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Do You Smoke?
Yes. 33%  33%  [ 40 ]
Yes, but only lightly and/or socially. 7%  7%  [ 8 ]
No. I really loathe it. 42%  42%  [ 50 ]
No, but other people's smoking doesn't bother me. 18%  18%  [ 22 ]
Total votes : 120

Maditude
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20 Mar 2009, 4:38 pm

It would have to be an island with no trees because some people might be tempted to smoke the leaves from the trees.


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ToughDiamond
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20 Mar 2009, 4:55 pm

Maditude wrote:
It would have to be an island with no trees because some people might be tempted to smoke the leaves from the trees.

Well, those leaves wouldn't contain any nicotine, so I guess they wouldn't be addictive. Until somebody smuggles in a few tobacco seeds......



bradleytown
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20 Mar 2009, 5:03 pm

I hope I'm not the only person who finds it funny that the title of this thread is poll smokers...



MomofTom
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20 Mar 2009, 9:50 pm

Ex smoker here. I miss the habit but not what it does to my body. Breathing easy is somewhat necessary if I have to keep up with my kiddos. And yes, I used smoking as a way to remove myself from a stressful situation. It was an automatic 'out'.


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20 Mar 2009, 10:56 pm

bradleytown wrote:
I hope I'm not the only person who finds it funny that the title of this thread is poll smokers...

i just realised that, lol.



unreal3x
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20 Mar 2009, 11:25 pm

I have been smoking for the past 8 months. About a pack every two or three days. I did not start smoking under peer pressure, and never did I even take a puff before 18. I wanted something that would help me be less nervous around people, so I chose to go to the gas station and pick up a pack of cigarettes. Yes I am now addicted.

My recommendation,
Yes (when you first start) smoking it can help you be a little less nervous around people, however eventually you will only be smoking to satisfy your own addiction. So on top of your AS, you will also have cigarette cravings, to get rid of them you will smoke, to get back to normal temporarily like how you were before you started smoking. So my advice, don't smoke. :)

Also its interesting, I've noticed if people ask me, "do you smoke". I'll say yes. But if they ask "are you a smoker?" I might accidentally say no. Because the word "smoker" has alot of stereotypical things attached to it, like a "smoker" for a stereotypical example 'started smoking when they were 13 under peer pressure and is now one of those "bad" people that do all of the 'bad' things.



unreal3x
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20 Mar 2009, 11:42 pm

nothingunusual wrote:
I'm going to take a wild guess that the majority of you are not smokers.

If most AS folks aren't, I imagine it would be for the following reasons... AS logic might come into play here.


At my old job, there was a person with diagnosed Asperger's. His way of starting a conversation with any one was by talking about cigarettes. He would say things that had nothing to do with the flow of what was going on with every one else, he did not seem to notice that people were not intersted in what he was talking about. He did not appear to have anxiety, so he would just follow people around and aimlessly talk about cigarettes and maybe a few other things. Which is sad, because I know he has the ability to understand that he can't just say all the same things all the time at people. I suppose since everyone tried to act nice to him anyways, he got the impression that they liked what he was talking about. He isn't very self aware.

But then again what I am saying right now has nothing to do with this thread other then the fact that he talked about cigarettes all the time. Distant associations?



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21 Mar 2009, 5:36 am

I don't smoke cigarettes.

I don't mind smokers at all as long as they mind my personal space. Also, if I pass a smoker walking, so what? It's just 5-15 seconds smelling cigarette smoke. You get a bigger exposure to foul smells and bad chemicals walking next to a busy street. People need to stop whining and grow up.

I think tobacco should not be taxed, at all, beyond a normal sales tax if the state/city/area has one.

It isn't that hard to smoke away from people anyways, plus there are usually designated smoking areas all over the place.



ruveyn
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21 Mar 2009, 6:56 am

Atomsk wrote:
I don't smoke cigarettes.



It isn't that hard to smoke away from people anyways, plus there are usually designated smoking areas all over the place.


Smokers Ghetto where they puff away with furtive looks on their faces.

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22 Mar 2009, 10:01 pm

nothingunusual wrote:
Semi off-topic, but a question for the Americans - Is smoking in public places like bars and restaurants legal over in the states?


I don't smoke, so I'm probably not an expert on this, but it seems to me like there's a lot less public smoking these days. Like someone else said, I think it's a State thing, not Federal, but I remember when restaurants used to ask "smoking or non?" and you still see it every once in a great while...I know we had that happen not too long ago, but I don't remember where it was.

We were just in a bar the other day and there was a bit of indoor smoking going on, so either the law only applies to certain places, or there is no law here at all.

Seemed like a lot less smoke than usual, but that was probably only because the weather was nice.


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23 Mar 2009, 2:48 am

The thing someone said about American cigarettes vs Turkish might be the reason science can't distinctly prove smoking causes cancer. I've never seen the actual studies. In fact, the more I think about it, I think people just quote simple descriptive statistics which in no way proves correlation. Anyway, does anyone know where the actual studies are published?

Also prices going up isn't going to make people quit. If a crack head unemployed and homeless can come up with money for crack, then I think the majority of smokers will find a way.

And, as for the smoking ban, I think it didn't originate in California. It did on state level, but I think it originated, the concept, from The People's Republic of Boulder, aka Boulder, Colorado. They are trying now, and succeeding, to make it illegal to smoke outside. Yeah, people hide in alleys to sneak a smoke. And, banning it from bars is ridiculous. Like the alcohol is completely safe to drink with no harmful effects on your liver nor does drunk driving never happen nor cause any deaths. Hell, they have more proof that alcohol kills than they do smoking. Yet we drink without that cigarette.

Now, should we be allowed to shoot drunk drivers out of self defense?



ToughDiamond
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23 Mar 2009, 4:40 am

Tantybi wrote:
The thing someone said about American cigarettes vs Turkish might be the reason science can't distinctly prove smoking causes cancer. I've never seen the actual studies. In fact, the more I think about it, I think people just quote simple descriptive statistics which in no way proves correlation. Anyway, does anyone know where the actual studies are published?

I've never read the primary sources, but here's a couple of Wikipedia entries to get you started, if you have trouble believing that Western tobacco companies could really be so reckless with our health:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ad ... cigarettes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_tobacco
Basically it's exactly what I'd expect from capitalists - profit before compassion.



monkees4va
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23 Mar 2009, 6:47 am

Homer_Bob wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
Homer_Bob wrote:
I hope the prices of those cancer sticks keep going up.


I don't think that's very fair...nicotine is more addicting (addictive?) than heroin, it's not like you can just quit, especially if you've been smoking for a very long time.

My dad's been trying to quit for forever, but he just can't shake it...it sucks to see so much of what little money we have going towards such vices, but what can I do about it?


Society has to find someway to make people quit. Giving out cancer warnings and promoting anti-smoking adds don't seem to be working. If raising the prices ridiculously high is the only way to get people to quit, so be it.

raising prices ridiculously high will just result in a bunch of broke smokers.
Did you not read his argument? it has been proven that nicotine is more addictive than heroin. Dealers charging up to £120 for a dose still get buisness, so why not shops?
You cannot force smokers to quit, no one can, and if made illegal it will only end up underground, with tabbacco smuggled in inside animals and people, like cocaine and heroin.
Its called free will, and you have the free will to turn around and walk out the door of a room filled with smoke. If they were there first, they should stay there first.
People seem to forget that only a couple of years ago doctors were promoting smoking to help people lose weight and to cope with stress or anxiety. Thats right! They perscribed cigarettes. And now they wonder why there are still so many smokers


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dedhead66
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23 Mar 2009, 8:57 am

Raising the price of tobacco has nothing to do with getting people to quit smoking and everything to do with raising money via "sin" taxes.

The way I look at it is if you're an adult and you know all of the risks associated with smoking and you want to continue to smoke go ahead. It's your life.



MmeLePen
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23 Mar 2009, 8:57 am

Tantybi wrote:

And, as for the smoking ban, I think it didn't originate in California. It did on state level, but I think it originated, the concept, from The People's Republic of Boulder, aka Boulder, Colorado. They are trying now, and succeeding, to make it illegal to smoke outside. Yeah, people hide in alleys to sneak a smoke. And, banning it from bars is ridiculous. Like the alcohol is completely safe to drink with no harmful effects on your liver nor does drunk driving never happen nor cause any deaths. Hell, they have more proof that alcohol kills than they do smoking. Yet we drink without that cigarette.

Now, should we be allowed to shoot drunk drivers out of self defense?


The big problem with smoking in bars is that the workers are exposed to all that second-hand smoke. I worked as a bartender many moons ago, in SFO, and this was quite the topic.

I have known two people personally, one who came away with emphysema, and one with lung cancer - from working in bars. Both were in their 20's and both didn't smoke.

Sure, drinking comes with its own set of hazards - but no occupational hazards that can be linked as easily as second-hand smoke.

And despite the stereotypes - many restaurant/bar workers are healthnuts/athletes. (The money is quite good and the hours flexible.)


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23 Mar 2009, 9:36 am

You guys are probably right, I'm just trying to find answers to get people to quit because I've tried to get others to stop and have always failed. Smoking is something in life I will never understand so I suppose I shouldn't even bother trying to figure out why people do it in the first place and why they claim it's so hard to stop. Ignorance is bliss I suppose. I do think raising prices will be more effective then cancer warnings or adds because people can only afford so much.