a question for smokers...

[Whispering Cynic]

The only thing I smoke is the occasional cigar (we are talking one cigar per month at most) and the reason is that I like the taste / smell. Plus it is a lovely way to relax with your friends.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

I like the smell, I like the brief high I still get from it (although not as much now I smoke half a pack a day) and it gives me valuable me-time, which I sorely lack. As for why I don't smoke cigar or pipe: I hate the smell of cigars. Pipe's all right, but I tried it once and it's a bit too much of a hassle for me.

Oh, a fourth reason: I've stopped smoking twice. Got past the two weeks of constant craving, crabbiness etc etc (patches really help, for those wanting to stop!), past the few weeks of mild depression and basically stayed clean for several months. However, both time I noticed I was after such a long time still angry/jealous at smokers. I didn't want to become one of those stuk-up ex smokers. There'll be a time when I get a good health scare or actually get cancer or something, and I'll probably stop then. Sounds like a bad plan to me as well, but I didn't really care about my health before I started smoking either. We'll see. In the mean time, I get to fuel my (only) addiction.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Because they like murdering other people and getting away with it.

Giving other people terminal cancer, is the only legal way to kill them.

Seriously you know the government/society is fucked up when a drug that harms and even kills other people other than the user is legal, and yet all the drugs that only harm the user are illegal.

Shit guys, he's onto us! Quick, get the pipes. THE PIPES!

Seriously, nearly everything will give you cancer if the papers are to believed. And smoking, unlike smack, won't make me go on a mugging rampage or rob a house to afford more. This whole "Tobaco is as bad as other drugs" thing needs to stop, it trivialises just how horrifying Class A drugs are.

As for the "Passive smoke is eeeeeevil" thing, It's now illegal for us to smoke inside any enclosed space where there are people except for our homes, which is really the only way you could possibly get cancer from passive smoking alone.

So yeah, your'e argument sounds juvinile. We are not trying to kill you. We just like how awesome we look smoking. Or something

What about the millions of parents who smoke while pregnant/carrying their child/walking their child/non-fucking stop?

They're shitty parents.

Seriously, I think 'millions' might be a little extreme, but what about mothers who drink while pregnant? Or parents who leave their kids at home unsupervised when they are very young? Parents who leave household cleaners unsecured around toddlers? Parents who leave their children in the bathtub to go answer the phone?

There's about 10,000 ways one can be a shitty parent, smoking around your kid is just another way.

I don't care if you smoke or not, I was just saying passive smoke is still a thing. If your kid drank bleach and died, you would be arrested for neglect of some kind. What if they got cancer early in their life? A chest infection? They were born deformed because you smoked?

I also really don't think millions is an exaggeration. an estimated 43.8 million people smoke in America alone. No offence to any smokers, but it really does tend to be the lower end of society that does smoke (Please note I am not saying all or even most people who smoke are stupid or in shitty jobs or whatever, rather the other way around). What about less developed countries where education on the dangers of smoking isn't as prevalent? out of the 3 pregnant people I have met recently only one of them quit smoking while pregnant and they started up again right after the child was born.

 

[Unsilenced]

I smoke a pack a day. I started because it is enjoyable, I continue because I am addicted and don't care much about living to be old.

But what about the money? I swear I could never smoke that much. My wallet would cry.

Cigarettes are my biggest expense other than necessities, but beyond tobacco and one other smoking hobby I don't care to do many things requiring money, so the cost doesn't bother me.

I would have about $40 extra a week without cigarettes, but I generally would rather have the 140 cigarettes.

But that's, like, a videogame a week! That's enough to be drunk the whole weekend, every weekend! That's enough to be significantly stoned every day!

Why would you pass up any of those things in favor of cigarettes?

 

[Flames66]

Inb4 it relieves stress.

Smoking doesn't relieve stress, it relieves the withdrawal symptoms of not smoking.

It also gives smokers access to smoking breaks whenever they like which probably helps with stress.

 

[DigitalAtlas]

I will go with the time honoured answer that non-smokers refuse to accept: I enjoy it.

I have no idea why this is considered invalid. I smoke too and that's precisely why.

I can get fat if I eat candy, I can get cancer from processed foods. I do the things I enjoy. I only get one run on this sphere, and if it means trading something I enjoy so I can stay longer and not enjoy my time.... Well, get bent

 

[Tallim]

I will go with the time honoured answer that non-smokers refuse to accept: I enjoy it.

I have no idea why this is considered invalid. I smoke too and that's precisely why.

I can get fat if I eat candy, I can get cancer from processed foods. I do the things I enjoy. I only get one run on this sphere, and if it means trading something I enjoy so I can stay longer and not enjoy my time.... Well, get bent

It really depends on who you interact with. A lot of non-smokers I know acted weird when I said I enjoy smoking. They kept saying that I didn't really enjoy it as it was just the addiction being satisfied. I did note that the people most likely to say that were binge drinkers :/

 

[Juste Goose]

I don't smoke, never have, (my grandpa died of lung cancer when I was six, so I've always had an aversion,) I just wanted to say I'm surprised how many smokers are on here. (I don't mean that in a bad way, for the record.)

I'd imagine they do it because they like it and figure they'll worry about the consequences later. Like people who eat junk food.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I smoked for a while as an excuse to follow pretty girls outside of bars where there was less competition, but honestly I never felt compelled to continue.

 

[Joccaren]

'cause I can?
Friends got me into smoking after they got me into drinking. I used to oppose that sort of thing because I cared about my body and such, but I stopped caring a year and a bit back. I smoke, I drink, and I've started eating healthy.
Yeah, that last one seems weird, but I've never liked healthy food. Always 90% sugar in my diet. And fat. And meat. Now I actually enjoy eating healthy too, and find it tastes nicer than it used to.
But basically, why do I drink, smoke and not give a crap about what happens to my body?
'cause its fun in a social way, I don't hate the feeling/taste, and I'd rather live fewer, more enjoyable years than more, less enjoyable ones. I don't want to end up like my great grandfather, who spent 3 years from 84-87 years old lying in bed, unable to do anything except roll himself out in an attempt to kill himself each morning 'cause life was just shit when you can't do anything 'cause it might kill you. That is the worst possible way to... exist I can think of. My Nanna's friend on the other side of my family, however, was a heavy smoker and drinker. A few years back he died of emphysema. Until then he was smoking several packs a day, drinking often, eating purely ice cream [Seriously, that was all he ever ate. A McDonald's ice cream sunday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and just the one. We all wonder how he survived as long as he did like that...] and you know what? He enjoyed life. He was out doing what he wanted to do. He died at the age of 65, and he spent 3 months in hospital before that. Its still not perfect, but he did what he wanted, and enjoyed life until he couldn't any longer, and then he spent 3 months - not 3 years, 3 months - in hospital before dying. Less time in torture, more time enjoying himself.
I smoke because I want to. Its not necessarily my goal to die early, but I don't care if I do. The consequences don't bother me, and at times I have a reason to smoke. Hence, I smoke.

 

[Daveman]

Well as a casual smoker it's because it smells really good second hand and when I'm drunk I tend to say fuck it. Then I have one and I regret it because my mouth winds up tasting like shit.

The other thing is I really thought about how much I was drinking at university and the serious health implications of that and realised I was a hypocrite for criticising smokers.

 

[Baldry]

Oral fixation? It's just an enjoyable past time when out with friends for myself. I hardly ever smoke on my own but that's probably because I smoke a pipe and there are different variables to take into account. But even then when I do have a cig it is literally just something to do. Also whenever I do have a pipe/cig on my lonesome it's usually because I wanna do something while sitting outside and enjoying nature, it's a good little framing device for deciding how long I wanna be outside for.

 

[velnalops]

I aspire to be Dylan Moran.

 

[elvor0]

People have all kinds of reasons to justify an addiction. Sometimes those reasons are even valid ones, never remotely good enough to cover up the downsides in my opinion, but still. I for one have mostly given up on understanding it and just avoid being around people who are smoking when I can.

What really mystifies me these days on this subject is the extreme lack of popularity of E-cigs. An alternative to traditional cigarettes that are much safer, healthier, and cheaper, can be tailored to the exact nicotine content and flavor the user wants, and yet I have seen exactly two in use since they came out.

I tried them for a while and it's just not the same. There's more to smoking than just the nicotine. It's the smell, the ritual of rolling one up, the harshness of the smoke, the taste, the fag itself burning, inhaling and exhaling the smoke and watching it swirl around... There's also something I find not exactly romantic, but pleasing; having a smoke with a girl and watching the smoke from both your fags mingle and intertwine at sunset, it's somewhat beautiful.

 

[OneCatch]

Seriously, nearly everything will give you cancer if the papers are to believed. And smoking, unlike smack, won't make me go on a mugging rampage or rob a house to afford more. This whole "Tobaco is as bad as other drugs" thing needs to stop, it trivialises just how horrifying Class A drugs are.

I don't think there are many reputable medical organisations that would agree with the Daily Mail list of things that cause cancer [http://lazerhorse.org/2013/06/15/list-daily-mail-give-cancer/], whereas the overwhelming majority will agree that tobacco is a huge causal factor in cancer. If tobacco were discovered today it would almost certainly be either Class A or B because of the health risks (probably A).

That said, since the classification of drugs is hugely politicised, there are huge inconsistencies within the classification system. Although the worst of the Class A's (heroin, crack, meth) are certainly worse than tobacco, there are a surprising number that are relatively benign. Certainly a compelling argument could be made for saying that things like LSD, mushrooms, and ecstasy are overall less dangerous than tobacco.

And the whole 'house robbing' thing is a bit of a diversion. Supposedly benign or controllable drugs can have surprising effects. Alcoholics will sometimes steal in order to fund their habit, and just look at what Prohibition did in the US in the interwar years[footnote]Admittedly there were also massive social factors at play as well, but the point stands[/footnote]. And alcohol is usually considered to be less addictive than nicotine.

 

[Carpenter]

Because I hate all of you so much, you make living on this planet feel joyless and painful.

I wish to slowly poison myself and everyone around me to a small degree. I want to inhale the most tumor causing, carcinogen filled, lung killing smoke there is and then exhale it right into your face.


But seriously, do you think you are going to live forever? Do you avoid unhealthy food and stuff like soda and video games which are also known to contribute to people destroying their bodies?
No? Then why ask such a silly question?

We are all going to die, having a smoke isn't going to cut your life down anymore than having a real job is, and nobody seems to try to convince people that those are a bad idea.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

I smoke a pack a day. I started because it is enjoyable, I continue because I am addicted and don't care much about living to be old.

But what about the money? I swear I could never smoke that much. My wallet would cry.

Cigarettes are my biggest expense other than necessities, but beyond tobacco and one other smoking hobby I don't care to do many things requiring money, so the cost doesn't bother me.

I would have about $40 extra a week without cigarettes, but I generally would rather have the 140 cigarettes.

But that's, like, a videogame a week! That's enough to be drunk the whole weekend, every weekend! That's enough to be significantly stoned every day!

Why would you pass up any of those things in favor of cigarettes?

I don't like video games much, I don't often drink, and I'm already significantly stoned every day. That habit is more than 40 a week.

 

[Alarien]

Because I enjoy smoking. Period.

That said, I quit over 7 years ago. I hate that I quit, but I did it for my wife and family.

I'd still smoke if I didn't have her and my daughter.

 

[keniakittykat]

I will go with the time honoured answer that non-smokers refuse to accept: I enjoy it.

What do you enjoy about it? The smell? The smoke going into your lungs? That feeling of suffocation that makes you lightheaded?

I enjoy smoking like other people enjoy coffee: it's smooth, tastes good, makes you feel good and is just relaxing. But should be consumed in moderate doses. I smoke about 7 sticks a day, and to me it seems to be doing less damage than 7 cups of coffee a day. I don't have health problems, and my doctor can't even detect any related damage yet. (Been smoking for almost 9 years now and take a physical every 6 months.)

Besides, I'd rather die earlier and did what I loved to do, than to be a 100 because I sheltered myself from anything that could be bad for me.

 

[Something Amyss]

Probably for the same reason people continue eating fattty foods and drinking soda: Because they're racist.

That'd be a lot more funny if not for the "Black guys like KFC " thing.
So yea, fail joke on your part....

And since KFC is the only fatty food out there (and the only fried chicken, at that), that's a valid point.

[
You could masturbate, just as addicting, but less damaging to your health, heck it might be beneficial to some people, because it decreases blood pressure and lowers the chance of having heart diseases.

My hairy palms and failing eyesight disagree.