Do you smoke?

[Donerail]

You can develop or avoid lung cancer irregardless of smoking cigarettes.

This is true. Smoking however leads to a multifold increase in the likelihood of dying. And a picture of a man who I strongly disagree with is supposed to make me think what, exactly?

The picture serves no real purpose beyond my own amusement, rather similar to posting on this forum or smoking in that regard.

Your likelihood of dying has always been 100% and I don't foresee changes to your chances anytime soon. But, you do many things that put you at risk for death, I don't need to know you to know that and you are better off saying that smoking doesn't appeal to you so you abstain, instead of being prudish and moralistic about it. Do you drink sodas, eat fast food or use automobiles as transportation?

Dying of cancer does not appeal to me, so I abstain. Better? And to respond to the question, while I travel in automobiles and occasionally eat fast food, I do not drink soda. The comparison is ridiculous anyway: driving an automobile has little effect compared to smoking on your likelihood of cancer, and eating fast food does not cause people around you to be forced to consume it as well.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No - never have and never will.

I was saying the very same thing until my final HS grade.

I'm saying this after my HS grade, and I'll still be saying it after my Uni grade, after my first job, after my second job, after my last job, after my retirement and after my death.

[Holmes]

I don't care if other people smoke, and I'm not going to get into a stupid argument with them that accomplishes nothing and results in both parties staying firmly where they were at the beginning. I will judge smokers, though. The smell on your clothes, having to leave social events for some time to go outside and smoke (or worse, if you do it around others), spending so much money to endanger your own health and even the health of others. If that's your prerogative, I won't stop you.

[Supersonic]

Some of the peeps here trying to take such a moral anti-smoking stance need to just chill out.

[Oakvale]

I don't smoke cigarettes any more, but I used to, from about 15/16 until when I quit last October (I'm 21 now, so that's only 5-6 years).

There came a moment when I realised that if you smoke you're effectively spending an obscene amount of money to rent the feeling of normality until the nicotine wears off and you need to top up again. And I was sick of feeling lousy, having yellow teeth, etc, etc.

I still occasionally miss smoking, sure - I especially miss the way nicotine would take the edge off if you were feeling tired - but the longer I go after quitting the more ridiculous it seems to me that I ever spent ~ $10 a day on a pack of cigarettes, and it seems much grosser.

I don't "judge" smokers - the moralising in this thread is pretty silly, as if you should be congratulated for not putting objectively awful chemicals into your body. Personally, I'm glad I stopped, and despite the occasional pang of nostalgia (quickly dissipated by memories of bronchitis!) I don't regret it.

I didn't stop because of a fear of cancer, mind you - that seemed very abstract - I stopped because I didn't like feeling disgusting unless I had my pack a day. Nicotine withdrawal is unpleasant.

There's also the fact that smoking really doesn't make you feel good after a couple of months - that initial sickly buzz is a thing of the past and the only good feeling smoking causes is your brain effectively sighing in relief from getting your fix. Again, I knew this a few months in, but didn't quit for five years.

EDIT:

No. I enjoy not having cancer.

This bothers me. Not all smokers get cancer. Even so, no matter how childish it sounds, I'd rather die at 50-something knowing I lived a fun life and smoked than live to be 90 and not have had any fun at all.

I know you're young and so you've probably just started, but trust me, you'll realise how dumb this attitude is. I'm not saying that everyone who smokes wants to quit - although vast majorities do - but the idea that smoking somehow correlates with "fun" will - very soon- be hilarious to you. "Awesome, I'm going out to the garage in the rain at 7 in the morning to buy Camels! Party on!"

[Napoleon]

Smoking for nearly ten years, I have never had an entire pack in one day. Maybe 12 cigs.

I feel normal until I smoke a cig, I don't smoke a cig to feel normal.

[Niemeyerite]

Smoked weed for almost two years, but one day I realized I could live it and enjoy parties and the life in general even more without it. I've never smoked cigarettes, and will never do so.

Oh, talking about old people who smoke all the time, here you have:

1- Oscar Nyemeyer (104)



2- Santiago Carrillo (97)



Both of them are still alive. But, avoid smoking. It hasn't got any benefit. And it can kill you.I'm Julio and I approve this message (my friend's dad died of a lung cancer caused by cigarettes).

[Oakvale]

Smoking for nearly ten years, I have never had an entire pack in one day. Maybe 12 cigs.

I feel normal until I smoke a cig, I don't smoke a cig to feel normal.

Well, sure, it's different for everyone, and I can only talk about my experience. Maybe you're lucky in that regard. Hell, there's some people who can smoke five cigarettes a week, not get addicted, and feel fine.

Although f--- those people.

[Napoleon]

Smoking for nearly ten years, I have never had an entire pack in one day. Maybe 12 cigs.

I feel normal until I smoke a cig, I don't smoke a cig to feel normal.

Well, sure, it's different for everyone, and I can only talk about my experience. Maybe you're lucky in that regard. Hell, there's some people who can smoke five cigarettes a week, not get addicted, and feel fine.

Although f--- those people.

I suppose i'm lucky but I imagine that addiction sucks no matter what the substance happens to be.

[Hatman 🍁]

One good reason not to smoke:

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm the only one who voted for option three? I feel bad now.

I voted 3 as well.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Some of the peeps here trying to take such a moral anti-smoking stance need to just chill out.

Cigarettes are pure evil and should be fought as such.

(other smoking materials might be just as bad per se, but the cigarettes' social pervasiveness is what makes them so unbearable)

[Oakvale]

Smoking for nearly ten years, I have never had an entire pack in one day. Maybe 12 cigs.

I feel normal until I smoke a cig, I don't smoke a cig to feel normal.

Well, sure, it's different for everyone, and I can only talk about my experience. Maybe you're lucky in that regard. Hell, there's some people who can smoke five cigarettes a week, not get addicted, and feel fine.

Although f--- those people.

I suppose i'm lucky but I imagine that addiction sucks no matter what the substance happens to be.

Yeah, I'm not making cigarettes out to be some great moral evil here (I hope), but while addiction sucks, I think the only thing the average person - who's not dabbling in prescription pills or crack or something - is going to get addicted to apart from cigarettes is caffeine, which is much less harmful - although caffeine withdrawal is maybe even worse than nicotine withdrawal.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No, and I never have and never will. Still, I don't have anything personal against people who do and think that that shaming stigma thing that some people like going for is both unpleasant and a mistake.

[Ebowed]

Just cigarettes.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I've never smoked a whole pack too.

Although for the favourites discussion, Marlboro Smooths, Marlboro Skylines and Camel Crushes are way cool. I'm cool with Marlboro Reds and Marlboro Lights, too.

Newports are awful.

[dead0man]

I'm smoking right now.  Currently Pyramids, but normally Bronsons.  Yes, I like cheap cigs.

[© tweed]

I essentially quit smoking anything about a year and a half ago.  I've had maybe five cigarettes total since then.

[© tweed]

No, and I never have and never will. Still, I don't have anything personal against people who do and think that that shaming stigma thing that some people like going for is both unpleasant and a mistake.

Zizek claims that the 'stigma' you refer to is a reaction towards the spectacle of people openly consuming a product with full knowledge of its potentially detrimental effects; this in an age of products deprived of their detrimental effects: chocolate laxatives, SUVs that are good on gas, diet sodas, and, of course, electronic cigarettes.

[memphis]

I used to smoke weed a lot. Never cigarettes. Nothing in years.

[Joe Republic]

To those who clearly misunderstood my point here - I don't personally give a sh**t what people do on their own, or to themselves, or their lungs.  My point was that it is extremely rude to do it around other people who don't smoke.  The increased risk of cancer is one thing; having my hair and clothes smell like a dumpster due to somebody else's habit is just unacceptable.  Would you like it if I spat all over you at a party, and then got all affronted when asked to stop?

"Social smoking" is an oxymoron, and it's very telling that the smokers in this thread apparently don't get that.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Yes (marijuana)

[Joe Biden 2020]

Oh, heavens no, I don't have problems with smokers, I just prefer not to be around them when they do.  I have too many other bad habits (fast food, regular soda, mostly sedentary lifestyle) that are already causing health conditions and don't feel like adding asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, COPD, and lung cancer to the list.  I'm having a heck of a time managing what I've got now, I don't need to throw more irons in the fire.

I have an adage, "put too many irons in the fire, your house burns down."

[dead0man]

Some alarming statistics....

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So if you don't smoke you have a very very very small chance to get lung cancer.  If you smoke a half a pack/day, you have a 1 in 200 chance.  If you smoke 1-2 packs, it's 1.5%.  If it's over 2 pack/day your chances raise up to an "alarming" 2 in 100.

Yes, it also increases your chances to get several other cancers.  But it's the same kind of statistics.  You go from having a 1 in 75000 chance of getting butt cancer to 1 in 33000 (those are not actual numbers).  Yes, smokers smell.  Yes, it's rude to smoke in the same room as someone bothered by it.  Yes it's not healthy, but it's nowhere near as unhealthy as being a complete fat ass or a heavy drinker.

[fezzyfestoon]

Weed daily and hookah every couple months.