On smoking
While I no longer smoke full time I will bum one now and again, predominantly at social gatherings. Though that is getting to be less and less the case these days.
Ed quotes Dennis Leary about the new smoking warnings.
Dennis is right. No matter what you put on the pack, it’s not gonna make any difference.
When you smoke, and I smoked for thirty years, so I can tell you this with absolute certainty- when you smoke, you will smoke no matter what. If your head hits the pillow and you realize you’re out of cigarettes, your eyes will snap open. You know that waking up without that wake-up-smoke will suck. it will suck badly. it will suck so badly that you are not going to be able to go to sleep thinking about how bad it will suck to be you when you wake up.
So you will crawl your ass out of bed. You will slide into whatever clothes are at hand. Even if the only thing you have to wear that is remotely presentable is a pair of jeans that are three inches too short and a t shirt that has cat diarrhea on it. You will wrap yourself in whatever coat you have, and whatever shoes you have that don’t require you to bend over too far to put them on, and you will trudge out into 14″ deep snowdrifts, hook the battery charger up to the truck until it warms enough, drive through a miserable sleety blizzard to the nearest open store that sells tobacco products, and stand in line behind teenagers trying to buy condoms and booze until you can get your grimy sleep deprived mitts on a fresh pack of nicotiney goodness. And then you will smoke one or two on the way home, causing you to not sleep well, just because.
But in the morning, you will have that wake-up-smoke.
When you have that monkey on your back, full time, the monkey does not care how awful are the pictures on the pack.
Fucking idiots.
BTW, smokers may singlehandedly be keeping Medicare temporarily afloat, because smokers die younger of diseases of shorter duration.
Speaking of Medicare, you’ll hear your Dr talking about how medicare is the bomb diggity shiznit. That’s because Medicare uses what they call “Pay and chase” where they just send checks out for claims as they arrive. of COURSE drs like this. And only if someone complains do they chase down the validity of the claim. This is why at least 10% of medicare money is fraud (That’s the number Medicare themselves admit, it’s probably much higher)
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The dead bodies on the cig packages will be as effective as the fried eggs in the “brain on drugs” ad campaign.
Damn straight.
Even after thirty-five+ years I never got it that badly, never had to light-up as soon as I awoke or go get a pack in the dark on a rainy night… And so I quit cold-turkey back in Feb.
“The dead bodies on the cig packages will be as effective as the fried eggs in the “brain on drugs†ad campaign. ”
Duuude! Eggs are awesome!!! Whoaaa!!!
I’m awaiting the scientific study proving that smoking helps prevent baldness, or erectile dysfunction, or mebbe cranial/rectal inversion.
Still like Dr. Koop telling me that heroin is easier to quit than my loverly cigs.
and no smoking discussion is complete without this vid-clip … http://youtu.be/PtuGbbGFV5w
Eggs? Fried drugs? Far out!
Heroin easier to quit than cigarettes?
Having watched people trying to kick both, I have to agree.
I’m glad I was able to avoid both, but I also allow the smoking light to be lit in my vehicle and home.
Q
Those “this is your brain on drugs” commercials always made me want to go to Denny’s.
I usually had the munchies about the time that they were playing on the TV…
Meh…these are the same bozos who thought that cigarettes over $5/pack would end smoking…Whatta Maroon(s)!
Sigh… Sadly you’re right. Quitting is hell.
Somewhere I read that around 27% of medicare claims are fraudulant in some degree on another.
Government propaganda is always about as effective as you think.
When Nancy Reagan was doing the “Just Say No” campaign (Ronnie, what were you THINKING letting her do that?), in our office, the line went “Just Say Maybe.” “Can we negotiate?” “Let’s talk price.”
Not that any of us were inveterate dopers — we had fulltime jobs, after all — but the snark target was just too damned enticing.
M
One habit I am sooooo glad I avoided.
And the only reason I never invited the monkey to perch is that I think they taste like shit, and I never gave a crap if people thought I was cool so I never forced myself to smoke the things.
I do like a fine stogie now and again, however….
Another who never got hooked on cigarettes, glad I didn’t. Like Graumagus, I enjoy a nice cigar sometimes (maybe once a week), but cigars are notoriously bad at delivering nicotine, so they’re very hard to get chemically hooked on.
Ahhh, the wake up smoke and the 4 S start to the day. I don’t think the .gov gets that some of us wake up in the night to maintain our nicotine level. Neither cost, nor health nor law will make someone quit until they are ready
A “half a pack a day” smoker here. And yes, I remember when I used to get a pack for 10 cents (at the base PX or exchange)…. and my oh my how we bitched and complained when it went up to a dollar a pack. Now it is hovering around 4.50 to 5 dollars a pack (more in the big city/Chicago/NYC). But here I sit, still puffing away. The irony of it all is not lost, what with legal “wacky tobbacky” probably being on the streets within the next 5-10 years, so the group of self-righteous non-tobacco smokers, who enjoy a bit of “natures own”, will be the ones having to put up with having to deal with “smoke free zones”…. what’s that you say? That only applies to tobacco products? I wouldn’t be too sure of that.
And what about the lesson learned a generation or two back about legislating morality (prohibition)? Isn’t this the same thing once they finally outlaw tobacco products? Won’t that allow for the mob to get into the “illegal tobacco trade”? (Or the south of the border drug cartels for that matter).
Simple solution. Stop with the government knows what is best for you legislation and or how you must run your business. If I want to smoke, as long as I am not being a bore about it (blowing smoke “in your face” while you are trying to eat). It should be of no concern to you. If I want to operate a bar which allows smoking, and you find i objectionable, go somewhere else. (Same goes for some one who wants to operate a non-smoking bar, btw).
Naaa this isn’t a hot button of mine…why do you ask? *grin*
Disclosure: I don’t smoke. But there are several people of my acquaintance who smoke, who live in poverty, and who constantly have to scrape and pinch to pay for rent and other necessaries. Having done the “$0.75 has to last ’til payday” dance myself, I wonder how much financially better off they would be if they weren’t smoking.
As my wife the former smoker would say: “Welbutrin is a wonderful drug.”
She quit, cold turkey, six years ago New Years’ if I recall aright.
“I wonder how much financially better off they would be if they weren’t smoking.”
No doubt much better. But smoking makes a difficult life more tolerable, if you smoke. Superimposing nicotine addiction on top of poverty would be pretty fucking horrible.
I have issues with my tax dollars being loaded onto people’s LINK cards while they spend what cash they have on smokes.
Fuckall I can do about it though
No doubt much better. But smoking makes a difficult life more tolerable, if you smoke. Superimposing nicotine addiction on top of poverty would be pretty fucking horrible.
I get the “escape via chemical means” bit. Honestly, I do. But when I watch a man literally begging for odd jobs so he can pay his rent, and doing so on a semi-regular basis … When Jesus said “The poor will always be with you,” I can’t help but think that this was part of what he meant.
You know, sometimes I don’t have that Wake-Up Cigarette ’til 3 or 4 PM…
Because thats when you wake up? ;)
One of things that got me to quit was when I was digging ancient, smokeable cigarette butts out of my car ashtray (for the umpteenth time) and caught sight of myself in the mirror.
I’m not a Smoke Nazi (AFAIK) but I’m glad I quit when I did, ten years ago; I’d been smoking since junior high.
As for “nicotine addiction atop poverty,” remember that most of the cost of a pack of smokes is taxes. Never mind that it’s one of the most effective self-medications around…. (Yeah, very bad for your health, but it’s still a huge comfort when life sucks and I miss that aspect of it). See, Teh Gummint hates poor people!
Yeah, I’ve done the “looking for long butts” thing myself a bunch of times.
Nonsmokers never get it.
My wife did the spreadsheet and figured we were saving $4k yearly by quitting, but we were lightweights and it took two of us to make a pack. That buys a bunch of ammo.