<p>Same reason that people often quit when in the hospital and then start again when they are released. Once you are addicted to nicotine, smoking even one cigarette can hijack the brain receptors and re-trigger the full active addiction. Thus, becoming an ex-smoker requires quitting (obviously), but it also requires a mindset of never taking another puff.</p>
<p>Someone who quits while pregnant without making the mental commitment will end up right back as a nicotine junkie if they decide it would be OK to “just have one…” </p>
<p>I used to go read a forum topic called The One Puff Files, with stories if people who started again after years of not smoking, just because they took one puff. I read it on my monthly anniversary for several years just as insurance in case I were ever tempted to smoke “just one”.</p>
<p>It’s a very insidious drug addiction.</p>
<p>BTW, I worked very hard at despising everything about smoking and nicotine addiction. I NEVER think about smoking and I NEVER want one. The thought of smoking is revolting to me. Show me an ex-smoker who “doesn’t want to be one of those ex-smokers” and I’ll show you somebody is probably not going to stay an ex-smoker.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, thanks for all of your information in this thread. I’ve found it fascinating to learn about dopamine and brain receptors and nicotine.</p>
<p>I will never smoke cigarettes. The effects it has on the inside of your body is just disgusting. The tar build up, the staining of the teeth, what it does to your hair, nails, eyes. Disgusting. Would never do it. Let alone the addictive tendencies. I’m already addicted to one thing…I don’t need another!</p>
<p>I have never smoked. All of my sisters did and quit…one picked it up again after many years of being smoke free.
My mother smoked when she was pregnant with me , but not my sisters. Of course times were different back then , but I am the only one of my siblings that has had a lifetime of respiratory problems , including asthma.
I don’t understand why people ever start , but that is largely because I have struggled to breathe and for me to intentionally cause damage to my already damaged lungs…
As I have grown older, I have also become less tolerant to be around smoke. I hate the smell of a smoke filled room, or how it lingers on hair and clothing. Or having to walk through a cloud of smoke when entering a building.</p>
<p>I think less intelligent people are more likely to smoke–but I blame the people who profit from their vulnerability, not them. Besides, many people start smoking when they are teenagers, when everybody is stupid.</p>
<p>I enjoy smoking and am prepared to take full responsibility for my actions; as far as I can tell, I have never been addicted to smoking and have quit on multiple occasions, cold turkey, for as long as a year at a time. I’ve not had a single cigarette in six months, and have no doubt that I could go another six years without any noticeable symptoms.</p>
<p>Why should the government make it inconvenient for me to smoke?</p>
<p>(I can think of one reason why the government might legitimately restrict smoking in public spaces… but will hold onto this thought to see whether somebody else comes up with it. In particular, this reasoning does not apply to smoking on private property, taxes associated with cigarettes, or health concerns of any kind. Additionally, I think there are plenty of reasons that the government might want to make it inconvenient, but I don’t think these are how things <em>should</em> be.)</p>
<p>More sick people means a less productive workforce and a poorer nation, increased burden on our health system which means stress on medical providers and hospitals and increased costs that have to be passed on to other people buying health insurance. The government should ban smoking and fine people for doing it.</p>
<p>I also am not for legislation that restricts personal behavior that doesn’t affect others. If you want to smoke a cigarette on your own property you should be allowed. In fact, if I want to run an establishment that is a smoking establishment, I should be allowed. Sign on the door - “People Puffing Like Chimneys in Here - Only Adults Permitted - Enter at Your Own Risk”</p>
<p>People want to smoke marijuana and shoot heroin just like people who want to smoke. The rests of us suffer from this behavior and the government should ban it all.</p>
<p>Some years ago, a hospital that I pass by frequently made a no-smoking rule on any of its property (i.e. the outside areas, since smoking inside of the buildings had long been prohibited there). The smokers among their employees then started appearing on the sidewalk to smoke.</p>
<p>It’s fascinating stuff. These particular brain receptors weren’t made for nicotine. it’s just a quirk of nature that the nicotine molecule binds to them perfectly. Dopamine is an essential learning mechanism. It reinforces behaviors like eating and drinking and being warm and on and on. So it’s very powerful in shaping what we do. The real whammy is that day after day puff after puff, nicotine hijack these receptors, completely overloading them. As a defense mechanism, the body “down-regulates” these receptors, making them less sensitive. But, now, all the other stuff that is actually good for you can’t trigger the dopamine release. Why isn’t a good meal enough? Why does a smoker have to get up and have a cigarette? Or the classic cigarette after sex? Partly because it’s usually been an hour and withdrawal has started, but also those things can no longer trigger the dopamine contentment response. That requires nicotine…</p>
<p>This is really insidious because, over the years, it so tightly trains the addict to associate everything in daily life with nicotine. And, guess what happens if you try to quit? NOTHING will trigger dopamine contentment. In addition to physical withdrawal, the dopamine signaling is dead. Really tough situation, which is why quitting is so hard.</p>
<p>It takes two to four weeks to get through the acute phase and start to re-sensitize the receptors. Only then can you start working on breaking the well-trained “habit” aspect.</p>
<p>The current “treatment” (continuing to use nicotine, only from pharma instead of tobacco) doesn’t work at all because it’s leaving this whole physical biochemical addiction fully in place. That’s why people chew nicotine gum for decades. Those people are so vulnerable to smoking again because they are still addicts.</p>
<p>I’m not in favor of banning cigarettes. Nicotine is so crazy-addictive that a ban would simply result in an immediate black market and all the unintended consequences of that. I’ve chatting with folk who do smoking-cessation programs in prisons where smoking is banned and the price of black market cigarettes is staggering.</p>
<p>A ban would end up dwarfing the drug trade in no time flat.</p>
<p>I’m not in favor of banning cigarettes, just restricting where they can be smoked as it shouldn’t impede the rights of others to breath. I think people should be allowed to destroy their own health in any way they see fit. It’s when it affects the health of others that I have a problem.</p>
<p>Just as I believe in the legalization and regulation of weed.</p>