OT:Smokers

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J Smith
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OT:Smokers

#1

Post by J Smith »

How many of you smoke or use to smoke?

I haven't had a cig now for about 7 weeks and haven't really missed it,altough I did replace the cigs with Skoal berry blend pouches.

I smoked for 20 years and wasn't really thinking about quiting but all of a sudden the smell of them really stated to bother me.Even a fresh one just fired up,would make me want one before,now stinks.

I know the Skoal is not the best thing for you but its got to better better than smokeing and seems to be much cheaper.I was smokeing about 2 packs a day,1 can of skoal last a day or longer.





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Edited by - J Smith on 3/18/2004 7:41:11 AM
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JBE
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#2

Post by JBE »

Jeff,

I had been a smoker since high school, and quit cold-turkey about 3-4 years ago. I was prob about a pack to a pack and a half a day smoker. I was like you, the smell just started making me sick to my stomach and my kids were encouraging me to quit as well. Plus 11 years of seeing the effects of long-term smoking on people every day at work helped sway me too. I took up smokeless tobacco as an alternative, even though I know it's still not good for me either. That ol' evil nicotine craving is a hard on to get over! The price of Skoal is pretty steep for a can, but seems to last me from 3-4 days. I'm hoping that one day I can get the tobacco monkey off my back for good!
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J Smith
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#3

Post by J Smith »

I think the loose Skoal would last longer but with my dental work I have to use the pouches.

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silverback
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#4

Post by silverback »

Same story here - I just wanted to quit because they started to stink and taste bad and smoking is a weakness I can live without.
Also they started to put giant warnings on the packs in Germany - a major turnoff!<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>
I smoked two packs a day and quit cold turkey half a year ago.
IMHO the only way to do it - no nicotine stickers or gum or step by step reduction will help.
But remember: quitting is easy - not starting again is hard!<img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>
* knocks on wood *
Is skoal a chewing tobacco btw.?

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. -George Bernard Shaw
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timlara
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#5

Post by timlara »

Disclaimer: I've worked in the natural foods industry for the last 14 years, so I apologize for the lecture, but I can't help myself!

It has been proven that smokeless tobacco is basically every bit as dangerous and addictive as cigarette smoking. The side effects are different, but their long-term impact on your quality of life is just as bad.

See <a href="http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_63.htm" target=blank>http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_63.htm</a>

Other than just the health risk aspect, another motivator to break the habit could be to sever your ties to supporting the tobacco industry financially. "Big Tobacco" does a lot of dispicable things with their $$$ that are harmful to millions of people in the long run. I won't go into it here, but trust me, if you do some research as to where that $$$ goes, you will find it very depressing.

Sorry again to preach, as I know full well (via friends) how hard it is to quit, but it sounds like you guys really do WANT to quit, so I figure every little bit of motivation helps.

And just think: The money you save can then go to respectable companies like Spyderco who provide HEALTHY addictions! <img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

Edited by - timlara on 3/18/2004 8:05:07 AM
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UK KEN
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#6

Post by UK KEN »

Hello all

I am 45 and packed in smoking almost ten years ago. I was smoking 40 a day but then a ban was introduced in the office where I worked. This made it easier to stop but the thing that gave me an edge was the Nicotine patches is used.

Will power is wonderful but I'll be the first to admit that it sometimes needs a helping hand where an addiction is concerned. I had tried dozens of time before to quit but had only ever lasted a few days. With the help of the patches I was able to beat the initial cravings and have not smoked since.

There is nothing worse for me than coming home from a night out and finding that I stink of stale cigarette smoke. It’s awful to think that I used to smell that way all the time. My health has improved since I gave them up and I hope to keep off them.

Good luck to all of you who are trying to escape the grip of the “weed”!

Ken


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vampyrewolf
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#7

Post by vampyrewolf »

I started about a month after starting at Burger King, about a week before grade 10 started... Late Aug 00. I quit cold turkey in Aug 02... Was smoking pretty much whatever was cheap and about 2 packs a week tops.

Started again in Oct 03, but with Captain Black Sweets(mini tipped cigars, 8 in a pack)... Quit cold turkey about 3 weeks ago(last week of Feb 04), and the smell of smoke annoys me more than anything now. I was smoking 12-14 a week at 8/pack... never really got bad.

My sister and father both smoke, though dad smokes a pipe. My grandfather on his side has chewed for about 40yrs.

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#8

Post by jaxon »

After starting at about age 15, I quit cigarettes cold turkey about 13 years ago as I recall. Had to try to shake a cold virus so I could have my first (of many) skin cancers surgically removed. Now sure glad I did quit for many reasons, but certainly not least the cost.

I do now enjoy an occasional good cigar. But unlike the cigarettes, don't inhale the cigars.

Jaxon

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4077th
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#9

Post by 4077th »

I quit five months ago. Used SmokeAway for five days, then willpower and prayer. Went thru lots of cravings and uncomfortable withdrawl effects. Its been a rocky road but gets better all the time. The motivation to STAY off cigarettes comes from not wanting to redo struggles of the past five months.

By the way, replacing cigs with Skoal is no solution. Been there, done that. All it amounts to is switching nicotine delivery systems.
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#10

Post by Sir cuts a lot »

I used to smoke. For the last eleven years of my life I was a pack a day smoker. But I have not had so much as a drag of a cigarette since August 31, 2003. Quitting is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. At first it is probably one of the hardest things not to do, but what is truly a key element of quitting smoking is that you have to truly want to quit. Just in case you were wondering, I used the nicotine patch to quit.

Sir cuts a lot
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#11

Post by ramlanrafie »

Start smoking: circa 1978
Stop smoking: 1993
Start again: 1998
stop again: 2000 (lasted for 7 months)
Now stop again since November 2003
In average i'm taking 20 sticks per day. (Marlborro). I can't be a social smoker, if i'm smoke, straight 20 sticks per day.
Hoping this trial will last forever.

Ramlan
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#12

Post by Civilian »

Thankyou all for quitting!!!
I have never smoked(more than trying one a couple of times in JR High), and find it really annoying that someone can have such little respect to smoke around other people. Here in Cali you can't smoke in buildings which is great, but it is really annoying to have to walk through a cloud of smoke at the front door of a lot of places.

I like the old addage: "I noticed you smoke, and as you know smoke prodeces a by-product, second hand smoke, which I must breath in. Well I like to drink Beer and lot's of it, this also produces a by-product. Would you like to be forced to drink it?"
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#13

Post by gadfly »

While it's true that cigarette smokers have a shorter lifespan than non-smokers, but there's a little known fact from the Surgeon General's report from the late sixties: Pipe Smokers live an average of two years longer than non-smokers.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

One way or the other, you pay for your tools!
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#14

Post by Rebeltruce »

I smoke Cigars, 1-2 a day. I don't inhale and I have no intention of ever stopping. I don't buy into this crap of how the "Big Bad Tobacco Companies" are killing everyone with their product. In America we have a choice, people choose to start smoking, people choose to stop. If you're worried about your health then by all means stop. It's pretty obvious that smoking is bad, for a multitude of reasons.

All these new laws, and lawsuits are simply yet another attempt by "Big Brother" to take away our personal freedoms.

No matter what the Tobacco Companies do, no matter who they gear there advertisments to, no matter what they are accused of putting into their products, it's still a choice. A choice we make when we walk into a 7/11 and buy a pack of cigs or not buy a pack of cigs.

Of course this is all just my humble opinion.
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#15

Post by ledheded »

I have smoked since the second grade. I remember realizing I was addicted in fourth grade. I remember trying to quit when I was seventeen.it was total ****. I am now forty five years old,and still smoke. and I can still remember what I went through at seventeen. I remember telling myself, I will never try to quit again. to hard.
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#16

Post by thombrogan »

When you think about drying leaves, lighting them on fire, and sucking in the fumes, it sounds pretty stupid. I used to really enjoy smoking and, while I hated smoking them, still enjoy the secondhand smoke of certain cigarettes. Unfortunately, my family's genetics dictate that my cardiopulmonary system just can't hack it.

I don't believe in all of the claims against "Big Tobacco". First off, what a horrible phrase in both it's sound and it's vile implications ("They must be bad; they're big&quot<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>. Second, if the various tobacco companies really were an omnipotent shadow organization whose deeds circumvent free will, then why haven't the good guys (i.e. "Little cruciferous vegetables" and "Little American Lung Association&quot<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> circumvented free will for our greater good? They certainly pass enough laws to that effect.

Ever notice that the largest critics of "Big Tobacco" often pine for "Big Government"? Hey, I gave up smoking; the least the haters of "Big Tobacco" can do is give up voting.

>:D


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#17

Post by timlara »

thombrogan: I'm glad that you were able to quit. However, I think that you've misintrepreted and/or grossly oversimplified the point I was trying to make. The tobacco companies are not intrinsically bad because they're big. They're bad because they make products that kill people. ( Sure, guns and knives can also be used to kill people, but they also have valid uses. ) "Big Tobacco" is bad because they insure that they'll always have a revenue stream by making their customers chemically dependent on their products. ( Most other companies have to innovate to survive. Call the work of tobacco chemists innovative if you like. ) The comments in this thread are a good example: Almost everyone here either wanted to or tried to quit but couldn't. Is that the mark of an admirable business that supports peoples' "free will"?

Am I saying the government should shut down the cigarette companies or penalize consumers with outrageous taxes for smoking? Of course not. I think that would be unfair and cause mass havoc that would make a huge dent in our economy. But that doesn't invalidate the argument that the tobacco industry's ethics are very, very questionable.

Imagine if Spyderco made a radioactive knife that glowed in the dark, irradiating everything around it, and sold it with a warning label that said, "Carrying this knife every day will most likely kill you - at least according to the extensive studies conducted in our facilities in which we duct taped the knife to lab rats which, in turn, consistently died - but hey, at least you'll look cool using it! Integrity is...uh...not our problem!"
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#18

Post by Jimmy_Dean »

I've been a smoker for 5 years. I first started for the fun of it and because it made the beer kicked in faster <img src="tongue.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> After a while, I found that a cigarette while drinking my morning coffee gave a deep and masculine sound to my voice, which I really liked. I decided to quit just this year and miss it sometimes. Especially when i go out in bars or watch a Bogart movie, but are you gonna do. I quit mostly because my girlfriend wanted me to and because all my clothes stank. But what really got me convinced was the sexual side-effects. You don't really think about those things when you're a kid but at some point it becomes important. I didn't use any patch or anything. All of those who have tried quitting probably felt the same anger as I did. It's like: you wake up in the morning just ready to punch someone to death and are just frustrated all day long for weeks. I always thought that being in need of a cig was like being in need of food. An incomfort kind of feeling. It's actually much worst than that. It's like a rage that goes on and on. I found my self going to the gym twice a day to get all of that out. In the end, it was well worth all the efforts. I hope I'll never smoke again....except an occasional cigar. Congrats to all the others who succeded.

-Dean
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#19

Post by thombrogan »

Tim Lara:

I apologize for reading too much into your previous post.

There will always be people with addictive personalities who desire various means to feed the addictions they've chosen. Yeah, it'd be cool to see more people addicted to moderation, but I'd rather see more people using tobacco than methamphetamine or heroin if they're going to use foreign substances.

Regarding the ethics of tobacco-products manufacturers: I don't think too much lying really has to go on when your customers are already willing to light things on fire and inhale the fumes. The makers whose products I've used had a consistent quality from package to package. Were they so unscrupulous, it seems that they would have lightened the amount of the substance used over time instead of maintaining standards.

What I do see as unscrupulous is fining millions from these companies and then using that money to fund anti-tobacco propaganda. One even featured non-judgemental references to other addictive substances (such as "420girl" in one of the commercials). Using a person's, or a company's, earnings to demonize that person, or company, is evil. So evil as to be a fruit of the devil.

Again, though, I am sorry for reading stuff in your previous post that you hadn't written.
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J Smith
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#20

Post by J Smith »

Its does make you wonder a little.When I was in school drugs were bad,mostly pot.Eveybody smoked or dipped and we drank our share of beer.Now it is VERY Bad from what I have heard.Maybe the big rise in illegle drugs is because they are much easier to get than Beer or tobacco.Kids are going to experament,IMO the crack down on the what I belive to be the lesser evil is not such a good thing,at least not until the hard core drugs are brought under the same or better control.
2 days ago,Kingston TN high school.Drug raid.29 drug dogs brought in,no charges if you turned the stuff in before they found it.They had a whole bunch of pot,extacy(SP?),oxicoton,hydros,and one kid turned in 3000.00 worth of cocain.No alchol or tobacco.

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