# Non-smokers: How rampant and how deep is the smoker hate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 27, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317 "2012-11-27T22:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/181 "2012-11-29T22:30:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > As has been said- one can be against the idea of putting some young man in prison for 5 year for possessing a small amount of pot, but still be in favor of a ordinance that would fine a smoker (of any substance) some $50 for smoking in public. I am against Prohibition, but have no issue with Public Drinking ordinances. I have no problem with doing almost anything that is purely self-destructive as long as you don’t destroy anyone else along with you. Smoke in your house, but not in my face- pot _or_ tobacco . Are you really having that difficult a time in understanding this? And just so as to note I have held this position before: Check out this thread where I posted: “I have a small one. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to smoke anything in public, and that includes skunkweed. “ [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=672224&highlight=Marijuana&page=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=672224&highlight=Marijuana&page=2) ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/182 "2012-11-29T23:23:23Z")
I don’t hate smokers, but I feel a mix of pity and disgust with them. Both of my parents have been 1-2 pack smokers a day for the 26 years I’ve been around. My mom smells now pretty bad because of it. With that being said, I am a pot smoker and have been one pretty regularly going on 10 years. If I could, I would definitely smoke it on a 15 min. break, or in a bar, or walking down the street. See what a lot of you don’t get is that after a while, pot does not affect you all that much. In fact, I think it is probably very much like smoking a cigarrette except for the nasty addiction. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/183 "2012-11-30T00:03:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “I have a small one. “ Editing mine, but TMI, dude. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/184 "2012-11-30T00:17:43Z")
Well, technically speaking it would be NEI. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/185 "2012-11-30T00:59:47Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Well, technically speaking it would be NEI. Heh. Looked it up and all. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/186 "2012-11-30T01:34:07Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#): > > **There will probably be the same restrictions on smoking pot as there are on drinking alcohol, people won’t be walking down the street smoking a joint anymore than they would walk down the street drinking a beer. You won’t see people clustered in doorways smoking joints. People won’t be taking a 15 minute break from work to go smoke a joint, and they won’t be throwing roaches out their car windows.** > . I take it you don’t live in Memphis? 😉 Seriously, walking down the street smoking a joint or drinking a beer isn’t unusual at all around here. Plus, when I worked at the VA we had employees come to work noticeably high and it was well known they bought their pot from another employee. It was tolerated, but why I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/187 "2012-11-30T01:37:52Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I do not like people smoking around me. > I do not like people starting fires with lit cigaretts. > I do not like the litter from smokers. > > I hate people who claim cigarette smoking does not kill people. > I hate people who smoke and complain about being broke all the time. > I hate people asking me for cigarettes and/or matches. My standard reply is “I do not smoke. Do I look that stupid?” > > And I frigging hate smokers hitting me up for money. Sam I Am ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/188 "2012-11-30T04:45:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > As has been said- one can be against the idea of putting some young man in prison for 5 year for possessing a small amount of pot, but still be in favor of a ordinance that would fine a smoker (of any substance) some $50 for smoking in public. I am against Prohibition, but have no issue with Public Drinking ordinances. I have no problem with doing almost anything that is purely self-destructive as long as you don’t destroy anyone else along with you. Smoke in your house, but not in my face- pot _or_ tobacco . Are you really having that difficult a time in understanding this? Apparently it’s difficult. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/189 "2012-11-30T08:17:05Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > IIRC it’s sort of the opposite; the smoke is slightly electrically charged, someone who isn’t smoking has an opposite charge, so the smoke is actually attracted to them. It sure seems that way! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/190 "2012-11-30T08:50:49Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > It still baffles me that people are anti-tobacco and seemingly pro-pot at the same time. Especially given many of the reasons why people say they hate tobacco. Pot, Well..Quality pot, smells good, like a burning pile of fall leaves enriched with pine sap or something 😃 (poor quality pot smells skunky, but still not nasty, harsh, stenchy, or acrid the way a cigarette does). Hash smells very spicy and rich, and some of the more designer expensive pot can smell really good. The difference in smell is like the difference between a nice pipe tobacco and cigarettes. I don’t know why they smell so much nastier than other types of smoke-able products, probably all the additives and crap in cigarette tobacco. IANAD but I seem to remember way back in the day, hearing that pot smoke isn’t as dangerous as cig smoke, probably for many of the reasons already mentioned. No one smokes 2 packs of joints a day etc. For most people I knew who smoked it, it was a recreational thing (also as already mentioned by many dopers), kind of like having a martini or three on the weekend. Also, I’d heard many decades ago that while cigarette smoke actively kills the cilia in your lungs, pot smoke does not (but again IANAD or scientist, so I don’t know if that’s true or not). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/191 "2012-11-30T08:52:40Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve “experienced” it without realizing it was “a thing”. Yeah, weird here as well. Yeah, I think that’s it - I just didn’t realise it was ‘a thing’. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/192 "2012-11-30T09:03:25Z")
I don’t hate smokers, but I loathe smoking. It disgusts me, and by extension smokers disgust me. Smokers have no idea how far that crap travels. My last apartment was on the fourth floor along a shopping area with a lot of foot traffic. In warm weather, when our windows were open, it wouldn’t take long for everything in our place to reek of cigarette smoke. Yes, FOUR FLOORS UP from occasional smokers passing by on the street below it was still very apparent. When I pass by smokers walking on the street, the smell of smoke trails behind for several seconds, which means I have to walk through that acrid stink for _tens of meters_. The smoke from someone smoking in the parking lot outside our apartment, which is easily 5–6 m away, is readily apparent. There used to be someone in a the duplex next to ours who smoked, and we knew every time he did because if his windows were open and ours were open, we’d smell his smoke. That’s an entire house away, and it was still nasty. I am not allergic to smoke, but the smell is highly noticeable on clothes and skin. I can smell a smoker from at least a couple of meters away. I can smell the smoke on people who are not smokers themselves, but who live with one. It’s gross, and it does provoke some physical reactions to the particulates; my throat gets itchy and my nose starts to clog a bit. One hugely welcome difference from Japan that I look forward to when I visit family in California is that virtually everywhere there is non-smoking, whereas in Japan you can smoke just about anywhere, and far more people still smoke here than in the US. It’s rare for there to be even the small concession of a non-smoking area in a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/193 "2012-11-30T09:30:57Z")
> [@Scotty Mo](#): > > In fact, I think it is probably very much like smoking a cigarrette except for the nasty addiction. Which is kind of like someone saying about their work “it’s just like any other job except for the beatings” :). The addiction is a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Saraya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Saraya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saraya)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/194 "2012-11-30T14:23:13Z")
I’m a non smoker now, used to be one on /off full time. I always asked people if and where I could smoke. I never smoked in front of a business and kept it away from kids faces. Now that I’ve quit, I DO notice the smell occasionally, but it doesn’t gag me. I DO not however appreciate the government banning restaurants from allowing smoking. This is a massive infringement upon business owners and the market. Pet peeves/hate from non smokers is out of ignorance as they only hear things second hand(see what I did there?) and they just like to bitch. People whom go out of their way to complain about a smoker are douche bags, straight up. Life is full of things you don’t like. F U \* \* K I N G D E A L W I T H I T ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/195 "2012-11-30T15:03:30Z")
> [@Saraya](#): > > I DO not however appreciate the government banning restaurants from allowing smoking. > > This is a massive infringement upon business owners and the market. Just like child labor laws, job safety requirements, anti-discrimination laws etc. > [@Sarava](#): > > Life is full of things you don’t like. > F U \* \* K I N G D E A L W I T H I T And [we have](http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3794). ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/196 "2012-11-30T15:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=Saraya;15748584 Pet peeves/hate from non smokers is out of ignorance as they only hear things second hand(see what I did there?) and they just like to bitch. [/QUOTE] What does this even mean? It’s pretty first hand when I have had to walk through a cloud of smoke to get into a building at school, or had smoke blown directly in my path while waling across a street at a cross walk. There is nothing second hand about it. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/197 "2012-11-30T21:19:59Z")
> [@Saraya](#): > > I’m a non smoker now, used to be one on /off full time. > I always asked people if and where I could smoke. I never smoked in front of a business and kept it away from kids faces. > > Now that I’ve quit, I DO notice the smell occasionally, but it doesn’t gag me. > I DO not however appreciate the government banning restaurants from allowing smoking. > > This is a massive infringement upon business owners and the market. > > Pet peeves/hate from non smokers is out of ignorance as they only hear things second hand(see what I did there?) and they just like to bitch. > People whom go out of their way to complain about a smoker are douche bags, straight up. Life is full of things you don’t like. > F U \* \* K I N G D E A L W I T H I T _tap tap_ Cigarette? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/198 "2012-11-30T21:26:20Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > _tap tap_ Cigarette? No, she’d prefer douche bags, straight up. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/199 "2012-11-30T21:52:27Z")
With only a couple data points, my conclusions may not hold water, but if the shameless polluter and high strung ex smoker slash fan represent the rest of the smoking population, the only thing standing between non smokers and a collective anti-social militia in revolt is a bit of nicotine. I don’t know whether to barricade myself indoors or sport a bandolier of lighters at the ready to diffuse a tense situation. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/200 "2012-12-01T01:51:30Z")
If they could figure out a way for cigarette smoke to not smell so bad, I’m sure there would be a lot less vitriol against it, even if the mortality rates stay the same. It really is the disgusting smell that’s so offensive. I have one friend who uses e-cigs, and while I can still detect the nicotine smell, I don’t have a problem being around them. I don’t mind the smell of pot, good cigars, or pipe tobacco. It’s just damn cigarettes that smell so bad. Why does cigarette tobacco smell so damn awful? There are seven apartments that share my entryway and stairwell. Either none of us smoke, or the smokers go outside, save for one apparent guest in one of the apartments. I can always smell when he’s visiting, because not only does the stairwell stink, but the stink comes into my apartment on the fourth floor - from the apartment on the first floor. This person only visits a couple times a month, but man, it is nasty. All of the apartments have the same color mini-blinds, which looks nice and uniform eggshell white from the street. I noticed the other day that the blinds in that one apartment are now a brownish color. And that’s from a smoker who’s not even there 90% or less of the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317.md?page=11)