. Then, I turned 55 in October 2001, and had a heart attack in December 2001! Perhaps I shouldn't have quit!

Anyway, my smoke of choice was Marlboro Red's. If that was not available, Old Gold's were OK, but just didn't taste the same.

glenn514

 

[Diver165]

I'm a respiratory therapist...keep smoking. It's job security.

Seriously though, I'm a big proponent of smoking cessation. Ultimately its still up to the individual. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. Just remember everyone stops...eventually.

 

[Wus67]

I'm a respiratory therapist...keep smoking. It's job security.

+1 I'm a funeral director, job security here as well. Granted I did smoke for years, but wised up after I buried a bunch of lung CA victims, that and I had kids I didn't want to pas the habit on to.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Not to bump the thread, but cheer me on, I found some nic lozenges I had put in a drawer yesterday, and I threw them away before I could convince myself that just this once it would be ok.

 

[Diver165]

Also, did you know that indigenous peoples in North America were using tobacco tea as an enema?

Not to bump the thread, but cheer me on, I found some nic lozenges I had put in a drawer yesterday,

Uh...what were you going to do with those lozenges....never mind....

 

[H-ost]

I smoked for about 10 years but quit on superbowl sunday, it only took me a week to kick the habit! E-cigs are the Isht!

But staying on topic if I still smoked it would be Camel Lights all the way!

I'm not sure if it would be in poor taste to say where I bought from in this thread but I will mention that it was from someone I met on this site (hes a real e-cig vendor). So if you are curious send me a PM and I will point you in the right direction.

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I'm a respiratory therapist...keep smoking. It's job security.

Seriously though, I'm a big proponent of smoking cessation. Ultimately its still up to the individual. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. Just remember everyone stops...eventually.

It's financial security with me since I own almost 700 shares of Vector Group stock and pulling over 20% a year in dividends. While I don't smoke, I need to make money where I can.

 

[D0ug]

Drum, Top, Three Castles It's the Beft!)... Lucky's, Camel Straights (CHOICE)

I love me a good smoke...

I have to quite though, I have a 4 and a 5 year old boy, and a persistent cough with a nagging ache/weird feeling in my chest.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

D0ug, I hear nice things about e-cigs, but for me it was the lozenges that did it. I eventually started mixing in altoids in order to get off the lozenges. I've noticed a marked improvement in my breathing and stamina since I stopped smoking.

 

[D0ug]

Thanks Creamy, I'll give those a shot. I have been trying to step down by not buying any and bumming them off people on campus. But even though I'm down to about three a day, I'm not sure how much longer it will work. People are starting to walk the other way when they see me coming

 

[H-ost]

Thanks Creamy, I'll give those a shot. I have been trying to step down by not buying any and bumming them off people on campus. But even though I'm down to about three a day, I'm not sure how much longer it will work. People are starting to walk the other way when they see me coming

The lozenges were more effective than anything I tried before E-cigs but until now I could never get rid of the craving for a real cigarette.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

In the final 72 hours when I was weaning off the lozenges I actually unwrapped a cheap cigar and chewed the sucker for hours without lighting it. I then climbed the walls and threw away what looked like a brown sponge. Yeah, willpower was quite necessary.

Thing I kept telling myself is that the poison leaves the building in 72 hours. Any agitation or withdrawals will take place in that hellish extended weekend, and then drop off.

Also, I know this sounds counter intuitive, but if you are legitimately down to 3 cigarettes a day, that means you are looking at a reduction of LESS THAN HALF A PACK in a 72 hour timeframe. I would think the fact that that is such a small number should make it a no-brainer to start quitting.

I miss it like hell though... I still enjoy being in a car when someone smokes ;-)

 

[H-ost]

Thing I kept telling myself is that the poison leaves the building in 72 hours. Any agitation or withdrawals will take place in that hellish extended weekend, and then drop off.

I hear this a lot and it bugs me because it just sounds so wrong (I could easilly be wrong but this just doesn't sound right).

If it takes 3 days for all of the remaining nicotine to leave your body then that is not the worst time for withdrawls. When you are addicted your body/mind really wants something and when it is completely gone it will still be asking for it. I just doesn't make sense that once it is gone your body stops craving it, that's when it wants it more. Right?

The more/longer you smoke the more nerves get dedicated to reacting to all the nicotine, once you stop receiving that nicotine it takes a long time for those nerves to "die off". At least this is what I remember from health class back in highschool but there are plenty of lies built into the curriculum in other areas that I wouldn't disagree if you proved me wrong.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Perhaps some of it is just faking it until you make it, and a LOT LOT LOT of addiction is mental. Plenty of the symptoms are physical and lots more are mental. I feel like the physical adequately dropped off after 72 hours, and the rest was all mental. I remember on day 7 posting on facebook "well, I feel like unless there is some time-delay symptom Im not aware of, then i think I've kicked this."

But then, I was quitting the nic replacements and not quitting smoking, I had effectively done that years prior. YMMV, and there are tons of things to miss (the ritual, the taste, the 2 minutes to think), but I still insist that FOR ME the worst part happened in 3 days span.

 

[H-ost]

Interesting, thanks for your feedback.

If you have already gotten rid of the hand to mouth habit I could see why after a few days of weaning off only nicotine might wear on your willpower a little less. I agree the mental/habitual part is more than 50% of the total addiction.