My dad got through 140 a day.
He quit cold turkey in his early 50s, and made a reasonably healthy 78, when a massive heart attack got him.
I had a co-worker many years ago who had a perma-tan/streaked hair on one side of his face/head, and nicotine stains from his fingertips to his elbows, which would indicate heavy smoking. Oddly enough I don’t remember seeing him with a cigarette in his hand.
My brother smoked four packs a day from about the age of 12 to when he died at 80+.
While he did have some bladder cancer treated, his lungs continued to amaze the medicos by their lack of the indication of smoking. He died in his sleep, probably from related heart failure although it never impacted his lifestyle in any way.
A friend of mine used to smoke 4 packs of cigs plus a pouch of pipe tobacco per day. He also drank about 6 pots of coffee a day. He is now totally free of nicotine and caffeine. He doesn’t drink alcohol or eat sugar, either.
Lightweights, all.
Great Grandpa Mercotan never had fewer than 2 cigarettes in his mouth at a time while awake. Plus a plug of chewing tobacco.
He died at age 87. But his last kiss was at age 23.
A friend’s mother. 3-4 packs a day. Unfiltered Camels or Pall Malls. Drinks a gallon of brandy a day.
She’ll still probably outlive us all.
I don’t know if it’s still true but I read once that musician John Mellencamp was a severely addicted smoker to the point that he couldn’t make it through a shower without. Apparently he had an ashtray right outside the shower curtain.
What happens when a hardcore smoker has to go without for some length of time? They must turn into Mr. Hyde or something.
Art director friend/coworker. Drank too much too. Died of lung cancer at 57.
My mom AND dad. 3-4 packs a day, each. Pall Mall gold, 8 bucks a carton. I had to “run in and get some” all the time for my mom.
I can’t tell you much I hate cigarette smoke, yet my entire childhood was spent driving around like Cheech & Chong. I would lower the car window to try to get a breath of air, but my mother would always make me put it up. I’d complain that I couldn’t breathe, but all she said was “suffer silently.”.
When I was about 12, my dad stopped smoking and worked a little at getting my mom to. This made her very mad, and she always said there’s nothing worse than an ex-smoker!
I told all this to my wife who never believed me. She saw my mom smoke like a chimney, of course, but knew I was exaggerating about the rest. One day, my mom & dad were driving us somewhere, and of course my mom was smoking. I put my window down to breathe, but it was cold and mom told me to put the window up. I argued of course, but all she said was “suffer silently”.
My wife just looked at me with her mouth open in disbelief. We’re 30 something and this is the way we get treated by her? Fuck that.
All silently, of course.
Camels for my dad, Pall Mall for my mom. I don’t know if they had filtered cigarettes back then. My parents didn’t smoke filtered. My father was on oxygen at home and would turn it off to smoke. By that time he was so bad I think he just wanted to get it over.
I don’t know how 200 a day is even possible, but I am sure it is true.
My father used to smoke 3 packs a day.
…imagine the cost of those were bought in the USA!
Probably my father who smokes 1-2 packs a day(it fluctuated but usually more than one) but he did not smoke inside the house, and he did not like smoking in a sealed car so when we were driving it was tolerable as the windows were always down.
Some of his friends were heavy smokers that smoked inside! My god being in their houses was horrible, I’m talking rooms too cloudy to see across.
Funny thing is I never wanted to smoke or stole any cigarettes from my father, it was just this weird and kinda nasty thing dad did. First time I ever smoked a cigarette was when I was on my own and someone convinced me to try it.
I often worry the current anti-smoking mania is going to turn a rather silly and nasty drug into the ultimate in rebellion against moral prudes. And I have noticed an increase in young people in the USA smoking(my father complains of so many young guys he works with trying to beg free cigarettes he has started carrying a decoy pack to show them:D)
What does he do with a decoy pack? Is it empty?
Its a pack with one cigarette in it that he carries along with the actual pack he is smoking, so then if one of his co-workers asks to bum a smoke he shows them the decoy and says sorry only have one left.
My dad smokes 1.5/2 packs a day. When I’m going through a depressive phase I can clear 3 easily. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen too often. The rest of the time I’m clean.
Edit: I must say, this thread is certainly making me feel better about my smoking 
My sister started at 13 and, as far as I know, smoked about three packs a day for the rest of her life. Today would have been her 54th birthday. She died at 44. Last time I saw her I told her not to smoke in my house, so she went in the bathroom to do it and threw the butts in the trash. I told her not to do that, so she threw them in the toilet. I told her not to do that, so she put them out on the floor.
My mother claims that the best two years of Dad’s life were the ones when he worked as a factory manager.
Those are also the years he was on 4-5 packs/day.
I disagree with my mother’s assessment.
My grandmother smoked unfiltered Pall Malls until she began to go senile, and would forget to smoke, and Mom just got rid of them. She’d ask where her were cigarettes now and then but Mom would just say she didn’t know and the subject was dropped.
Smoking wasn’t the cause of her death around age 80. She did die of complications of dementia, and began to aspirate her food and basically choked on it. She pretty much wasted away.
My sister started at 16 or 17, I guess. She didn’t tell me until she was in her late 30s because she knows How I feel about smoking. Her husband also smoked, so when I saw the ashtrays and smelled the smoke in her house I just thought it was from him. My parents were both dead by then, so we didn’t get together often. She was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at 53, two years ago, but is still hanging on. I hope she gets to 58 at least, which is the age my dad died of lung cancer. She gets tired easily, and is weak, but so far is not in discomfort or pain.
She tells me she quit smoking. I hope it’s true.