# I won't smoke a ham, but I'll smoke that Salem! Re Vegans who smoke cigarettes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 18, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721 "2005-10-18T07:31:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/1 "2005-10-18T07:31:59Z")
Lately my daughter is hanging out with some DDR fanatics who share their house with two Vegan girls who smoke like chimneys. Granted it’s not ingesting meat, but (IMO) if you’re going to go to the trouble of eschewing meat for health and (assumedly) philosophical reasons, it seems kind of pointless and vaguely hypocritical health-wise to then hammer your body by smoking. Are smoking Vegans a rarity? ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/2 "2005-10-18T07:51:36Z")
Almost all the vegans I know don’t eat meat because of the whole killing animals thing - not because the body is a temple. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/3 "2005-10-18T07:56:27Z")
Don’t they ever stop to think of all the animals that are killed in order to bring their old Virginian to them in tip-top condition? Typical! Absolutely bloody typical! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/4 "2005-10-18T08:13:46Z")
The smoking vegans I know all smoke those American Spirit cancer sticks. I guess they’re organic or some shit. Yeah, because you wouldn’t want any _harmful chemicals_ getting on your _tobacco_, now would you? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/5 "2005-10-18T09:04:51Z")
Cigarettes are a vegetable. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/6 "2005-10-18T09:06:44Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The smoking vegans I know all smoke those American Spirit cancer sticks. I guess they’re organic or some shit. Yeah, because you wouldn’t want any _harmful chemicals_ getting on your _tobacco_, now would you? I’m smoking an American Spirit right now, though I’m far, far, far from being a vegan; God, I love steak and bacon. Only a couple of their more expensive tobacco products are organically grown. The others are simply free of the common chemical additives (e.g. burning agents) that other companies use. Clearly noted on every pack (and can and pouch, for RYOers like me) of American Spirit is the sentence, “No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean safer.” I smoke them not because I think that they are somehow than other brands, but because those additives constitute about 10% of each cigarette. Fuck that. If I’m paying through the nose for my carcinogen of choice, I want 100% tobacco. American Spirit offers that, and tastes better than any other cigarette I’ve ever smoked. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/7 "2005-10-18T13:10:21Z")
I don’t understand the question, I guess. Why _shouldn’t_ vegans smoke? I mean, other than the reasons we all shouldn’t smoke. What makes vegans any different? Are they putting sheep’s blood in cigarettes now? They are, aren’t they?! Bastards. Yeah, most of the vegans I know smoke. Up until six months ago, most of the alternative, neo-hippie folks (not the same group, but there is a large overlap) I know smoked. Then we all started turning 30, and most of us are quitting or have quit recently. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/8 "2005-10-18T17:45:33Z")
Being vegan or vegetarian or whatever doesn’t mean your ethics suddenly become perfectly consistant and up for public discussion. Unless they are annoyingly evangelical in their vegan-dom, it’s not particularly clever to nitpick their personal decisions and perhaps their personal failings. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/9 "2005-10-18T18:35:18Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > doesn’t mean your ethics suddenly become … up for public discussion. Sure it does – everybody’s ethics are always up for discussion. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/10 "2005-10-18T20:45:58Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Sure it does – everybody’s ethics are always up for discussion. > > –Cliffy I don’t know, **Cliffy**. Your motives seem suspect. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/11 "2005-10-18T20:49:24Z")
Every vegan I’ve ever met smoked. Okay, so I’ve only ever met one vegan. So what? My data is still valid! [sub]{Howyadoin, **lezlers**?}[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/12 "2005-10-18T21:43:24Z")
I remember finding it ironic that a militant anti-capitalist should be photographed for a newspaper article smoking a cigarette. Um, you do realise you’re supporting one of the biggest and baddest capitalist industries, right? Yes, I know the person in question wasn’t necessarily a vegan, and that no matter how anti-capitalist you are it’s impossible to live in this world and not support capitalist businesses occasionally, even if only indirectly, but that seemed a particularly noticable oversight. Had she left the interview and gone straight to McDonald’s I wouldn’t have been too surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/13 "2005-10-18T21:47:00Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > Being vegan or vegetarian or whatever doesn’t mean your ethics suddenly become perfectly consistant and up for public discussion. Unless they are annoyingly evangelical in their vegan-dom, it’s not particularly clever to nitpick their personal decisions and perhaps their personal failings. Agreed. I’m the world’s least militant vegetarian. I don’t give a fuck what anyone else eats. And yet people quite often feel the need to bug me about whatever failings they think I may have because I don’t eat meat. Very annoying. Also kind of annoying when people find out I’m a vegetarian and go crazy the other way. I had a coworker who was concerned about my eating pretty much _anything_. Like, he’d fret when he saw me drinking a soda or eating a cookie. (This guy was weird in many ways, though, I guess I’m about the same age as his daughters and he seemed to think I was one of them. Creepy.) OTOH, I once had dinner with a vegan and had a burger (this was years ago, before I was a vegetarian) and he made faces and snide remarks about my dinner. Recalling a conversation on veganism on the SDMB, I asked him if he ate honey. He said yes, and when I pointed out it was an animal product, he insisted that bees weren’t animals, they’re _insects_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/14 "2005-10-18T21:50:18Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The smoking vegans Band name! ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/15 "2005-10-18T21:52:54Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > I remember finding it ironic that a militant anti-capitalist should be photographed for a newspaper article smoking a cigarette. Um, you do realise you’re supporting one of the biggest and baddest capitalist industries, right? You are assuming that they did not grow their own tobacco in the garden, dry it in the shed, cure it and then roll their own. ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/16 "2005-10-18T21:57:06Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > You are assuming that they did not grow their own tobacco in the garden, dry it in the shed, cure it and then roll their own. No, I’m not. This was a regular, industrial made cigarette, that much was clear from the picture - you could almost, but not quite, make out the brand name near the filter. I wouldn’t have even reacted if it’d been a soggy-ended roll-up! ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/17 "2005-10-18T22:00:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Every vegan I’ve ever met smoked. > > Okay, so I’ve only ever met one vegan. So what? My data is still valid! > > [sub]{Howyadoin, **lezlers**?}[/sub] nitpick: if it’s only one, it’s datum ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/18 "2005-10-18T22:01:47Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > No, I’m not. This was a regular, industrial made cigarette, that much was clear from the picture - you could almost, but not quite, make out the brand name near the filter. With the ZigZag rolling tube system it is possible to roll your own cigs that pass for the real McKoy. Just saying, devil’s advocate and all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/19 "2005-10-18T22:10:26Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > With the ZigZag rolling tube system it is possible to roll your own cigs that pass for the real McKoy. Just saying, devil’s advocate and all. 😉 Was that a plug? 😉 Alright, it _may_ not have been a manufactured cigarette, but I’d be willing to bet heavily that it was. Apart from anything else, I don’t think we have the right climate for growing baccy in Britain. We now return you to your regular scheduled discussion of The Smoking Vegans. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721/20 "2005-10-18T23:04:13Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > Was that a plug? Naw, plugs are chewing tobacco. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wont-smoke-a-ham-but-ill-smoke-that-salem-re-vegans-who-smoke-cigarettes/326721.md?page=2)