I started about age 19 or 20, while in college – would that count as an adult? And in the early experimental phase I smoked Gauloises. :eek:
The vast majority of smokers I’ve known have been very courteous people and I would be delighted if my roommates actually listened to my pleas and took their cigarettes (and weed and whatever the hell substance goes into a hookah) outside. I would weep tears of joy actually. This year took a lot out of me is all.
Amazingly enough, I’ve known two. One at 25 and another at 30. Not saying that either one is known for making very wise decisions (usually for very poor reasons), but for all practical intents and purposes, they are adults.
So, they are out there, even if they’re extremely rare.
Don’t know how that all completely fits into the topic at hand, but I wanted to share my limited experience. Also to say, the above description obviously wouldn’t fit everyone who followed the same path. YMMV.
[aside] Elysian, I’m glad you got and liked your shirt. And I’ll even forgive you for such a heinous blasphemy as not being another Aerosmith devotee. We all have our faults. 
[/aside]
If that substance in the hookah is a small brown or black piece of tarry feeling stuff, that smells a bit like pot, then it could be hashish.
It’s doubtful that anybody would have the money, or the lungs, to pack a hookah full of pot or hash. Most likely, they’re smoking shisha, mollases drenched flavored tobacco. Possibly, with some hash thrown in
If I smoked one of those now, I bet I’d cough for six hours.
For those keeping track, I started at 14, my first SO at 18, my ex at 40. I do agree that flavoured cigarettes are aimed at beginning smokers, whatever age they may be. Should they be banned? No.
Not unless you managed to prove that secondhand smoke was dangerous, and it’s important to distinguish different circumstances. There is no compelling evidence to suggest any danger from casual exposure to cigarette smoke. The concept of secondhand smoke is not one that has science backing it.
Does 19 years old count? Bad Excalibre, you were old enough to know better!
You think your roommates’ misbehavior and whatever self-esteem problem you have that motivates you to clean up after them rather than making them do it themselves justifies restricting my access to cigarettes?
Have you considered murdering them in their sleep?
Or at least starting small, and making them deal with their own butts?
gentle weeping
Oh, man, that sounds good!
[sub]Pondering the fact my company does no chemical screening whatsoever. Kind of makes up for that websense bullshit[/sub]
My self esteem issues aside, I cleaned up after my roommates because they recently moved out while I happened to be away leaving me with quite a mess (we each signed our own lease and we didn’t know each other beforehand). I didn’t much feel like living in filth for four months.
Do I think it justifies restricting your access to cigarettes? No, it doesn’t seem fair but if you can find a way to restrict their access to cigarettes without affecting anyone else I’d be fine with that.
Long ago, I stopped trying to make them deal with any of their mess, butts included.
I agree, but I’m with Duffer on this one (I never ever thought I’d be writing that). If a company wants to sell flavored cigarettes, they should be allowed to.
Why is it that every time somebody protests about their freedom to smoke being infringed, I think they might be right and just can’t bring myself to give a fraction of a damn?
Oh well.
Because your commitment to people’s freedom is selective and limited? 
They sound like absolute dicks. I’m glad you’re free of them.
I still say feel free to poison them before they inflict themselves on the rest of humanity.
If it wasn’t for the whole prison thing I would have done it months ago.
No, it’s not. I just like being able to see a concert without paying the price of breathing trouble, occasional nausea, and the burned crap smell for my few hours of enjoyment. I don’t care what people do to their lungs and clothes as long as they don’t do it to my lungs and clothes.
Which I guess brings us back to the topic at hand: flavored cigarettes shouldn’t be banned. My father smokes them very rarely and I can at least say they smell better than the regular article. Even if they didn’t, people have the right to smoke them. I guess the reason I don’t care, especially enough to start flinging the “NAZI” word around, is that at some show or trivia night, they’ll be smoking them around me and between the smell and the irritation, I won’t care about their right to burn dried weeds in my immediate vicinity. But they’ll do that anyway with the regular ones, I suppose, and I’ll choke just as much on those. Which is why I said what I said: my agreement is there, but my enthusiasm is low.
Sounds like they’re well on their way to poisoning themselves, actually.
And for the satisticians in the audience, I started smoking in earnest at 20, stopped at 29.
If only someone would invent a cigarette alternative that just directs 100% of the stinky, carcinogenic by-product directly inside the smoker so that 0% of it leaks out onto other people. I would wholeheartedly support that. Even if it were 20 times more carcinogenic than today’s cigarettes. I don’t want to impinge on your freedoms at all. Have at it.
I don’t know if nineteen counts, everyone. That’s still a teen year, even though you should know better. (I’m looking at you, Excalibre!)
Hey, my first concert was Aerosmith. I’m just not a big fan. However, I really love KISS even though I don’t particularly like their music. Must have something to do with the face paint. swoon
Well, it is well known in marketing circles that cigarettes enjoy possibly the strongest brand loyalty of any consumer product on the market. I don’t know of anything that induces anywhere near the loyalty. Possibly feminine hygiene products?
Fiercely brand-loyal beer drinkers can usually find another brand that is amenable to them if their preferred brand isn’t available for whatever reason. Smokers will often drive to another store if their brand is out of stock. There are no occasional “mix it up” packs of different brands going on with the average smoker.
With this in mind, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s common sense that these are targeted to minors, but rather that it’s clearly targeted to non-smokers. The question becomes “What non-smoker is likely to start smokling?”
I would grudgingly admit that the most likely answer to that question is minors.
And you “smoking smells bad” people can go fuck yourselves. I don’t like the smell of perfume. Can I start banning perfume and cologne?
“By the time they came for me, there was nobody left to help.”
If they moved out, I’d say cleaning up is a relatively small price to pay. I would have been singing and dancing, over the fact that they were finally gone. Next time, if you consider room mates, make it an Immutable Doctrine that yours is a no-smoking home. Make it a Prime Directive. Anyone who won’t comply, is welcome to look elsewhere. It’s your home, it’s your rules. 
You wiped their butts for them, too?