# Do you smoke? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684 "2009-11-15T20:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/41 "2009-11-16T14:08:48Z")
No one in my family ever smoked, but my parents would go out on weekends and come home and walk in the house and they stunk- it was wafting off of them from just being in the restaurant/bar where others were smoking. I grew to hate the smell. When I got older I thought I’d give it a try- as I did with most things. I bought a pack and gamely fought my way through 3 or 4 cigs, all the while asking “what the hell are you doing to yourself? This is terrible.” Threw out the pack and never tried again. ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/42 "2009-11-16T14:22:06Z")
Never. When I was younger I secondhand smoked probably a pack and a half a day thanks to my dad and grandma. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/43 "2009-11-16T14:29:03Z")
I don’t smoke habitually, I couldn’t tolerate the smell or the expense. I do enjoy a cigar from time to time with a glass of scotch - probably 3-4x a year. I sometimes have a cigarette with friends, particularly if we are drinking. Smoking is one of the few things I can truly do in moderation. I need to assume the same habit with cheese burgers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/44 "2009-11-16T14:36:03Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I grew up in a rigidly non-smoking household, even when it was socially acceptable to smoke. My dad even used to open the windows in other people’s houses when there was smoking going on. I was propagandized to like a motherfuck. Thus my 14-year-old brain went “smoking is the _worst thing in the world_, yet loads of people still do it. Therefore, there must be some kind of hidden pleasure involved that’s being covered up.” So I tried it out, and persisted until I was thoroughly addicted. Bada bing, I am still a smoker. > > All four of my grandparents smoked, which is why my parents were so anti (that and they’re medics) - but the only effect was that it skipped a generation: all three of my siblings smoked too, though they’ve been successful in giving up. Me, not so much. > [@Scarlett67](#): > > No, never. My dad smoked Luckies for 50 years (and, big surprise, died of lung cancer last year), and we kids were the, uh, beneficiaries of his habit. Gross. I grew up HATING cigarettes. Mr. S grew up in a similarly smoke-hazed environment (his dad’s coffin nails were Camels), and now we enjoy a smoke-free home. Never underestimate the power of reaction against one’s parents. 🙂 I don’t smoke. All of my parents smoked (both bio and step), and I learned to loathe it from an early age. Winter trips sealed in the car with smokers were particularly bad; I am glad to say that it is now illegal in Ontario to smoke in a closed car with children. When my dad left his apartment to move north, I cleaned it. Parts of the walls were chocolate-brown where drafts had deposited smoke residue. The cleaning was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever done. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/45 "2009-11-16T14:38:29Z")
Nope, never wanted to. Both my mother and father did, and it led at least indirectly to their deaths. I’m quite disappointed that my son smokes. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/46 "2009-11-16T14:41:50Z")
I remember being around 7 or 8 and walking next to my father, who had a lit cigarette in his hand. Being a kid, I didn’t pay attention, and reached out to take his hand…and promptly burned my hand pretty good. Dad was pretty upset, and from that day, started to quit smoking. He very quickly scaled it back to smoking only at work. But that day also taught me a lesson and I never picked up a cigarette in my life, not even when my friends were doing it to be cool. ---
**Author:** ![LunarPlexus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LunarPlexus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LunarPlexus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/47 "2009-11-16T14:46:13Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > We seem to be a little higher here at the dope. I thought this poll excluded marijuana… ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/48 "2009-11-16T15:00:18Z")
I smoked for roughly 25 years, but finally was able to knock it off a couple of years ago ([thanks Allan Carr!](http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Non-Smokers/dp/1402718616)). I’m a little surprised at the results so far – the percentage of smokers is a good 10% higher than I thought it would be, ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/49 "2009-11-16T15:12:12Z")
I’ll smoke an occasional cigar (maybe twice a year), but have never had the urge to take up cigarettes. I tried smoking a pipe once, because I like the pretentiousness of it, but it didn’t stick. ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/50 "2009-11-16T15:25:55Z")
I smoked a pipe for about 8 months in 1969, until someone stole my pipes out of my luggage during a trip (never figured that one out) and I just stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/51 "2009-11-16T16:05:38Z")
I only smoke cigarettes when I’m trying to pick up a girl who smokes. I don’t particularly enjoy the smell so that’s rarely more then a couple of times a year and I always feel like crap the next day. I for one love the smoking ban in bars since I am able to go home from bars and not smell like smoke and it makes the girls who do smoke have to leave their friends to go outside and smoke so it’s an easy conversation starter. I love smoking cigars and if I had convenient access to a smoke shop I would probably smoke every weekend as it is I only smoke when I go fishing or have the guys over for a BBQ so probably 6-7 a year. I didn’t read the whole OP before I voted so I went with no my answer should probably be disregarded. I do chew though, about a bag a month, but I’ve found that at that low rate I get more of a buzz and my mouth has time to heal between bags. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/52 "2009-11-17T04:17:46Z")
I no longer smoke. Been a pack a day smoker for 29 years and I quit cold turkey 10 weeks ago. Still goin’ strong on not smoking. I have quit twice before, and I know what I’m like. I’m a horrible ‘former smoker’. My roomie smokes, and now it bugs the hell out of me. Two of my friends smoke and I detect they get a bit ‘miffed’ because I make them go outside to smoke now. I tell them its “the same rules as in your house”. ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/53 "2009-11-17T04:42:27Z")
I do not smoke. When I was a kid, my parents smoked. I hated it so much that I repeatedly hid their cigarettes. They ended up both quitting on Halloween, 1984, when I was 4, and both succeeded the first time. 🙂 Tried a couple of puffs as a teenager. Some of my friends smoked and they used to offer puffs/cigarettes to me. (My friends _offered_ me smokes but never, ever _pressured_ me into smoking.) Well, I wanted to know what the big deal was, I had a taste, and blech, that was enough. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I didn’t see the point in acquiring it. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/54 "2009-11-17T05:30:52Z")
People often hate me for it, but I kinda smoke when I want to, and only when there’s a drink involved for some reason. If I’m around other smokers, I can keep pace if I feel like it, or have one for everyone else’s two or three. If I’m not around other smokers, the urge rarely hits, even when drinking beer. I usually make a pack last about a month or so, if I had to quit for good, it really wouldn’t be a problem for me. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/55 "2009-11-17T06:24:46Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Simple as that. I’m talking about tobacco in any of it’s delivery devices - pipe, hookah, cigarette. cigar, etc. If you smoke pot but not tobacco, I’d say that is a no. > > Feel free to explain your answer further in a post, but for this poll it is a yes/no answer. It doesn’t matter if you only smoke while drinking in bars, or only two cigarettes a day, I’m just curious if you smoke at all, or never. 6 years ago I used to smoke a pack (of 25) every day. Then my 46 year old uncle literally dropped dead from a ruptured berry anuerism in his brain. The doctor told us that if he had not been such a heavy smoker and drinker it probably wouldn’t have ruptured. Now I only smoke and drink one weekend every 3 months. The last weekend was October 10th and the next will be January 16th. Surprisingly I don’t have any cravings to smoke or drink outside of those permitted weekends. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684/56 "2009-11-18T04:19:51Z")
Only bad people smoke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-smoke/517684.md?page=2)