Ask a smoker

[Dystopia]

Anything you want to know about destroying lungs and shortening your lifespan

[Whateverist]

Do you desperately want to stop .. but does the intense sense of personal failure involved when you try force you to make light of it? (I understand.)

[Longhorn]

what do you think of ecigarettes? have you tried them?
do you smoke around other people?

[Gawdzilla]

I quit cold turkey October 1, 1988. My friends dumped me in a cave in Death Valley and picked me up two weeks later. Haven't smoked since.

And to all you coyotes I beat up during that time, my apologies, it was the drugs talking.

[Dystopia]

Do you desperately want to stop .. but does the intense sense of personal failure involved when you try force you to make light of it?  (I understand.)

I don't desperately want to stop.

what do you think of ecigarettes? have you tried them?

do you smoke around other people?

I think e-cigarettes are decent but since my government realized people were switching from normal cigarettes to e-cigs the price has been increasing and as such it costs basically the same amount of money to smoke e-cigs and normal cigs. I have tried them, they're not bad but normal cigarettes taste better.


I smoke around basically everyone because most of my peers and family smoke and most places I go to are smoker areas. I don't smoke a lot on the street or around unknown people.

[Whateverist]

I feel for people hooked on tobacco. Hell where I live there are very few and there is basically no place in public where they can smoke anymore.

On the other hand my mother used to drive around in a car with all the windows rolled up tight (cuz she gets cold) while smoking like a chimney. Then there was the time I went to the only restaurant for miles on a trip to the Southwest, asked for a non-smoking table and was pointed to an empty one. Turns out it was the only non-smoking table in a small, poorly ventilated room. Joke was on me.

[Dystopia]

I feel for people hooked on tobacco.  Hell where I live there are very few and there is basically no place in public where they can smoke anymore.  

On the other hand my mother used to drive around in a car with all the windows rolled up tight (cuz she gets cold) while smoking like a chimney.  Then there was the time I went to the only restaurant for miles on a trip to the Southwest, asked for a non-smoking table and was pointed to an empty one.  Turns out it was the only non-smoking table in a small, poorly ventilated room.  Joke was on me.

I think that sucks - I 100% support bans on smoking when public health is in danger, but I don't agree that all places must be smoke free - A smokers area should be voluntary for any business owner, not mandatory. I can accept that, but the EU wants to ban smoking on all public places without the prerogative to choose. Moreover, some areas have more smokers (demographics) and it's best for business to have a smokers area with proper ventilation. I think there's some degree of puritanism and will to control people's bodies when people want to take it too far. 

Don't feel for me - I'm hooked, but I'm not trying to quit right now. I used to smoke about 5-6 cigarettes per day and that wasn't bad because I could go long lengths of time without smoking (even days if necessary) but now I smoke close to a pack a day. I need to reduce at the very least because of price rising otherwise someday I'll go bankrupt (I already smoke rolling tobacco only)

[Whateverist]

Well I do feel for you in the sense that I've had colleagues who smoke who were basically driven from the district on account of their lack of access to a place to smoke, people I liked and hated to see ostracized. And you're right, cigarettes might bankrupt you before they finish killing you.

[JuliaL]

How old are you?

I'm of an age where I'm seeing those of my cohort who indulged in 'life shortening' behaviors are now being shown the accuracy of those predictions.  The process is often painful and ugly.
While I endorse the personal freedom to choose such a course of action, I wonder if youth and denial of mortality don't substantially affect an individual's decision to continue in one.  Young people lack the perspective to see how quickly age arrives.  We elderly can't gift our personal, intuitive reality to our children, no matter how much we may wish to. 

But we can nag.

[Dystopia]

I am 21.