Smokers: Why do you do it?

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Missouri DOES have one of the highest smoking rates in the nation at just under 25% IIRC. But that still means that there had to be substantial opposition from non-smokers for the proposals to be defeated. And I rather doubt that 100% of smokers voted against it.

Must be that right-wing sentiment that no one can tell us what to do, even for our own good!

 

[naterator]

God i miss smoking. I started as a teenager because it was a nice way to enhance the effects of the various other things i might have been smoking at the time. Kept smoking because it was great. I know it sounds crazy to a non-smoker, but we actually LIKE it.

I quit because my body no longer liked it as much as i did. I would feel physically ill by the halfway point and put it out. I tried to persevere, but after a while of that, i had to wish tobacco well and move on. Smoked over a pack a day in my prime, quit cold turkey. I still like the smell, and will often sit with the smokers and enjoy the atmosphere. I still consider myself a smoker for census purposes, and will futilely throw my vote behind them, even if the fact that i live in California insures the anti-smoking measure passes with or without me.

 

[Grimz101]

I can get a pack of 10 mayfair kingsize for about £3.11 at the right shops, but if the government increased the tax so it was around £5.00 I'd be all for it. I think smoking is a terrible habit, and unfair to your family when you die young or if you get cancer and become a strain on them.

I also think cigarettes should all be sold in non brand boxing (This coming from a smoker)

 

[Lay_Lay]

If you caught me with a cig in my ear it was because you saw me on my way outside to puff the single smoke I brought for the occasion (and I lacked a front shirt pocket, and my hands were full carrying other items.)
In my 30's I am not smoking to be cool, I guarantee you that.

 

[KaiserElectric]

I don't smoke, nor do I like the smell of it, but I fully support the right to smoke. For better or for worse, people have a choice and a right to smoke, and I support that.

On another note, I'm also against the graphic surgeon general warnings they are putting on cigarette packages soon.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Basically cause I'm piss weak . Not a day goes by that I don't regret taking it up . I feel like a total idiot spending $5000 a year to stink , lose fitness and kill myself .

I dont buy in to the "it's enjoyable" argument either . The only pleasure is in easing the nicotine withdrawals that wouldn't exist if I was a non smoker .

Smoking sucks , period .

 

[REDY]

I don't smoke, nor do I like the smell of it, but I fully support the right to smoke. For better or for worse, people have a choice and a right to smoke, and I support that.

This is not how addictive drugs work. You have choice in the beginning, rest is only about how you will resist...I dont know how explain it to non-smoker, but being without smoking for regular smoker is like being hungry. You still have choice to not eat, but its very hard to use your free will here.

 

[aelf]

I think I've been at clubs where I've literally spent half the night in the smoking area, talking to women and only going back inside for more alcohol. Whilst my peers have spent the night inside the noisy club failing to get anywhere with a bunch of women who can't hear what they're saying unless you shout 2 inches from their ear.

This is the only reason I can think of that makes smoking appealing (normal people don't meet girls at bars where I come from). But I don't like the potential costs and personally don't feel inclined to try. Have tried shisha, but I didn't like it much.

 

[Colonel]

I fill a classic stereotype with my smoking. A divorced, smoking, and drinking air traffic controller (no drinking on duty obviously). In all honesty I used to smoke when I was in high school because it made drinking large amounts of alcohol easier, then I quit drinking and smoking. I started smoking again after I got divorced as a way to de-stress and I kept going when I went to Iraq. Now I just smoke as a way to relax.

 

[Brighteye]

The chances that the reason that you are going to die due to second hand smoke isn't substantial at all - there are much more dangerous things to worry about. For example, I don't understand how people can be anti-smoking but support lower drinking age laws - alcohol is much more dangerous than tobacco, both first and second hand. So if you support a "clean and healthy" society, then be consistent with it, not selective and going with whatever the liberal cause is endorsing at a particular time.

Alcohol is not more dangerous. Smoking is the biggest single public health risk in the world, and in almost every country. A few countries escape because of civil war or natural disaster.
The only exceptions are a few former Soviet countries, including Russia, where drinking bottles of vodka in a day is customary. If they smoked 80-100 cigarettes a day (or more), smoking would be worse.

I don't smoke, and I have great trouble persuading smokers to explain why they started. They seem embarrassed about the subject.

 

[Kozmos]

I have been and still am a weekend smoker for the most part. Lucky Strike pack for weekend adventures out. Occasionally if I have a big lunch/breakfast/dinner during the week, I will roll my own cigarette from a mixture of several blends as a way to relax while watching something, be it a show, movie or a documentary.