“That’s when he lit a cigarette . . . and kaboom.”
A man stealing gas just couldn’t wait til to smoke a cigarette.
But seriously, I get the impression that people who are itching to smoke, in general, often are just more distracted. I do workshops with groups that have a high percentage of smokers, and they are not equally as present. They’re the ones looking at the clock for break time.
I’m gonna say alcohol would be in the lead.
“Hey, hold my beer”
“He won’t need this anymore.”
drinks
According to statistics the state of MN spends more than twice a year on irresponsible drinking to what it spends on smokers - five billion to about two and a half billion.
Why we tend to demonize smokers and make relatively little fuss about people drinking too much probably has something to do with how intelligent drinkers are. Ya think?
I’m pretty sure smoker’s are demonized because you don’t have to see the results of their “failing” to pick them out. Holding a cigarette = smoker. Holding a drink != problem drinker. It’s just human nature it seems, any group of people you can identify on sight becomes a target for some other group.
I bet there’s a huge overlap between the two; of the smokers I’ve known in my life, I’ve known exactly ONE who didn’t also drink.
My grandma died in a house fire that started when she decided to smoke while wearing her oxygen at home. She wasn’t a stupid woman in general, but that was certainly a very stupid thing to do.
Have you got a cite for those ‘statistics’ that prove this? Because that seems unlikely to me.
For just one example, 25%-30% of fires in Minnesota are caused by smokers. So have you included 25% of what we spend on Fire Departments in the category that the state spends on smokers?
I think it has more to do with the fact that smokers, by the way they consume their product, directly affect everyone within a couple-of-yard radius around them. (Well, depending on wind etc.) Drinkers, however, only affect the people they are actually interacting with, and are only a problem when that interaction is driving / fighting / being careless with fire, far less than 100% of total drinkers.
Every day I am affected, albeit in a negligible way, by smokers. (OMG! I had to breathe secondhand smoke for seven breaths today! Icky!) As far as I know, on a typical day, I am not affected at all by drinkers, though I do see them in bars and restaurants. They also tend to leave less visible detritus on the sidewalk.
IOW, the demonization is mostly the way non-users are bullied into experiencing the side-effects of the users. What doesn’t affect us doesn’t bother us, and what does does. Whether the botherment is at reasonable levels is a different question.
If you live in a uni town (like mine) or ghetto you will def see the visible detritus of drinkers. They will leave their cans/bottles/vomit on your lawn/sidewalk/driveway/front porch. Also their cars crashed into your hedges or chainlink fence. Someone even tried to sleep it off in my sunroom once in spite of the locked doors. :smack: So we had the detritus of his forcible entry then.
I remember this vividly from a few years in one such. Even then, though, I didn’t think “drinkers!” but “students! They haven’t learned how to drink yet!” I don’t know what I would have thought had I been a student.
While this certainly applies for some people, not all smokers are so distracted. I was a smoker for about 5 years (17-22) and smoking didn’t effect me in that manner. In my first job I looked forward to my set break time simply because it’s break time. I get to eat a snack, sit down for 15 min, and smoke a cigarette. I found I would be more distracted by my feet hurting or my stomach growling than me needing a cigarette. I was also equally distracted by basic needs or less so than most of my co workers. In my second job I could smoke while I worked so I wasn’t distracted, and in my third job I could take breaks at my own discretion, so I wasn’t distracted in that situation either.
If I had two equally viable candidates applying for a position, with the only difference being one smoked and one didn’t, I’m hiring the non-smoker every day of the week and twice on Sundays. In general, smokers just tend to be less productive than other non-smokers because of the cancer stick breaks they take throughout the day.
Unlikely? It’s downright unbelievable, Guy. The jump from four billion to five billion occurred in the last year they have the figures for.
The source is my former employer, the MN Department of Health.
Our current DUI figures will knock your socks off too.
I enjoy the humor here and am glad to see it spark discussion as well. I’m in mind of a blues festival downtown in Minneapolis where the alcohol was flowing freely but people were being asked to leave the park to smoke. I commented to the LEC that I thought the city had it backwards regarding which substance was going to lead to the most trouble in the park. They agreed but said that if alcohol weren’t served alcohol not enough would go to the event.
Hello?
I would also like to add that my dad has smoked for almost 30 years now. He has been the accountant at the same place for almost as long and has a salary. So, as long as his work gets done, which it always does, it doesn’t matter how many smoke breaks he takes.
He smokes like a crazy person too. He smokes a pack and a half a day, andhis smoke breaks involve 2 cigarettes lol. I still make fun of him for that.
Our town is also a university town. It creates unique problems with equally unique fixes.
The city fathers kowtow to the big-time bar-owners because of the economic draw and the legal system has ways of charging out assaults and other alcohol-related crimes to keep them off the radar.
It’s a tricky line between marketing party town to the students and safe town to the parents.
And after that hijack I guess I owe you one. In the spirit of the thread:
A doctor, on his morning walk, noticed an old lady sitting on her front step smoking a cigar, so he walked up to her and said “I couldn’t help but notice how happy you look! What is your secret?”
“I smoke ten cigars a day” she said. “Before I go to bed, I smoke a nice big joint. Apart from that, I drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels every week, and eat only junk food. On weekends I pop pills, get laid, and don’t exercise at all.”
“That is absolutely amazing! How old are you?”
“Thirty-four”, she replied.
PS. Not only are smokers more distracted than your average nail-biter (who can stealth bite in the room) but so are all addicts. You may have a few who walk through the bar on their way back from the bathroom.
Is it dumb? Try concentrating when you’re in withdrawal.
Youre on fiyah today TK!