[Health] Do you smoke?

[dale]

please stop.

think of it like this....

[mrmustard615]

I don't think Bel is really criticizing people for not smoking.

And, I'm not trying to be critical of you either, Bel. It's just that I've seen what smoking can do to people close up, so I guess I'm a little concerned. It is true that some people can live a long time even if they do smoke, call it good genetics I guess, but unfortunately, that's the exception to the rule.

[Terry D]

Never even tried tobacco. I was raised by parents who smoked 2 packs a day each and the things disgust me. You'd be better off eating them and it wouldn't stink so bad.

[Plasticweld]

My grandmother told me this story when I was just a kid.

Two friends who had not seen each other in long time got together to talk and share. They had grown up together and had many things in common. Both had married young, both had two kids, both had put on a little weight and both were happily married. The list went on and on when one of the woman asked the other, "Do you smoke after sex?" The reply was "I don't know I never looked." while I personally don't smoke I would like to think I was capable of making someone else do so.

[TKent]

LMAO!

Well, the 1940s were a special time.

[musichal]

Used to. Quit. People only quit if and when they are ready.

As far as smoking once a week... How many? But more importantly, why? That why can grow, and so can the addictive need. However, before I completely quit, I gradually dropped from two packs per day to two cigarettes per week, and felt much better. If held to that level, well, something else may kill you, but probably not smoking.

People think first of respiratory diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema, but heart disease is also likely.

Anyway, need a light?

[Mesafalcon]

it's also a legal drug...

True.

But what's "legal" is an opinion forced upon you that you eat up.

Most "drugs" that you can get jailtime for are MUCH LESS harmful to everyone around you, and MUCH LESS harmful than the jailtime.

Most people who make the decision on what's legal do not have experience with every so-called harmful drug and make laws based on thier own sepculation of the effects of the drug (usually imagining the effect to be uncontrolable and have much longer lasting effects than they do).

I voted I don't smoke. It has no "effect" except calming your nerves for a very short time and then you need the next. Pretty pointless and chips away at your wallet if you are a regular smoker.

[LeeC]

Not to distract from the dangers of smoking, but this brought to mind:

"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." ~ Redd Foxx

The thing that strikes me is how we tend to focus on some things, and yet ignore other things that are as dangerous, or more so.

Do you know what the number one addictive substance is and how much more harm it's causing? More addictive than nicotine, even than cocaine, is sugar, and it's causing far more health problems in the world today.

Anything in excess can be a problem. I could go on about lifestyles, even about human intelligence seemingly being an oxymoron in how we're disrupting the natural world that sustains us, but it's best I crawl back in my hole

Hope I didn't steer too far off course belthagor. Apologies if I did

[popsprocket]

No, I don't smoke - you can convince me to light one up if I've been drinking but that's about it. My friend bought me a thing of smallish cigars for my 18th and they're all still in the case, totally intact. Probably awful by now. I know that tobacco goes stale eventually.

Judging by the amount of yellow dung we wiped off the walls when my sister moved into her new house, I shudder to think what nicotine does to the lungs, Dale.

On mum's side both grandparents smoked heavily. After they had both passed on I can remember seeing their house with all the furniture removed and the walls were really yellow except in the places where pictures had been hung, which were still a nice clean white colour.

[Mesafalcon]

Do you know what the number one addictive substance is and how much more harm it's causing? More addictive than nicotine, even than cocaine, is sugar, and it's causing far more health problems in the world today.

This is why putting people in prison for recreational drug use is unjust. There are too many "legal" substances that are actually worse then most drugs in moderation.

When you think critically about drug laws, they are more about control in a parental sense over citizens and about assumed social norms. They are not in place to "protect" people health wise.

If smoking is proven to cause cancer over decades of studies, why is it legal? It makes you wonder what "legal" means in this sense.