<p>Oldmom, I don’t smoke. I quit in my early twenties, when I decided I wanted to have a baby. </p>
<p>I just think that first they come for the smokers, and then they come for the fatties, and then they come for the people who don’t excercise “enough” by “thier” definition, and then they intrude onto your sex practices, and then they monitor your grocery purchases. </p>
<p>For me, this conversation, and the way it is always framed is about medical expenses. I think that’s a damn dangerous way to keep talking. There is no end to what other people may decide they object to in your behavior. You may think now that it’s all good. I think you will all regret it when the new puritans come for you, because they will.</p>
<p>To everyone who responded with how people smoke:
Oh, that makes sense. Especially, if they don’t finish the cigarettes. </p>
<p>
I wasn’t in the presence of smokers until I got to college. They have area where they are able to smoke. you can smell the smoke around the surrounding buildings even if the area is in a grassy “plaza-type” area. </p>
<p>
Please, poetgrl, type this in the Crazy! Thread. Apparently, when a stranger doesn’t like you texting on your phone and tells you to turn it off, you should do so. 8-| </p>
<p>poetgirl- I think you are over the top paranoid. If the smokers and the fatties want to be smokers and fatties, so be it. Just don’t interfere with MY life and don’t expect handouts for healthcare expenses or litigation settlements. I’ve been on the defense (lawyer) side of too many cases where someone wanted a handout instead of accepting personal responsibility, I guess.</p>
<p>Well, here’s the thing. Americans cannot seem to escape their Puritan roots. If you find this paranoid, it’s no concern to me. Try reading some dystopian Bradbury or 1984 some time. There were days in the love of freedom in this country when what is happening right now was horrifying enough to be discussed as outrageous. Now, not so much.</p>
<p>Any time we give our freedom up, we never get it back. I’d just be careful how much you embrace the majority “right” to tell other people what to do. It will inevitably come back to bite you on the proverbial ______. </p>
<p>Poetgrl, even France, with its newly-separated-from-girlfriend-outside-marriage president, has an indoor smoking ban, as does most of Europe. Hardly an indicator of puritanism.</p>
<p>I don’t think this has a lick to do with our so-called Puritan roots. It has to do with public health… there are lots of things that people consider so-called infringement on personal liberties that you simply do for the “greater good” (what a loaded term but most people will understand).
But you’re right, whatever, no need for discussion. Just “carry on” </p>
<p>I guess there’s no point in having traffic laws or any restrictions on alcohol/drug use either? This is a bizarre position, poetgirl. I might not be understanding it.</p>
<p>There’s a reasonable argument for banning smoking indoors. But, when people are worried about walking past a smoker in a park for fear of contracting cancer it’s a little over the top.imho. Certainly, people are not blaming air pollution on cigarettes.(Sounds like some are.) That’s ridiculous. </p>
<p>I don’t really care if someone else smokes. I know that the day I took my last puff was the second best day of my life. There is nothing you could do to make me risk my freedom from the trap of nicotine addiction. I truly despise the things.</p>
<p>And, for any ex-smokers lurking who read the tales of someone have “just one” cigarette or a piece of nic gum a year after they quit smoking and getting away with it, I would strongly plead not to risk it. All of us who smoked started with “just one” cigarette, just one that set off a chain of events leading to a drug addiction. So, if you ever think about “just one” because, after all, you are no longer addicted, stop for moment. Don’t think about “just one”. Think of all the rest that go with that one. Ten a day. Twenty a day. Day after day. Smoking when you get out of bed. Smoking before you go to bed. Desperately running out of a concert before the encore is finished because you need a cigarette. The horror of being trapped in an airplane for hours without smoking. Getting up from nice meal in a restaurant to go smoke. Every day. For the rest of your life. Probably until it kills you. That’s what you should be thinking about. Not whether or not you might be lucky and get away with “just one”.</p>
<p>Smoking tobacco to me was never anything more than something to do with my hands.
Had nothing to do with not wanting to be trapped in a metal tube for 8 hrs.</p>
<p>My position is just that we are all up in each other’s business far too much, these days. Part of this is good intentioned, but honestly, the same fat person who is complaining about some second hand smoke on the sidewalk is being complained about by the guy who drinks too much at home each night, is being complained about by the anorexic or bulimic down the street, who is being sneered at by the guy in the gas guzzling SUV, who is pretty damn sure that his automatic weapons are a “right,” but your right to eat sugar is criminal and needs to be curbed.</p>
<p>There is just no end to this, imho.</p>
<p>But, I also agree with interesteddad’s post above. Smoking is idiotic. So is driving a motorcycle, even in a helmet, and, quite frankly, the way bicyclers ride through traffic around here and get killed is pretty awful too. </p>
<p>Short of putting us all in rubber rooms, I’m not sure where this ends.</p>
<p>That’s great for you. It must have been really easy to quit. There are so many things to do with your hands. You were really lucky to not get addicted to nicotine.</p>
<p>Of course, the brain chemistry research on nicotine is pretty advanced. It’s probably the most researched addictive drug on earth. Certainly, the tobacco companies have known for decades that the overwhelming majority of their customers buy cigarettes for much more than something to do with their hands.</p>
<p>Here’s the infamous 1972 RJ Reynolds confidential internal memo that described the product they were selling:</p>
<p>The memo goes on to outline the unique challenge of getting new smokers to do something so unpleasant as smoking long enough to get addicted and, therefore, get the true “benefit” of smoking…</p>
<p>
[quote]
Before proceeding too far in the direction of design of dosage forms for nicotine, it may be well to consider another aspect of our business; that is, the factors which induce a pre-smoker or non-smoker to become a habituated smoker. Paradoxically, the things which keep a confirmed smoker habituated and “satisfied”, i.e., nicotine and secondary physical and manipulative gratifications, are unknown and/or largely unexplained to the non-smoker. He does not start smoking to obtain undefined physiological gratifications or reliefs, and certainly he does not start to smoke to satisfy a non-existent craving for nicotine. Rather, he appears to start to smoke for purely psychological reasons – to emulate a valued image, to conform, to experiment, to defy, to be daring, to have something to do with his hands, and the like. Only after experiencing smoking for some period of time do the physiological “satisfactions” and habituation become apparent and needed. Indeed, the first smoking experiences are often unpleasant until a tolerance for nicotine has been developed. This leaves us, then, in the position of attempting to design and promote the same product to two different types of market with two different sets of motivations, needs and expectations.</p>
<p>I’m not pro-smoking by any means, but I am pro-choice. My dad smoked heavily and died of Parkinson’s disease but his lungs were fine. Interestingly, nicotine is often recommended as a treatment for Parkinson’s. Now, we have lawyers suing McDonald’s for getting people addicted to fast food. It really is getting a little crazy. People have to have choice and responsibility. Hopefully they will choose wisely most of the time. Some won’t. And, bad things will happen to those who do everything right, too. Everything cannot be regulated. Vent over.</p>
<p>My parents smoked 5 packs a day between them. 3 for dad- pall mall no filters 2 for mom either kool or salem. Dad quit in 1978 mom quit in 1989.
None of their 5 kids ever smoked. All of us remember there being a lit cigarette and filled ashtrays all over the house. Remember when ashtrays were given as gifts?
My mom and dad turn 81 this year. They would have a hard time meeting their expenses if they smoked 5 packs a day now.>>>>>>>></p>
<p>How wonderful they didn’t suffer any ill effects!
And yeah, as for the expense side of it…how on earth does anyone afford it!</p>
<p>I just think that first they come for the smokers, and then they come for the fatties, and then they come for the people who don’t excercise “enough” by “thier” definition, and then they intrude onto your sex practices, and then they monitor your grocery purchases.</p>
<p>For me, this conversation, and the way it is always framed is about medical expenses. I think that’s a damn dangerous way to keep talking. There is no end to what other people may decide they object to in your behavior. You may think now that it’s all good. I think you will all regret it when the new puritans come for you, because they will.>>>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>Old news. There’s a surcharge for our health insurance if a person with “issues” doesn’t participate in a wellness program. Oh yeah.</p>