# American smokers making 30K a year or less spend 1/7 to 1/4 of their income on... cigarettes?! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 23, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298 "2014-10-23T23:28:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/61 "2014-10-27T12:55:45Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I told him how I quit (I’ll almost guarantee it will work - it may do so by killing you, but you’ll stop). > > WARNING!!! I HAVE RUN THIS PAST 3 DOCTORS - ALL BLANCHED. > > 1. Wear 21 mg trans dermal patches for a month (or more! increase the odds of dying!) > 2. Chain smoke until you are physically ill. > > If the nicotine OD doesn’t kill you, you are probably going to be clean. I’m not seeing the logic in this at all, the standard way to quit a physically addictive substance is to taper down slowly to minimize the shock to the system, this is just going to drastically raise your tolerance to nicotine. You’ll be even more addicted at the end of the month. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/62 "2014-10-27T13:07:18Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > My question is, where do they smoke anymore? Restaurants, shopping areas, businesses, and even alot of bars ban smoking. In between all those places is an area called “the outdoors”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/63 "2014-10-27T15:58:53Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Perhaps not, but gaming being a fairly sedentary lifestyle option if pursued intensively I don’t think it’s going to do much for their overall fitness, weight management or cardiovascular health as they age. Not as bad as smoking but sitting in spot almost immobile daily for 4-8 hours at a stretch as your “recreation” doesn’t have much to recommend it health-wise. “Second hand gaming” doesnt kill 50,000 non-gamers a year. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/64 "2014-10-27T16:08:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “Second hand gaming” doesnt kill 50,000 non-gamers a year. That’s hardly the point of the thread, though - or is second hand smoke from the wealthy less dangerous than that which comes from poor smokers? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/65 "2014-10-28T15:40:06Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > My question is, where do they smoke anymore? Restaurants, shopping areas, businesses, and even alot of bars ban smoking. They can smoke at home. I know, from having looked into it, that, around here at least, many low-cost housing places allow smoking inside. And if these low-income people don’t have jobs, or only work part-time, they can stay at home a lot and smoke. And many jobs do allow smoke breaks. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/66 "2014-10-28T15:52:02Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m not seeing the logic in this at all, the standard way to quit a physically addictive substance is to taper down slowly to minimize the shock to the system, this is just going to drastically raise your tolerance to nicotine. You’ll be even more addicted at the end of the month. I think he’s proposing something called “The Garcia Effect.” When a substance makes you sick once, you avoid-- it’s a sort of single-exposure conditioning. It’s the reason that you can’t stand the smell of a food you once vomited up, even if the food itself didn’t make you sick-- you just happened to get a virus, and it was the last thing you ate before the puking began. It’s also the reason the nausea control in chemo patients is such a bitch. Not only do people have trouble eating _while_ on chemo, but afterwards, anything they threw up, they don’t want to eat again. It’s the basis of the “experiment” in _A Clockwork Orange_. So, I guess the idea is to make yourself literally ill on nicotine, and the taste of cigarettes so you won’t want them anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/67 "2014-10-28T16:04:43Z")
> [@grude](#): > > High tobacco taxes just hurt the poor, it is a disgrace. By this logic, tobacco prices hurt the poor. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298/68 "2014-10-28T17:54:54Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > My question is, where do they smoke anymore? Restaurants, shopping areas, businesses, and even alot of bars ban smoking. Especially in poor areas/basic ghettos its not that hard to find businesses (especially bars) that don’t care what the law is. I could take you to a couple businesses in Manchester (section of Pittsburgh) where you can have a smoke while working under the table and then around the block for a beer and a burger and another smoke or three. Its the new version of “after hours clubs” and “illegal workers”. I’ve found a couple filthy rich areas where the laws are pretty much meaningless too. But my wallet hasn’t allowed me to do extensive research. Maybe there is a government grant out there for me? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-smokers-making-30k-a-year-or-less-spend-1-7-to-1-4-of-their-income-on-cigarettes/702298.md?page=3)