Are you a smoker?

[BDBoop]

I don't even know how that compares to what a carton normally costs. They were $5.50 or so when I quit. Now I think that's about what a PACK costs!?

 

[Nosmo King]

I have never smoked a tobacco cigarette. I'm 55.

 

[Ernie S.]

I don't even know how that compares to what a carton normally costs. They were $5.50 or so when I quit. Now I think that's about what a PACK costs!?

It depends on the state.In Alabama a carton is about $45 in Connecticut it's $90.

 

[Nosmo King]

I don't even know how that compares to what a carton normally costs. They were $5.50 or so when I quit. Now I think that's about what a PACK costs!?

Last summer my friend from Brooklyn came here for a visit. She took so many snapshots of gas stations and convenience stores, I had to ask her why. "The cigarette prices are so low here no one in New York will believe me without proof!"

 

[Ernie S.]

I don't even know how that compares to what a carton normally costs. They were $5.50 or so when I quit. Now I think that's about what a PACK costs!?

Last summer my friend from Brooklyn came here for a visit. She took so many snapshots of gas stations and convenience stores, I had to ask her why. "The cigarette prices are so low here no one in New York will believe me without proof!"

When my son came down to visit, he brought home 10 cartons. He said it paid for air fare and car rental.

 

[mudwhistle]

I used to smoke a pack of clove cigs per day. I quit over a year ago.

I remember when clove cigs didn't have much tobacco in them, but now the tobacco is in there just to get you hooked.

I dislike the smell of cigs but love the smell of burning cloves.

 

[MikeK]

I quit smoking 5 years ago. I tried to quit for over a decade and a half. Finally made it.

Nicotine has a vicious, vicious grip. Like that kitty in the vid.

The nicotine addiction is harder to kick than heroin. According to what I've read and have been told, heroin withdrawal involves extreme nausea, headache and muscle pain but lasts only about a week on average and the craving quickly diminishes.

Based on my own experience (a 35-year smoker) nicotine withdrawal involves no physical pain or illness but the craving is constant and tenaciously distracting. It causes extreme nervousness, irritability, insomina, loss of interest in usual pleasures and pursuits and is generally tormenting.

The symptoms are increasingly intense for about ten days then begin to diminish -- but gradually and very slowly. The craving remains constant for several months and while I don't recall how long it took to be completely free of it I know it was more than a year. During that period it is critically important to avoid all activites and habits which usually accompany smoking, such as drinking coffee and being around friends who smoke.

The cigarette habit involves more than inhaling smoke. It includes the feel of a cigarette in the fingers and on the lips and all of the tactile experience and motions typically involved in lighting, handling and smoking a cigarette.

A substitute source of nicotine, such as Nicorette gum, does ease craving for the drug, and sucking on hard candies does relieve craving for the taste of the smoke. But I would not recommend using any of the "fake cigarette" devices being sold that look and feel like cigarettes, some of which produce a water-based vapor when drawn on. Because functioning mentally, much like the so-called "phantom pain" that occurs after limb amputation, these devices can operate to prolong the craving for the tactile experience of smoking.

Bottom line: Knowing what to expect from nicotine withdrawal helps to hold fast to the effort.

 

[Tsalagi]

The last ciggies I bought cost $0.24 a pack or $2.40 a carton in the Class VI store on base.
And gold was $35.00 an ounce, too!

 

[MikeK]

...smoked since I was 15
...will sue the estates of John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen, Humprey Bogart and other Hollywood Hero Smokers if I contract lung cancer before dying. THEY MADE ME DO IT!

I've not tried heroine, but I understand it is easier to get rid of than nicotine. I can believe that. I've quit smoking several times.

The first six months I quit smoking, I got hungry for a cigarette. I actually understood what it would feel like for vampires if they were real. It was an actual hunger. My mouth would even water.

It was way past craving.

Scientific studies have shown nicotine addiction is just as powerful as heroin addition, yep.


An ugly person could drive by in a beater car with a cigarette dangling from their mouth, the most unattractive picture you could imagine, and I would be jealous of that person!


A little over a year after I quit, I went through a highly stressful period and I bought a pack of smokes.

I smoked about half a cigarette and got incredibly nauseous.

So I hold onto that memory. It is fresher than the hunger memories.


And now I can't even stand the smell of cigarette smoke. I can even tell when someone has just had a cigarette. I can smell it on them, and it is the most obnoxious smell to me now.


I've seen many ex-smokers become the most militant anti-smokers. I won't allow myself to become like that, but I can see how it happens.

One former nicotine junkie to another -- everything you've said here is factual and vivid.

 

[MikeK]

The last ciggies I bought cost $0.24 a pack or $2.40 a carton in the Class VI store on base.
And gold was $35.00 an ounce, too!

I don't know what a "Class VI" store is but in my time a carton of cigarettes at the PX was one dollar.

 

[MikeK]

I only ever smoke heavily when I'm drinking.

Yeah, there is something about cigarettes and booze. Booze force multiplies smoking. I chain smoked whenever I was drinking. It's like suicide squared!

Exactly. And that fact is the cause of most failures to quit smoking. One who wishes to quit should understand that everything associated with the smoking habit must be avoided. And equally intense concentration is needed to overcome the intense craving that occurs after every meal.

 

[High_Gravity]

I started smoking when I was going through my divorce, my ex girlfriend at the time smoked Newport 100's and so did a friend of mine so I started smoking those. That was about 6 years ago and I still smoke to this day.

 

[Ringel05]

Are you a smoker?

Doesn't look anything like me so no.

 

[Ernie S.]

The last ciggies I bought cost $0.24 a pack or $2.40 a carton in the Class VI store on base.
And gold was $35.00 an ounce, too!

I don't know what a "Class VI" store is but in my time a carton of cigarettes at the PX was one dollar.

I remember 2 bucks for a carton at the PX at West Point.

 

[MikeK]

...smoked since I was 15
...will sue the estates of John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen, Humprey Bogart and other Hollywood Hero Smokers if I contract lung cancer before dying. THEY MADE ME DO IT!

I've not tried heroine, but I understand it is easier to get rid of than nicotine. I can believe that. I've quit smoking several times.

I was fifteen when I started, too. And you left Ronald Reagan out of that list of celebrities who told us smoking cigarettes was a good thing.

But the worst were the actual MDs whose pictures and signatures endorsed smoking in cigarette ads.

I am certain if I knew the truth about smoking back then I would not have started. My mother knew and she tried to discourage us but I was convinced by the ads.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I quit in September of 1980. I may have had a drunken slip or two a couple of times after, but I never bought another pack, and I know I haven't had a cigarette for way more than 25 years.

I quit in 1988, I'm actually repulsed by the smell of cigarettes now. I would never slip, for fear it would readdict me. I smoked for 14 years.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I had just turned three.

Damn you're old...

(I was born in 58 as well..)

 

[MikeK]

Found it:

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!"

 

[AquaAthena]

I quit in September of 1980. I may have had a drunken slip or two a couple of times after, but I never bought another pack, and I know I haven't had a cigarette for way more than 25 years.

Good for you. I try to be my best friend, too, and gave up very light smoking, years ago.

 

[9thIDdoc]

100% of people who smoke die.
100% of people who don't smoke die.

Smoke em if ya got em.