Are You Still Puffing?

[The Duke]

Tobacco use contributed greatly to the US economy.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Started around the age of 14 because I thought it was cool.
Quit 11 years later when my first child was born.
That was 33 years ago.

 

[fncceo]

Less people in the US are lighting up

Fewer people.

 

[Hossfly]

I started smoking in Sep 1951. Still puffing 1-1 1/2 packs a day. 72 years and still healthy lungs. I won't quit until they nail my coffin shut.

 

[braalian]

The anti-smoking crusade has went too far.

Adults should be able to smoke outdoors anywhere. No one has ever been harmed by secondhand smoke outdoors for Gods sake.

Saying smokers can’t smoke outside hospitals or their place of employment is just ridiculous.

Anyone saying they have a “reaction” from walking past someone smoking outside in the open air is being a pussy

 

[Papageorgio]

The war on smokers seems to be working. Less people in the US are lighting up cigarettes. Some that smoke menthols are SOL because of the ban on them.
Those menthol smokers are finding ways to get them, but at a high price. Knowing someone in another State who will ship them to you is one of the ways, but at $110.00 per carton + shipping. Ouch. Especially if you smoke a pack a day.

My brand was Camel filters. When the price hit $8.00 a pack I said that would help me quit. It didn't. Get on a smoking cessation program. I did and I quit. Took me a year wearing a Nic patch. 21mg for 6 months and a 14mg for 6 more months, which I got for free for being in the program. I also get an annual chest CT scan to check for lung cancer, which is also FOC.

"Here’s some good news: Cigarette smoking hit record lows in the US, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. An estimated 11.1 percent of American adults were regular cigarette users in 2022—a drop from the 14.4 percent reported in 2019"

Why Americans are smoking cigarettes less than ever

Cigarette smoking hit an all-time low in the US in 2022, though e-cigarette vaping remains increasingly popular among teens.

www.popsci.com

If someone wants to smoke, stay away from me with it and they are free to kill themselves, it is a dirty, nasty habit.

 

[Esdraelon]

When I started smoking, cigs were $0.35 a pack at the gas station. Most everyone I knew smoked.

I'm 63 and I remember a carton at ten dollars. I even bought them out of vending machines for my parents. The 60s were a different world I wound up being the only member of my family that didn't become a smoker. Dad died from lung disease, mom, of lung cancer, and my oldest sister smoked from about age 14 to 50 or so. She finally quit and developed lung cancer about five years after stopping. It was discovered early and after they removed a single lobe from one lung, she had no recurrence. That was about 15 years ago.

 

[DudleySmith]

Started smoking at 13, quit a few years ago, thanks to all the vaping choices, better tasting and at the time no sniveling halfwits terrified of water vapor. I would buy cartons on the base with my lawn mowing money, then sell the packs individually off base; nice income supplement. I easily sold all I could get my hands on and took custom orders. Then my buyer got sent to VN and l could only get a 3 or 4 cartons at a time after that instead of a duffel bag full, so it wasn't nearly as lucrative.

 

[luiza]

It is such an insidious addiction .
My father gave up at 60 and had smoked 2-3 packs a day for just over 40 years .
Now , having given up over 20 years ago, he has mild COPD at the bottom of both lungs , possible mild emphysemia and the possibility of lung scarring which kills ( under current investigation ) -- though the right meds can usually prevent that killer condition worsening .
How do you stop kids making the same mistake ?
Rhetorical .

 

[buttercup]

I'm glad that I never had the slightest bit of interest in smoking. I never thought it was "cool" or saw any appeal whatsoever in breathing smoke and smelling like an ashtray all the time. But hey, people can do whatever floats their boat, even if it's a slow suicide, I guess.

 

[Moonglow]

They'll both slowly kill you.

Kinda like living.