Yes, and they are making more “period films” so that they can have more smoking. Having a Tobacco company pay a film for product placement is illegal. But it is not illegal just to promote smoking in general. It is well known that Big Tobacco bribes filmmakers with drugs or payola under the table.
Note that in many films the camera lingers lovingly on the lighting up and the smoking. Atomic Blonde for example. The new True Detective. Stranger Things.
Trust me, you can have a period film without smoking, they have made such and no one noticed or complained that the film wasnt "realistic’ as there wasnt any smoking. Note also that back in the 40’s people chewed gum a LOT, (not to mention hacking coughs, bad teeth and spitting) but that is rarely shown. So they arent showing the smoking just because it is accurate.
Fair enough. The point I was making, though, was that tobacco (nicotine) does work this way, and no one warned me; I understood that it would be habit-forming in a compulsory manner but not that I’d cease to enjoy it.
One of my friends who died of AIDS in 1992 was kind of your prototypical gay risk-taking hedonist, who at the time he got sick was up to his ears in various recreational drugs including meth and God knows what all. And cigarettes. He quit them all. All, immediately. Of course that only prolonged his life a few years, but what I’m saying is, he could not give up cigarettes. He smoked on his deathbed when he could barely hold a cigarette to his mouth. He told me nicotine was harder to kick than heroin.
I have been told that by Al-anon guys also. Of course part of the reason is that it’s hard to bum a hit off someone behind a bar, and cigs are easier to get.
My mother smoked when she had lung cancer, coughing with every drag. Drove me crazy.
I guess people like to waste money, pollute the air, endanger other people’s health, make themselves stink, and litter the ground. About half the litter I see in my daily walks is cigarette butts and crumpled up empty packs.
Well, I can only say why I smoke. Basically, there are few pleasures in life like a fine Cuban (or Dominican) cigar, well made, hand rolled and well maintained at the proper temperature and humidity along with a glass of single malt whiskey or a really premium tequila. To quote Gold Member, I love the feel of it, the smell of it, the taste of it the texture…I love fine cigars!
So, that’s why I smoke. Yes, there are very real health costs and risks. THose are and should be something that anyone takes into consideration before trying something like that out (there are risks with the alcohol as well). I will say that for the last 10 years I’ve cut back to only 2 cigars on average a month unless it’s a special occasion. And cigars are the only thing I smoke for the last 40 years now. But the risks are still there. I’m willing to take them in this case, knowing they are there, because I enjoy it so much.
I assume you are discussing tobacco. I do not normally smoke tobacco, but when I smoke cannabis offered to me by friends in the Caribbean, it is often a tobacco/cannabis mix. The effects of nicotine are really very pleasant, although I prefer straight cannabis.
I have considered taking up vaping nicotine, but I’d rather spend the money on cannabis.
Back in college, I had a restaurant job where you could get “smoke breaks”. I couldn’t go on those, I didn’t smoke.
Well long story short I started smoking to get the breaks. Then I smoked for a few years, most of the time trying to quit out of guilt for the health effects.
I really liked taking drags off the harshest cigarettes, that is just how I roll. I liked to smoke in a bar with a beer after a hard day back then, kind of lurk around and have an excuse to see who would wander in. And I was in a band back then. I did not take a lot of drugs at all; I smoked. Was probably a good trade in retrospect.
Some of my best smoking was when I got a handle on it and kind of strangled the habit via tapering. When I was down to 2 smokes a day, I was not wracked with guilt and it was infrequent enough to not be a relentless habit. Those were some darn good smokes.
But I cut it out many years ago. Maybe 3 years ago I bummed a couple of those harsh smokes and fired one up in the basement for old times’ sake. HOLY COW! :eek: I simply could not believe how massively stinky a single cigarette inside my non-smoker home really was. Ultra nasty. And I couldn’t even make it through one smoke, my head began to spin, I thought I might puke and I had to lie down for about 2 hours. Never again.
Nicotine is a stimulant. Studies have shown that the overall stress level in smokers is higher. But yes, when you light up, your stress goes down, because your body is relieved it is getting the drug it is addicted to. But your *overall *stress level is higher.
But that effect, by definition, doesn’t and cannot apply to new smokers with fresh lungs, right ? Or non-smokers who only smoke once in a while at parties, yeah ? So why would they feel relaxed still ?
(and how does one measure overall stress level, anyway ?)
Try a cigarette and you will realize there is something there. Kind of a buzzed feeling. One cigarette isn’t going to kill you. I’ve probably smoked about a dozen cigarettes. Not for me, but there is definitely something going on there. Try the Newport brand.
Strange. Can you link to a study that involves me and how much smoking relaxes me? I don’t remember being involved in such a study.
Of course, if one is under the impression that every single drug impacts every single person in the exact same way, then one probably makes a lot of assumptions about people and then calls those assumptions “science”
I’m pretty sure the OP is really asking “Why would anyone intentionally start to smoke in this day and age, knowing what we do about its downsides?”, not basically why anyone continues to smoke.
I mean, I see why habitual smokers continue to smoke. What I (and I suspect the OP) don’t get is why anyone under the age of say… 45 would have ever actually picked up a cigarette and thought “Yes! I WANT to start this habit.”, being aware of the health effects and social opprobrium associated with smoking.