Is anyone else here tired of anti-tobacco hysteria?

I’m tired of people being panicked and droning on about it like inhaling smoke for 5 minutes is going to cause them cancer next week. Of course, there are a few people who do have illnesses who really are in danger around smoke, but for the most part that isn’t the case.

However, one of many reasons I like to stay at Marriott properties is they are 100% smoke free.

You must be from NC, TN, MI or some other state that was very late in the game at getting rid of smoking in public places. When I moved to MI in 1987 I was surprised there was still smoking sections in restaurants. When I moved to NC in 1998 I couldn’t believe there was still smoking sections in restaurants. When I moved to TN in 2003 I was shocked there were still smoking sections in restaurants. Inbetween those moves I lived in states that didn’t have smoking in restaurants or the establishment had to pick to be nonsmoking or smoking, but every restaurant went non-smoking. Some bars were smoking.

My aunt, she loves to smoke, she lives in NYC, has been complaint for over 30 years that now smokers have to feel like criminals. She used to buy Nicolette gum to get through a flight when they got rid of smoking sections on planes.

I’m glad for no smoking options. I was in Vegas a few years ago and if they had a nonsmoking hotel and casino I would definitely stay there. I don’t need every hotel smoke free, but I like the option for myself. I was in Tunica in a very very smoky casino and the girl who checked me in was about 7 months pregnant. I’m not thrilled she might be inhaling secondary smoke 8 hours straight 5 days a week.

If some restaurants or bars want to have smoking I don’t think that should be illegal. There can be some exceptions, There are cigar bars and alike. My grandpa smoked a pipe, and the aroma of pipe tobacco makes me think of him. But, I’m very very glad most establishments are smoke free. Entirely smoke free, even out on the patio. I like eating al fresco for the fresh air.

As long as you smoke your filthy smoke in a place where it don’t bother me, then please go ahead. Personally, I am not easily bothered by cigarette smoke, so that’ll leave you a whole lot of space.

I wish more people would stay away from intervening with other people’s life, without good reason. So… please don’t smoke too close to me, without asking, and enjoy.

”Having gathered these facts, Watson, I smoked several pipes over them, trying to separate those which were crucial from others which were merely incidental.”

Sherlock Holmes

It sounds like you have been lucky not to know any people with asthma.

Every single Truth ad I have ever seen has made me want to smoke another cigarette. I will be perfectly fine without one until i see the commercials and even when its a person fucked up or a grotesque image, all it does is remind me that i haven’t had a cigarette in awhile and the more i think about it the more I fucking need one.

Smoking is a great way to force people to stay the fuck away from you. Its like using citronella to ward off mosquitos.

The only tobacco smoke I try to avoid if possible are from clove cigarettes, mostly because the scent brings back bad memories of smoking them and feeling sick.

I’m torn on this.

On the one hand, I grew up with a chain smoker and find cigarette smoke disgusting.

On the other hand, my first job was in a nice tobacco store and I love the smell of pipes (and some cigars).

I agree with you, @SmashTheState. I quit smoking 4 years ago, I don’t much like the smell anymore, but the fact that it’s socially acceptable to be so obnoxiously rude to smokers bugs me a LOT.
Until someone can prove to me that their life is lived in such a green fashion that they have no negative impact on the ecosystem, they are just outstanding ass hats most of the time for complaining about smokers.

@cookieman Cigarettes are made on an assembly line, smell like a burning tire dump, and taste like an old boot full of soot. Pipe tobacco is carefully hand-crafted by artisans with many years of experience for specific flavour profiles much as wines are made. The “stink” people like ucme associate with smoking is the result of exposure to mass-produced corporate cigarettes. They’ve never smelled good tobacco and lack the imagination to conceive of such a thing existing. I remember being around people who smoked pipes when I was young, and they didn’t stink. The scent of pipe tobacco clung to them, but it was a warm, manly smell like wood shavings or leather.

@SmashTheState: “They’ll drive around in SUVs, farting metric tonnes of carcinogens into my air, but heaven fucking forfend I should burn 50 grams of tobacco a month.”

I think you may be confusing objections with smoke vs concerns about the health of the planet. Someone may have no concern for killing the planet, but have an immediate concern that someone is controlling the air that you are breathing in right now. I think you may be looking for hypocrisy where this is none. And hypocrisy wouldn’t necessarily be a reason to dismiss peoples’ concerns anyway (I am pretty sure you know that).

@SmashTheState: “You don’t like my smell, feel free to stand upwind. I’ll smoke where I fucking please.”

Right. So if I want to go enjoy a public place – like you – and I have asthma or kids, I should go “FUCK. OFF.”.

My understanding is that you are an activist. If so, it’s likely because you have a desire to make the world a better place in some real way because it would benefit people. Does you concern for people only apply to the theoretical “people”, or does it also extend to those who are standing right next to you?

@SmashTheState: I agree. My grandfather smoked cigars and a pipe, I had a middle school teacher who smoked a pipe (in class) — and I never found the smell a problem. It was really nice actually. I loved being in the walk-in humidor at the tobacco store. They had some nice pipe tobaccos.

So really, for me, it’s just cigarette smoke I find disgusting. Sorry cigarette smokers. I can barely be around you.

@hominid I’m a considerate smoker. I don’t smoke in the house because I share the building with others, and pipe smoke can be rather strong. I ask people nearby if they mind before I light up in public. Nor do I smoke anywhere people can’t leave, like a line-up or a bus stop. What do I get in return? People who will come and sit beside me for the specific purpose of coughing at me to register their Puritanical disapproval of my pipe, or who glare at me while I walk down the street with my pipe in my mouth.

I’m an activist and organizer, yes, but I’m also an anarchist. Mikhail Bakunin, widely considered to be one of the fathers of anarchism, explained in great detail that simply by existing we affect others. That’s why the Libertardian idea of inviolable individual liberties is nonsense; with every action we are constantly influencing everyone around us. You drive a car and I have to pay for it by breathing your aerosolized tire rubber (the leading cause of asthma) and carbon monoxide, and I have to run the risk of being run down every time I cross the street. You eat meat and I have to live with superbugs resistant to antibiotics resulting from overuse of antibiotics to treat farm animals even though I’m vegetarian. I live right beside a whiskey distillery; I don’t drink alcohol, but I am forced to live with the constant smell of yeasty fermentation. But when I want to light up my pipe suddenly I’m the Antichrist because the State has decided to pump people full of anti-tobacco agitprop so that people like @ucme feel morally superior for their fervent brainwashing.

Hahahaha, this gets better with every ironic diatribe, do carry on.

@SmashTheState – I understand that you like it, and you feel that you are being considerate. But the fact is that sitting there on a park bench, you are immediately affecting (I really need to stress the immediate part) the people around you. No need to get philosophical about automobile pollution, climate change and effects of pollution. When you sit down to enjoy your pipe – your actions are going to physically affect the people around you. You are saying that you are ok with that. And you don’t care about these people. Just say this. Try stating it like this:

I care about organizing and direct action against corporate and state power, but I do not care about how my hobbies directly affect my neighbor.

The thing is, if you were sitting on that park bench shooting heroin, I’d have no problem with it. This is a personal choice about what you are putting into your body. But when you make decisions for me about what the immediate quality of the air that I am breathing will be, I do have a problem. It means that I can “go upwind”, find a way to avoid your air that is going well beyond you, or leave now. Or I could try to sweep the sand out of my vagina and wait until I have a full-blown asthma attack.

@SmashTheState
The only way you’ll escape the oppression of people is to get away from them. I envision you being much happier sitting on the porch of a log cabin high up in the mountains. Not as an exile – I’m not suggesting that. I just know that people have gotten a lot whinier over the years and I don’t foresee it getting better.

My kids have walked through a cloud of smoke before and they actually didn’t grow a third arm or have a heart attack. I have no desire to shelter them to the point where they cross the street to avoid walking past a smoker. They’d grow up to be another obnoxious whiner no doubt.

So many things in this life are killing us slowly – the worst of which seems to be each other.

I too am a pipe smoker and enjoy my time with my briars and weeds. My wife doesn’t allow it in the house and I have to respect her wishes (happy wife happy life) I also enjoy cigars where space allows. I must confess to a bit of douchebaggery when I encounter a rabid anti though. I sometimes will extinguish my pipe and whip out a really stinky Garcia Vega I keep on hand for just the occasion. I’m just that kinda guy I guess.

There should be at least a few smoking restaurants for the 100 people that still smoke.

I hate how we can’t smoke weed in public so I understand your frustration.

@SmashTheState So, are you saying keep all those rules so people don’t light up those horrible mass produced average cigarettes, but allow pipe smokers to smoke?

The thing is, you might be considerate and ask the people around you before you light up, but a whole bunch of people won’t be. Even still, you are completely unaware how much smoke, and it usually is cigarette smoke, bothers people. It ruins the meal, ambiance, comfort, of the event they are trying to enjoy even if they are not super freaked out about smoke. That’s my experience anyway.

You can’t make a law that will convert an inconsiderate smoker into a considerate one. Have you ever read the Q’s on Fluther where smokers say throwing a butt on the ground isn’t littering? Most smokers do see it as littering, but a large enough percentage don’t. Just a few months ago outside of a Walgreens I saw someone do it and I said, “please don’t litter.” I didn’t care that he had been smoking. His reply, “They don’t gave any place here to throw it out.” Fuck him. He is standing next to his car! Throw it in your own ashtray. Do you know how many women are walking around with their kids chewed up gum in their purses, because no trash can was around?

People can’t be trusted to do what is considerate or right. A whole bunch will, but a whole bunch won’t.

People should not be rude to you by fake coughing and whatever else they do. If it bothers them very much and can easily choose another seat if you were already there then fine. If not, then they can politely ask you to refrain from smoking. Do you think most smokers will comply when asked? When midway through their cig or pipe? You seem to think people shouldn’t be bothered? What if the person is two tables away? Are they being over sensitive? On a patron 30×30 I can tell you I’m going to still smell your smoke with you at one end and me at the other.

For me, the issue of tobacco is two-fold.

Firstly, it stinks. It’s nasty shit, and I’d like to kick the ass of all of the assholes who think the world is their ashtray (I’ve been known to pick up a thrown butt and toss it back into the car from whence it came). Pipe smoke kinda smells good from about a 100 yards away, but not the bowl, the skin or breath of the smoker.

The bigger issue for me is the hypocrisy. Tobacco (and alcohol) are a drug, but they’re legal because they have powerful lobbyists. Compare how many lives have been destroyed by alcohol and tobacco to marijuana – there’s no comparison, really, but our prisons are full as the result of the “war on drugs”. But just some drugs.

@SmashTheState I like smoking. I have no intention to quit.

I feel your pain.

The thing about when people smoke in public (including outside in public parks and stuff) is that yes, I as a non-smoker have the option of picking up my stuff and moving myself and my child to another bench or spot to escape the stinky smoke that wafts from the smoker. However, it just takes one stinky cloud of smoke that comes before I am even aware that there’s a smoker nearby, and now I smell like smoke. My clothes, my hair, my daughter’s clothes and hair, now it’s too late. So now the smoker has the luxury of smoking where he wants, which is lovely, and I am now, after showering and putting on perfume and clean clothes, smelling like stinky smoke and I also have the added bonus of the carcinogens on my clothes and body.

When I pick my daughter up from school, from the after school program, one of the custodians enjoys his cigarette on the loading dock, which I pass about 15 feet from when I have to enter the school. We pass back through that cloud when we leave the building. Even though it’s not really a cloud, and even though we’re about 15 feet away, I do smell it. A few weeks ago, my mom told me she gave my daughter a shower because she smelled like smoke. I thought about it, as I don’t smoke, there are no smokers in my house or car, and I don’t really have any friends that smoke near me or her. I realized it’s from passing by the loading dock where the custodian enjoys his cigarette.

http://www.fluther.com/119127/why-do-smokers-treat-the-earth-as-if-it-is-their/

Relevant, related.

Asked by someone else, 2009, Why does everyone vilify smokers?

http://www.fluther.com/35371/why-does-everyone-vilify-smokers/

My alarm clock used to be my dad coughing up blood when he woke up. He smoked a few packs a day and would toss the empty packs in the passenger side of his truck. Getting into his truck was like playing Tetris.

I lived alone six months ago and was also smoking two packs a day since I could smoke at my computer. No blood but I was coughing up about four ounces of shit in the morning. I know that since I would cough and then spit into a empty beer can.

Luckily since the move I am down to about a pack every three days. Totally because I have to go outside to smoke and outside is wet.

I look at a pipe as I do a joint. No real harm since the tobacco isn’t loaded in toxins. Feel free to smoke all you want. Just do it alone or around other smokers. When I smoke and see a person walking up with a baby in a stroller I cross the street so I don’t get smoke in or on them. Do the same and most people won’t give a fuck. Don’t litter the streets with your butts. I keep a bag in my pocket I put them in like I do my dog poo bags.

What we need are giant charcoal filters and strategically located extractor fans in public places.

Only then will the smoker and the non-smoker be able to live in peace, side by side like human beings.

A few years ago in Germany (best country in the entire universe), a guy was smoking in a disco, where smoking was prohibited. A woman repeatedly told him that he was not allowed to smoke there, in response to which he blew smoke in her face.
She replied by throwing a glass at his face.
This was later ruled to be self defence, as blowing smoke into someone’s face is considered assault.
A ruling that I fully support

Public smoking is assault, and physical violence against these smokers is self defence.

Sorry, but the second I breathe in cigarette smoke my throat tightens, becomes sore and I end up with a terrible headache. It only takes one minute of breathing in that nasty shit to make my entire day miserable. Yes, my throat will be sore for the next 12 hours. I’m going to give you a scornful look. Same goes for heavy perfume.

I quit smoking 12 years ago.

I have smoked and quit and now smoke a few organic, pure tobacco, ( chemical free ) American Spirit lights.
Mostly when I have a cocktail or an after dinner smoke on the porch. However, I do not like being around others smoking and blowing it at me, I do not want to smell smoke when I am eating and I do not want to be in a casino or other establishment that allows smoking all over the place. I do think not being able to smoke a pipe, cigar or cigarette outside in an uncrowded area is overkill.

I do agree that there are many unhealthy contaminants in our air supple as it is, one good blast of diesel exhaust from a bus or truck makes me want to throw up, however, for someone who does imbibe in a few smokes I also believe in being very courteous of those around me. I simply do not smoke in public and reserve my smoking for sitting outside on my porch where nobody is around for 10 acres or more. haha

@jonsblond

That’s pretty much my reaction around perfume. Especially the headache part. Perfume triggers my migraines. One good whiff of someone’s perfume and my whole day is ruined.

It is understandable how you feel. Other smokers, and even a few non-smokers feel the same way. What all of these people find is that there are are several options. Vent for the sake of venting, quit smoking, move to a culture where smoking is acceptable, or take action. The choice is up to you.

Until it is clear about what you want to accomplish, this is a difficult question to answer in a way that will suit your needs.

@Darth_Algar :: I am the same way with perfume and some body products. It is actually bad enough I had to ask my roommate to change his deodorant because something in it triggers me not being able to breathe.

I could see it being that way with smoke. That is why I cross the street if I am smoking and someone is walking towards me. And if that isn’t doable I just don’t take a drag until they are well past me.

I packed in smoking a dozen years ago along with the wife, cold turkey through sheer willpower.
It’s astonishing how much you can smell tobacco smoke on a smoker once you’ve packed in yourself, quite alarming to think that foul odour stuck to my clothes & followed me around & I had no awareness of it, so conditioned was I as a smoker.
I don’t care if people choose to smoke, but throwing an idea around that non smokers are full of hysteria towards smokers while behaving in that manner yourself, does nothing to aid your cause.

Absolutely, when your clothes and everything is always covered in smoke you can’t smell it anymore. Put on a blindfold and have someone hold something stinky up to your nose. You will eventually stop smelling it. Usually takes about two minutes.

When I went into isolation and no smokes for a week after getting my wisdom teeth yanked the smell on smokers was fucking sickening. But I also started smoking again. I also stopped trying to sex people that don’t smoke since you would kinda have to bonkers to fuck a smoker if you don’t.

Not quite related, but here in Québec, they’re passing a law where you can no longer smoke electronic cigarettes in public buildings, terraces or public patios. So basically those are going under the same rule as normal cigarettes or other tobacco products. I guess it’s only a matter of time before you can’t smoke them at certain building distances.

@Symbeline That’s interesting. Any idea why? A relative uses an e-cigarette system, and even in an enclosed room, I can’t tell other than by sight.

I hope you never lose a family member or close friend to cancer, @SmashTheState. Wake up and smell the carcinogens.

@Pied_Pfeffer I heard the news last Friday, and the reason they gave is that, after all, the products in those can be hazardous to breathe via second hand…steam? That’s what they said, that apparently e cigarettes are more dangerous to others around the smoker than originally thought.

Just parroting away what I heard, I have no idea if it’s true or not. I know that when you breathe that stuff in, there’s still crap in it, but it evaporates away so quickly, I never thought it was harmful to people around you. Then again I never smoked one of those, I’m pretty much in the dark about e cigs.

Anyone who thinks smoking is fine if it doesn’t have all the chemicals I think is deluding themselves.

I basically said above, I don’t think a few minutes of smoke now and then causes much harm at all. You smoke, the cleaning mechanism in your lungs shut down for several hours, and then if you don’t smoke again for weeks or days, and aren’t around smoke, the cilia wake back up and your lungs clean out any “pollution” that has been deposited.

To my mind, thinking any smoke is safe, is setting someone up to think smoking that “safe” stuff consistently, daily, is just fine. I highly doubt it. Just last week my boss said to me that one if our employees smokes those new cigarettes, e-cigarettes? And, my boss couldn’t understand why anyone has unwavering confidence they don’t cause harm. His thought was in the next ten years we will have more information about long term effects. I agree.

@ragingloli Sounding very nationalistic there.

I’m an ex-smoker and I have asthma. I think that people think the world needs to cater to their every whim. I don’t like smoke, it makes it hard for me to breathe, but I’ll never be the kind of person that assumes everyone in the whole world needs to cater to my needs.

And @SmashTheState does make a point; we do breathe in crap from cars every day, but it’s not like cars are ever going to be outlawed. Sometimes I think, with all the pollution that exists, all the crap they put in food and medication…the whole smoking thing is almost a joke. Especially, as already mentioned, that something so hazardous as tobacco or alcohol is legal. It’s fucking stupid in a way. Tobacco and alcohol kill, but because it makes money, it’s legal. Yet we’re given some illusion of control and reassurance with rules that nobody fucking respects. XD

^ yep

We try have tried and succeeded to lower the pollution from cars over the years. Still not perfect, but getting better and better. I wouldn’t expect the streets of NYC to be completely free of city smells and pollution if I ate out facing the street.

If I’m in the suburbs on a back terrace, or out in the countryside, it would be nice if the fresh air was not interrupted by someone smoking by me. Even in NYC when I eat outside in a courtyard the air isn’t that bad.

As long as I can remember small restaurants in NYC had to choose to be smoking or not, because it was deemed unrealistic to have a smoking section in such a small space. Probably the laws have changed now to completely smoke free there. Because so many restaurants are small in NY, I don’t even remember smoking in NY restaurants ever, but I always ate in small neighborhood places pretty much.

I used to smoke (7 weeks now and it is so cool to say “I “used” to smoke!) and I really never had a problem with the smoking laws. Hell, I remember when you could smoke in airplanes!

The people who carry on about 2nd had smoke annoy me too. A whiff of tobacco smoke isn’t going to kill you or your kids!

I agree with you @Symbeline It is what it is. I’m certainly not advocating smoking as being ones highest choice but with all the other crap in our environment I agree, it is kinda like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. haha I also have a couple E-cigs, yep, the verdict is still out on those as well. You just can’t win.

@JLeslie I agree as well. The few organic cigarettes I smoke are still smoke being inhaled but the way I see it, at least I am also not ingesting formaldehyde and arsenic and all the other insane chemicals they put in mainstream cigarettes. Those chemicals also increase the addiction factor as well aside from the nicotine. The pure tobacco is satisfying with much less, infact, I often only smoke a half and leave the rest for later.

@Dutchess_III Exactly. People are so weird, freak out over a puff of smoke but take their kids to McDonalds for lunch. I used to know this women who was a militant anti-smoking type but she let her toddlers run around in her pottery studio breathing all sorts of dusts and glazes and other toxic particulates. As I always say, pick your poison there’s plenty to go around.

I grew up with a chain smoking mother and the kids in grade school teased me because I smelled like an ashtray. It was so embarrassing, especially when I was already insecure because I was shy. I would get so sick every year with what our doctor called a throat infection. I would miss a week or two of school because I was so ill. sure it’s harmless~

@jonsblond I’m so sorry. Yeah, that’s a different situation. That is serious. I was referring to people, like my daughter, who get pissed off when she passes by the stairs and catches a wiff of smoke from my husband smoking in his office upstairs.

I can’t figure out how kids reeking of cigarette smoke happens. When I was teaching I used to have kids come to school reeking like that. It was so sad. It was like their parents locked themselves in a small room with their kid and burned through a pack in 30 minutes. My dad smoked in the house, and we never smelled like cigarettes and never developed bronchitis either. But then, we had a large house.

Back after an amazing, beautiful day here in Massachusetts. We did some boulder scrambling and hiking through a chasm. I missed most of the discussion here. I’ve tried to skim the responses.

@ragingloli summed it nicely: “Public smoking is assault”. And those who like disagree appear to either deny this fact or claim that just a little bit of assault should be acceptable.

It’s disappointing that this really is an issue. It should be one of the most easy of ethical questions to work out. Some people here feel it is ok to place a substance into my lungs that will trigger an asthma attack. “Just a little bit” doesn’t seem to be something that anyone else here is willing to argue for in other areas. A boob grab “isn’t going to kill you”. See, I’m not so sure that works so well.

Note: If anyone is tempted to write this off (the fact that this amounts to assault), I really urge you to give it more thought. This isn’t meant to shock or troll anyone. I don’t think people have given this issue enough thought.

@hominid: “Or I could try to sweep the sand out of my vagina and wait until I have a full-blown asthma attack.”

I think it’s important to point out that this comment had linked to a comment that had been removed. I didn’t come up with “sweep the sand of out of my vagina”. It seems odd now that the comment it refers to is gone. The comment had claimed that men who oppose public smoking had vaginas and they should “sweep the sand out of their vagina”.
Just figured it was important to explain that comment in context.

“Some people here feel it is ok to place a substance into my lungs that will trigger an asthma attack. “Just a little bit” doesn’t seem to be something that anyone else here is willing to argue for in other areas. A boob grab “isn’t going to kill you”. See, I’m not so sure that works so well.”

Or a child rapist defending himself with “but it was just the tip!”

Motherfuck. I see the Fluther Ministry of Truth has been busy sweeping the sandy contents of their vaginas down the Memory Hole. Consider this topic closed and consider me out of here. Again.

Well….A clear case of up in smoke, another jelly blows when the answers are not what they want to hear. Hasta la vista baby.

Smokers have my sympathy. Particularly those who acquired the habit in the days before it became socially unacceptable. Personally, I think it silly to hound people who are smoking outdoors.

Oh sure poke the bear in the cage until he leaves. You do realize this was about the only entertaining thread on fluther tonight. This place was slow and now you’ve flatlined it.

I do find it funny that people mention smoking triggering asthma and headaches when other pollutants which do the same (like perfume) are not only socially accepted but usually defended. Hell, I’ve been called an asshole for merely suggesting that perfume wearers could be a little more considerate of others and ease up on the crap a bit.

As for my own habits, I smoke, but I like to be considerate of others and only smoke at one location. If someone has a problem with me lighting up there then they can remove themselves from my property.

@Darth_Algar: “I do find it funny that people mention smoking triggering asthma and headaches when other pollutants which do the same (like perfume) are not only socially accepted but usually defended. Hell, I’ve been called an asshole for merely suggesting that perfume wearers could be a little more considerate of others and ease up on the crap a bit.”

It’s interesting that you assume that we don’t consider perfume to be the same thing. It’s exactly the same thing (minus some differences in range), as I’ve argued here in the past. It’s only funny if you assume that we’re not the same person making the same ethical argument.

Are you black too @hominid?

Well…I happen to love my perfume, I guess I’ll have to go unscented of some of you come to dinner. haha
For me, above and beyond all else, what triggers me feeling absolutely ill is the wood smpke and car exhaust.

foshizzle ma nizzle

Regarding cigarettes, from what I understand it’s an addiction. I wonder what it’d be like if I had such an addiction and kept being told I can’t feed it, or got shit for it. It’d drive me crazy. Is the smoke really worse than the stuff that gets put in the air by cars and buildings?
The rate at which people smoke cigarettes has gone down throughout the years. We could let time run its course to solve the matter of pollution (something we all inevitably do).

Oh forget it, can;t get the link I wanted to work,

The old Camel cigarette commercials saying 4 out of 5 doctors prefer Camels. lol

What is the fascination with sandy vaginas?

@Coloma, are you aware that many of the “Marboro Cowboys” died of lung cancer? What could be more ironic?

@cookieman You want to fuck a sandy vagina?~

lol sand witch

@Pachy Of course, it is just so ironic given those days where everyone smoked.
Those old commercials are a riot.

Have a smoke on the Gipper.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction, I never smoked, never wanted to date a woman that smoked, and believe it is an expensive, nasty habit. However, they hypocrisy surrounding it is what ticks me the most. There are instances where I see it quite pertinent to quash smoking. Quite a few of the places where smokers are banned from being is just asinine. It is almost like the only place you can smoke is in your own home, or way up in the mountains, and I am not even sure about that. Smoking like gun ownership, is an easy and convenient scapegoat. Whole generations have been raised with the notion that one cigarette’s worth of secondhand smoke is enough to give you cancer or harm you. Being the convenient scapegoat, that is why you do not see billboard, TV, or magazine ads for cigarettes, but y9u still see alcohol all over the place. The true fact is I bet more people die yearly from alcohol (directly, no guessing years later) than due smoking. I don’t think I ever read a news article after a crash at high speed where they mentioned there was half consumes cartons of cigarettes strewn about the crash scene or that the driver appeared to be under the influence of tobacco. I worry more about some douche coming from the bar with too many in him and not see my lights and reflectors while I am on the road or in the intersection than some guy blowing smoke from his vehicle. Because tobacco is the convenient scapegoat the government knows they can rooked them with all manner of silly, bogus taxes, and no one, short of a lawsuit, will stop them because tobacco has no supporters, really. The mentality is so ingrained even Ecigarettes, or vaporizers are under attack because you inhale them. From what I know of vaporizers, there are no harmful chemicals escaping in the vapor, and if any, way less than cars. If I am not to be effected health wise by vehicles whizzing all day long giving me a shot of exhaust, even diluted by distance, how can cigarettes , unless I have my nose right up to the ash dome, going to be worse for me? Maybe once every other day someone smokes a cigarette 15 yards away from me in the park and that i9s supposed to be worse than sucking exhaust down all day? I don’t get it. Usually those that smoke step away on their own without being asked, and if they notice the smoke blowing near me or others they apologize and change their position so the smoke blows away from people. I do not smoke, never smoked, (and that is anything) but I think there is too little reason and way more kneejerk reaction and hypocrisy when it comes to how people can and cannot smoke, especially when booze is a far more direct killer and maimer than some smoke off the end of a cigarette.

@Coloma That I can agree with. The lesser of two evils.

I’m a non smoker (apart from the odd drag of someone else’s cigarette while drunk in a club) and yet a enjoy the smell of second hand smoke. One of my colleagues is a smoker and I will quite often join her when she pops outside for a cigarette just so I can smell it!!

@Hypocrisy_Central Funny you should mention that part about only smoking in one’s own home or the mountains…where I live, when you want to rent an apartment, more often than not, say 70% of the time, they are no smoker buildings. And you will get evicted if the landlord finds out the rule is broken. Or I’ve heard of it happening, anyways.

I think most people go outside to smoke now, rule or not.

Eh, not where I live.

Yes and the scare pictures on the packet. Ehhhh so over it.

So glad I quit!

I’m so late to the debate that I obviously did not read all the previous answers. For that, I apologize.

You would be welcome to smoke in my business, @SmashTheState, but the state of Illinois has determined that I am not allowed to offer that option at my wholly owned private business. It seems that the state that demands my sales, income and property tax has decreed that smoking is not allowed, period. There is no exception; no possible warning, signage, or permit that allows me to permit a legal activity on my property.

I smoked for 19 years, have been quit for 15 and live with an indoor smoker.

I never could get comfortable with smoking indoors, if it’s a big building like a casino then I might be willing, but inside of a house or a car? No thanks, I’d rather step outside.

I remember in the 1970’s, me and my mom would go to the beach (Jones Beach, over an hour ride each way) with my aunt and her husband. The husband smoked like a chimney and we’d be in the car with the AC on. The car would be filled up with smoke and I found it very hard to breathe. I’d open the window a crack to try to get some fresh air inside, and my aunt would say “Close the window, the air conditioner is on.” Nowadays, nobody would dream of being in that kind of situation but in the 70’s, we didn’t know what we know now and we didn’t think of it as we think of it now.

Never heard of them using tobacco plants foe ebola. Never heard of being used to treat any disease. Do you have some research to back this up?

Tobacco plant key to Ebola drugs.

Cool. Thanks @Pied_Pfeffer.

I’m not going to nag to give my personal opinion on smoking now. But I wanted to butt in and say, I don’t hear any anti-tobacco hysteria at all these days. Everyone in my area has moved on to vape, as far as I can tell. People have hissy fits over vapors these days. Or they’ve moved on to weed. Almost nobody talks about tobacco, though.

Medicinal tobacco uses.

@keobooks Part of the reason you don’t hear it anymore is because smokers have finally learned to comply without whining (not that ll whined…I didn’t)...take it outside! And they do.

@Dutchess_III , my point was, why is the op going on about “tobacco hysteria” as if it were still a thing? I don’t hear anything much at all about tobacco these days.

As for the specific thing about pipes, some people think they totally reek. I remember when people would gag and cough around cigar or pipe smoke and ignore cigarette smoke. (Not my opinion. I like pipe and cigar smoke, and think cigarettes smell trashy.) but people have hated pipe smoke for decades.

Well….It’s @SmashTheState as the OP, so…. :)

I agree with @Dutchess_III, @keobooks. You likely don’t hear about anti-smoking hysteria any more because the smokers in your area have been beaten into submission. Instead, you hear people bitching about the vapors, because the anti-smokers just can’t give it up.

Missouri state left smoking laws up to the individual communities, and the debate is still active there.

Disclaimer: I am a former smoker who quit when it was legal.

It’s sad that some had to be beaten into submission. I never felt beaten into submission.

Honestly, vapers look, and sound, like douchebags.

They remind me of Opium smokers, especially when there are a bunch of them. BUT…they’re better than cigarettes.

Because “OP” lives in a province which just banned ALL flavoured tobacco, saying it encourages children to smoke. Because, you know, children are all about hiding behind the school and puffing on a big pipeful of whiskey-sweetened virginia flake. They have also just expanded the smoking laws to apply to vaping; you can’t vape anywhere you can’t smoke. Because apparently steam is now a dangerous, toxic substance. They’re not even trying to pretend it’s about public health any more. It’s about authoritarianism and ruining people’s fun.

“The Puritan hated bear baiting; not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay

Well…if a kids going to take up smoking they will find a way regardless of the law or their age. Might as well ban flavored alcohol too because it encourages kids to drink. I agree, can we all spell N-A-N-N-Y S-T-A-T-E?

In the County that I work in, e-cigarettes were just added to the anti-smoking policy.

It is also illegal to smoke in public parks in the County I work in and in NYC.

Yes, I agree that it only stands to reason that if banning flavored tobacco deters teen smoking, then flavored alcohol should be banned as well.

But don’t touch my Boonesfarm!!!

My daughter is so allergic to tobacco smoke, she gets an instant migraine, has to use her inhaler immediately, and fairly frequently ends up in the emergency room after being exposed.

There are designated places to smoke. I have NO patience with people who put their stink out there for everyone to partake, whether they want to or not.

In New York state, it’s illegal to smoke anywhere on school grounds/property.

@jca Same here in CA. I think that is probably true in many states these days.

@snowberry But you get to drive your SUV anywhere you want and dump your carcinogens into my air, pollute my water, and make me breathe your aerosolized rubber. I burn about 50 grams of tobacco a month. How much gasoline do you burn? If your precious sprog was allergic to diesel fumes, would you be morally outraged at everyone driving a truck?

@SmashTheState I agree with you about pollutants from vehicles. But unfortunately it’s a necessary part of life for many (most?) people where we live. I assume you don’t own a car. In my case, I live too far away from a grocery to not drive a car (which of course has its deliveries by truck anyway). In addition, we don’t own enough land to grow our own food. I am retired, but my husband still has to get to work, and there is no public transportation in our town. I could go on and on, but perhaps you get the idea.

At least hubby and I own one car between us.

It sounds like you’re really ticked off. There are a lot of things in life that upset me too.

So your convenience is more important than my health, but I’m evil incarnate because I burn 50 grams of leaves per month?

I didn’t say that @SmashTheState. I think I made my point.

@SmashTheState Smoking is an option/choice, driving is not for many. I too have to have a car to get around living in a rural area. However, I also live on a property with a huge garden and am a steward of nature and a defender of wildlife so I think my modest driving needs balance out with everything else I contribute to this planet. Live and let live is my motto.
You want to smoke, smoke, I could care less what others do as long as I’m not living next door to a crack house surrounded by Pit Bulls. lol