I’ve been smoking for over 20 years now. Smoking runs in my family. All the males do it, and my father is currently in his 80’s with no adverse health effects. Imho, once you take health reasons out of the equation, is there any reason to quit, or any reason to stay off the cigs when you do?
I’ve quit smoking on 4 occasions:
The first time was in my sophmore year in high school. I stopped smoking because I wanted to make the baseball team. I couldn’t get into condition in time, so I was cut. When my reason to quit went away, I started smoking again. I stopped for about 3 months.
The second time I quit was the longest, this time was for a year and a half. I was finishing up my bachelor’s degree, and I didn’t want distractions. When I graduated, I started smoking again.
I quit for about a year because I had some issues with lethargy and dizziness. I thought quitting might raise my energy levels, and I also started an exercise regimen. When my energy levels stayed the same, I started smoking again.
This time, I’m quitting because I’m trying to save money for a down payment on property. By switching to eCigs, I hope to save 1k a year. When I do get it, I’ll probably start smoking again.
No smoking advocates will always turn to the health argument, but seriously, there’s a lot more dangerous things you can be doing besides smoking, like unprotected sex, alcohol, or fatty foods. Without the health argument, is there really any reason to stay off nicotine?
Imho, cigarette money is not a waste, I think that’s one of the weaknesses of the anti-smoking lobby. They assume that smoking is purely a dirty, selfish, uncontrollable habit, but they don’t care that (to the smoker) there are benefits.
Many people find second hand smoke irritating, not as a health concern, but just as it is generally not enjoyable to breathe in. Much like having bad breath…
But saying “without the health argument…” is a bit like saying “disregarding the fact that you’ll be splattered on the ground from a great height, is there any other reason why you shouldn’t jump out of an airplane at 5000 feet without a parachute?”
Money, I suppose. Smoking isn’t cheap. I enjoy smoking, so I tend to just count it as “leisure money” when I budget. But it is expensive.
Don’t avoid the question. How much do you spend on the wonderful and glorious use of tobacco per fortnight? Is there anything you’d rather do with the money?
Tobacco is easy to grow from seed, and produces a lot of leaves in a few months. Were I still smoking, I’d seriously consider growing my own. That’s got to be cheaper than even mail order smokes.
A quick search on growing tobacco turns up several how-to sites, for example: http://www.growtobacco.net/
If you ever have a serious medical problem . . . and eventually you will . . . smoking is the #1 factor making that problem way more serious than it would otherwise be. Especially anything related to your cardiovascular system. Many doctors will not even perform necessary surgery on a patient who smokes; it’s just too risky.
Maybe off on a tangent here, but smelling bad isn’t a good argument. I’ve smelled far worse from people than smoke, yet we don’t take away their civil rights or get in their face and insist they wash RIGHT NOW.
Second hand smoke (trying to avoid the health argument here) is another can of worms. But, in the research I’ve seen, there’s only been one woman ever who died solely from second hand smoke (her husband was a chain smoker, and they lived in an enclosed space, she developed lung cancer.) The other studies I’ve seen show that second-hand smoke may cause serious or fatal complications in existing conditions (bronchitis, asthma, etc.) but rarely creates them, and that any pollutant would cause the same result. Some are even worse than second hand smoke (e.g. asbestos.)
Smoking is a civil right? I must have skimmed over that part in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
There are lots of people who are allergic to smoke. My eyes get ridiculously sensitive and burn like crazy when exposed to a lot of smoking, which I conveniently found out when I was in Vegas earlier this year. So beyond the fact that it makes you smell and look horrible, there’s the health factor (which you seem to be conveniently ignoring), and the cost factor. In fact, I’m failing to see where the benefits of smoking are…
I found a couple of cheap tobacco sources:
Duty Free stores at airports: domestic US cigs are ~$15/carton now.
Rolling your own cigarettes: about half the price of regular cigs for double the volume of tobacco.
After RJR (or somebody) bought Skoal/Copenhagen chewing tobacco, prices were cut in half.
The e-cigs are a good deal too. 1 “carton equivalent” of reloads is about 1/3 the price of regular cigs, and I just heard you can by the oil separately for even cheaper.
Good luck finding it there, I was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where no one (in “protected classes”) can be discriminated against at work, employment, housing or school.
Can I be denied a job because of smoking? Yes. Buying a condo or renting a house? Yes. If I do get a job or housing, will I be treated differently than others who don’t smoke? Yes. In fact, in many cases, they will be upfront about it.
I’m sure this is a pointless debate because no matter what I say, anyone who is anti-smoking will dismiss them out of hand.
If I do explain it, it’s very difficult for a non-smoker to relate to it, or they’ll just assume another way is better for the same effect (when it’s not.)
The biggest benefit of smoking, in my opinion, is the same as a person I met on a plane once. He was Indian (from India,) but immigrated to the US when he was a child. He loves coffee, and he told me he drinks about a 2-3 32 oz cups per day. One thing he told me that didn’t make sense at the time (but is very relevant to this discussion): “Coffee is like magic. In the morning, it wakes me up. It gives me energy during the day. When it’s time to go to bed, it relaxes me.” Imho, this probably the best explanation for what I get from cigarettes: what I need, when I need it.
Uhh do you have any clue what that act refers to? I’m guessing no, and I also think members of *actual *protected classes would find you lumping yourself in with them quite offensive. Partaking in a voluntary, unhealthy habit doesn’t give you the right to claim discrimination the same way a black person may feel by a neighborhood preventing him/her from living there.