# Me and my Cigarettes. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539 "2003-12-07T12:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/1 "2003-12-07T12:30:50Z")
I smoke. Cigarettes, nothing else just cigarettes. I am not a leper, child molester, mad axe killer, I am a smoker of cigarettes which is a perfectly legal habit., and I pay for everyone I smoke…through the bloody nose I might add. I do not and never have taken or used drugs of any kind other than cigarettes. So why am I and those who also smoke treated like second class citizens? Non smokers don’t want to breath in our smoke, fine I appreciate that and respect it BUT I don’t want to breathe in your carbon dioxide and yet I’m stuck with it. I can’t ask someone to stop breathing but they can request I stop smoking in their company. Why is it when I light a cigarette in a bar or pub [Yes even a pub] people look at me as if I have just released a cloud of mustard/chlorine/etc. gas into the air or dispersed anthrax spores around the room. I have a habit, I am a slave to nicotine, without my cigarettes I’d go nuts apart from which I ENJOY my cigarettes, I enjoy a good puff on my fags [English fags that is] So do me and my fellow smokers a favour, live with it and stop bloody well persecuting us. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![Lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@Lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lola)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/2 "2003-12-07T12:36:30Z")
As a fellow smoker, I feel justified in saying that you sound a tad whiney here. “Second class citizen” my arse. To equate smoking with breathing is, frankly, stupid. Are you drunk? ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/3 "2003-12-07T12:40:02Z")
So I sound a tad whiney, I can handle that and no I’m not drunk…yet. ---
**Author:** ![Lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@Lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lola)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/4 "2003-12-07T12:40:40Z")
You poor sod. I am. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/5 "2003-12-07T14:12:17Z")
Why should we have to “live with it.” It is your choice to smoke and we shouldn’t have to suffer for it. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/6 "2003-12-07T14:21:15Z")
Yeah. So stop forcibly holding non-smokers down and blowing smoke in their faces while cackling like a maniac and bellowing … “And your little dog too!” It just isn’t right, man. ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/7 "2003-12-07T15:28:03Z")
That wasn’t me JACK, it was me bruvver ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/8 "2003-12-07T15:33:17Z")
My little crack aside (and believe me there’s nothing little about my crack), I’m a non-smoker, (ex-smoker really), and I have to say that appreciate the fact that most public buildings and especially restaurants are now non-smoking in most places here in the states. I’m not sure if an English pub is a valid comparison to an American restaurant, but having a meal in a haze of smoke kind of sucks. BUT … I think dissallowing smoking in bars is kind of dumb. If there’s one place on the planet I expect to be lost in a haze of smoke, it’s a bar. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/9 "2003-12-07T15:46:55Z")
Cigarettes? I can’t imagine smoking some dried out, chopped up, over processed little tube of tobacco wrapped in paper. Try smoking a lovely cigar anyplace and see what happens to you. I’ve been in smoke hazed bars and had people get in my face about how I should be considerate of other people. I am considerate enough of others to allow them to share my lovely cigar smoke for free and all I get is grief for it. Hell, the goddamn thing cost me several dollars and you are getting to sample it for free. Sad ass ungrateful fucks! When the revolution comes, they will be first against the wall. ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/10 "2003-12-07T15:54:14Z")
The size of your crack is well documented JACK even here in Merrie Olde England. I agree that smoking in a restauarant is just not on and I know of no eating places that allow it. That being said there are some pubs in England that have tried to ban smoking throughout the whole place. Needless to say the ban didn’t last long when the licensee found his boozer was empty when normally it was full. FWIW we hopless addicts find that ex smokers are the worst kind of “don’t blow that smoke near me” brigade. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/11 "2003-12-07T16:29:10Z")
[old Steve Martin bit] “Hey, do you mind if I smooooke?” “Not at all…do you mind if I fart? Just one of my habits. I tried to quit. But I gained a lot of weight. It’s hard to quit!” I’m not all that concerned about second-hand smoke from a health perspective. I’m not around it enough that I think it’s going to hurt me. What I object to is the stench. There’s no other noxious gas that any smoker would feel OK about spewing about in a public place, yet not only do they think it’s perfectly all right for them to spread their smke wherever they want, they have the temerity to get pissed off if someone around them objects to their foulness. And I get to carry it home on my clothes and in my hair as an extra-special reminder of their grossness. Which is not to mention the litter smokers generate because they think it’s perfectly fine to drop their butts any damn place they feel like. I wouldn’t object at all to a complete ban on smoking in bars. I wouldn’t object at all to a complete ban on smoking anywhere outside a private home, and that includes, after far too many instances of being behind drivers flinging lit cigarettes out their windows, in cars. ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/12 "2003-12-07T16:44:32Z")
Hey OTTO I feel OK spewing out methane gas in public 'specially after a night on the beer and curry…and boy it sure is noxious then…Oh yes!!! Why, I’ve seen birds fall outta trees after a particularly foul emission…chirping their l’il ol’ lives away, gasping and wheezing How 'bout you? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![\_possum\_stalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b77776/32.png) [@\_possum\_stalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_possum_stalker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/13 "2003-12-07T17:04:09Z")
“Oook, the bar is smokey!!” Cry me a fucking river. People go out to clubs to drink and smoke. That’s what people have always done (well, since Sir W Raleigh united New World “smoak” w/ Old World hootch). S’fun. There are plenty of bars that don’t allow smoking. Or you can drink at home. I’m an on-and-off chain smoker (“Quitting is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.” -W.C.Fields). I never smoke in my own house, so I like being able to smoke in a social setting. Yes, rolling/sharing/discussing/smoking cigs can be a social act, just as drinking any fine beverage can be. I think restaurants should have non-smoking sections, as they do. I think bars should have the option of allowing smoking or not. And I think you should have the right to leave any place where the atmosphere is too much for your tender young lungs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/14 "2003-12-07T17:04:53Z")
As another fellow smoker, I gotta say **spogga** , that rant isn’t going to do us any favors around here. See, I live in California (the state that requires you to pretty much climb under a rock to smoke in public) so the anti-smoking brigade look twice as whiny in my eyes. Mostly because you almost have to _go out of your way_ here to get a face full 'o smoke. I tend to forget there are other places that are a lot more lax with their smoking restrictions. So when I see you complain about getting dirty looks from lighting up _inside a pub_ I’ve got no choice but to roll my eyes and say “quit bitching! You don’t know how _easy_ you have it! Try coming out _here_ and listening in amazement as the anti-smoking brigade _still_ finds things to bitch about! Just shut up and enjoy what you _have_ man!” Just suck it up and be grateful you’re not a smoker living in California. _Then_ you might have something to rant about. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/15 "2003-12-07T17:12:08Z")
And **Otto** , I’m sorry, but I just can’t see a ban being put on smoking in cars because of a littering problem. You’re gonna have to come up with a premise a whole lot stronger than “smokers tend to litter” in order to restrict smokers from engaging in a legal habit _in their own private vehicles_. Smoking has been banned in restaurants and bars here because of the risk posed to employees. You can’t use that excuse for cars, where the only person breathing in the smoke is the person smoking (or the passenger, but that’s a slippery slope you don’t want to go near). I’d be curious to hear what argument someone would come up with for banning smoking in private vehicles, that couldn’t also be applied to food and beverage containers. ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/16 "2003-12-07T17:15:41Z")
LEZLERS: Sorry. BTW Where do you smoke in California if things are so bad ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/17 "2003-12-07T17:26:04Z")
The car (hence my second post to **Otto** , and no, I don’t flick buts out the window), friend’s balconies (I live in a non-smoking complex, I can’t even smoke _outside my own house_), the parking lot at work (and pray no one walks up and gives me a “you shouldn’t smoke” lecture). Aaaaaand, that’s basically it. I’m not exaggerating man. It’s pretty bad here. That’s why I don’t smoke all that much (3 or 4 a day, tops), it’s not worth the effort most of the time. However, I enjoy smoking, plus I’ve got a bit of a rebellious streak, so I refuse to be “pressured” into quitting, as stupid as that may sound. So that’s why when I hear the anti-smoking brigade start up around here, I tend to get really frustrated, forgetting that there are places where their complaints may actually be warranted. And that’s why I’m telling you to enjoy how you have it. ---
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/18 "2003-12-07T18:37:50Z")
Is it just me or is **Jack’s Crack** the last word in band names? ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/19 "2003-12-07T18:48:30Z")
Ex-smoker here. When I quit, I promised myself that I would _never_ behave in the insufferably self-righteous way that so many ex-smokers I’ve known have done. Can’t stand it. Congratulations to them for quitting a hard-to-break habit, but really, I’d rather deal with a pleasant person with an unhealthy habit than a clean-smelling, healthy **scold**. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539/20 "2003-12-07T18:55:33Z")
A-fucking-_men_ **Denis**. The X-smokers are the worst, which never fails to boggle the mind. Usually I just look at them and say “didn’t you used to _hate_ it, when some self-righteous little snot would give you shit while you were trying to peacefully enjoy a smoke?” then proceed to stare them down until the got the hint. That, or give 'em a dirty look and say “I _really_ hope you fall off the wagon” and continue with the look until they walk away. Good on you for not falling into that trap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-and-my-cigarettes/217539.md?page=2)