A question about cigarettes...
 

I've recently taken up smoking, due to peer influence (though I'm 25).

What is the difference between a menthol and something else? I bought a pack of menthols and they seem to burn up way faster than a regular cigarette. They also fill the room with billowy, thick smoke like no other, seemingly.

I was also wondering what specific effect smoking is supposed to bring. Is it like alcohol?

I coulda sworn that after smoking 5 in a chain I felt different. I'm like able to talk to people openly, yet my patience seems reduced (like today at work until break).

The first couple times I had a cigarette I felt a little high. Granted I was 15 or so, but I assume that is the same effect for everyone. If you continue smoking, it's not going to feel like this all the time, it's only because your body isn't used to the chemicals in cigarettes. Eventually, you won't feel any different when you have a smoke (well I don't), but if you don't have one you will feel different as your body would start to go through a bit of withdrawls and begin to crave the chemicals. Smoking is one of the hardest things to quit, so if you can while you're ahead, I say do it. I'm only 24 and therefore smoking only about 10 years, and it's still extremely difficult for me to quit, mind you people who have had the habit for 30, 40, 50 years. I have quit a few different drugs and smoking is one of the hardest, in part due to it being legal and easily accesible, but also just due to the fact that it is so addictive. Smoking isn't supposed to bring about an alcohol like effect, like if you have 10 cigarettes you'll feel "better" than if you had two, whereas in terms of drinks, depending on how much you can drink, you might. I dunno, I say fuck the peer pressure and quit while you're ahead. Maybe that's just me though.

I have to agree with tenniels, fuck peer pressure and try to quit now!

Wow... A 25 year old suffering from peer pressure. Gotta' say that's a first.

Anywho, I agree with everyone else. Quit while you're ahead (Or still have functioning lungs, whichever appeals to you more).

Hmm. You can switch to gums and get the same effect. You have no excuse to smoke regularly.

I think that the main effect of nicotine is a slight stimulant one. But that was my feeling only. And I think I feel the carbon monoxide if I have a smoke.

Mostly though... you probably don't get that effect if you are having them regularly.

Kpax, I never smoked, so I can't answer any of your specific questions.

However, everyone else, it would sadden me to see this thread turn into a "Stop Smoking" thread because that's not what Kpax came here to ask. He did say he is 25 and I'm going to accept that as old enough to do whatever the fuck he feels like, and that includes succombing to peer pressure and smoking. He did not ask "Should I give in to peer pressure," or "Should I smoke," but instead "What's it like?"

So again, I'm just asking people who know about smoking to help the brother out, and the rest refrain from the obligation to soapbox the dude.

I started smoking about 25 too and smoked for about a year or so. The only effect I got from smoking was everything around me smelled either like fresh cigarette smoke or stale cigarette smoke. I still enjoy a cigar on the golf course or at least I assume I do (haven't played in a couple of years). But that is a different kettle of fish.

As someone who is currently fighting to quit, stop now. The first couple times you smoke it's a nicotine buzz. Pretty soon, your body adjusts and that disappears, and you're just left with a nasty habit.

Quit while you're ahead.

(Sorry for the soapbox, we're actually trying to help though. As most of the people in this thread are smokers, we all know how hard it is, and I would not wish it on anyone. Besides... Smoking gets you NOT laid.)

--Deleted (doublepost)

I wasnt trying to soapbox anyone, if it came off that way, oh well, deal with it. I've been smoking for 25 years, and I actually quit once for 6 months, but eventually started back (so I guess I really didnt quit). Its simply easier to stop before you become a full blown addict, so its worth mentioning. Your health, the cost, the stigma.......its not worth a minor nicotine buzz, IMO.

Source: Menthol Cigarettes (See other publications listed.)

What do petrol additives, embalming fluid, toilet cleaner, nail polish remover, insecticide, car exhaust fumes, rat poison, and gas chamber poison have in common with cigarettes? They share the same chemicals.

Sources:
http://www.quit-smoking-stop.com/har...igarettes.html
http://man-health-magazine-online.co...igarettes.html


Please do quit.

I used to get a "head rush" with the first one of the day.

Menthol has acutal menthol extract of some kind in it, hence the "cold" sensation when you inhale. Last I heard, they were still sticking small amounts of fiberglass in them. I used to smoke menthols and they would tear up my lungs, by the next day after half a pack, I'd sound like my 80 year old next door neighbor who has COPD. I got to the point that I couldn't even handle UltraLights.
I continued to get the rush if I hadn't had one in several hours throughout the seven years that I smoked. The only way I quit was an ultimatum from my SO. But, I'd acutally get light-headed and vertigo-ed at times from the nicotine, much more than a cup of coffee. Different stimulants, similar addictive properties for me.

To answer your question, the only specific effect smoking will bring is bad health for your heart, your lungs, other organs of your body, stinky clothes, colds from having to smoke outside since it is becoming banned pretty much everywhere and possibly even outside, sallow skin, an addiction that is as tough to break as heroin. All wonderful things.

Perhaps a different set of peers would be helpful. Smeone that cares about their health? I don't know.

Sorry to be on a soap box - wait, no, I'm not sorry!!

Smoking was always portrayed as cool in the media, even after society supposedly figured out that it was bad for you. I still sometimes can't help but think it looks really cool in certain situations (mostly in movies though, since the smell and my desire to live usually keep me as far away from smokers as humanly possible).

So my question is, do you feel cool yet? And is feeling cool worth what it will do to your life?

The only real effect smoking will have on you is that it makes you look cool.


Isn't that why you started in the first place? Cause your friends said it was cool. And you want to be cool right? Then you have to do what your friends say is cool. Next they'll all be snorting ground up coffee beans cause as you know, drinking coffe is so not cool anymore...



The fact you know you started smoking cause of peer pressure makes me think that you don't actually want to smoke. And if you don't want to. Then don't. But if you want to smell like shit, die, and most important... look cool. Then go ahead. Don't worry about the effects. Just light up.

Yea...I look real cool...that nicotine moustache I've acquired really sets of the lines around my mouth...
It's great in the winter...just jog from your car to your work entrance and feel the sweat start to drip. While everyone is complaining how cold it is, you'll be panting for air, complaining how warm it is.
It's great in the summer, too. Gives you that glistening glow because you can't breathe and get overheated easier than all those noncool people who don't smoke.
And what a fortune you'll save on aftershave and cologne!!! Don't need that now, you'll reek of smoke!
Sure am glad I picked up a habit I can't seem to shake now....

At 25, you should know better....

ngdawg... I'm sure you know but was actually being sarcastic.

I always am....sarcastic, that is....

What cigarettes do is stave off the craving of your next cigarette, ad infinitum.

I never felt any kind of buzz or head rush for them, I would just crave them at certain times...while driving and after dinner especially. Or whenever I was feeling stress. I still crave them occasionally when I am stressed. But I quit two years ago in December...I think. Maybe it will be three years in December...whatever, I quit at Christmastime two or three years ago. And I am so glad that I did.

Oh, and you will get colds more often when you smoke.

Yeah, smokers should at least supplement with vitamin C.

Aging+smoking=less colds...haven't had one of those in...*aaaahCHOO*...over a year now...of course, my sinuses are shot to hell, so who knows...

Didn't intend to sound soapbox-ish, I thought I answered the question to the best of my ability and with what first hand experience I have. I of course think if you chose to smoke, that is fine. It's just when you're relatively new to the "game", it's nice to have a chance to get out. I know when I started as a teenager, I thought I could quit whenever I wanted to. You know how teenagers know EVERYTHING :rolleyes: I think the op'er being 25 (and myself now being 24) may be able to make a bit better of a decision that's all.

I get soapboxishly sarcastic because I'm a smoker that hasn't the willpower to quit for good, despite numerous attempts and a modicum of intelligence....

Menthols, which I smoke exclusively, are supposedly more addicting. Since I never had regular nonmenthols, I don't know how true that is....
When I was a teenager, the menthol of choice was Kool's but then rumors came out that their filters had asbestos in them, so, being the savvy group we kids were, we switched to Salems.
The spouse smokes Newports, his family's favorite. Those suckers burn the hell out of my throat, but every once in a while, I take one for a nico rush. My own, Carltons, are referred to by the heavyweights as 'smoking air'. Probably not true since my doctor said I have the beginnings of emphysema and you can't get that from air....
I don't get a 'morning rush' or anything, no buzz....
I'd have to concur with tenniels-being 25, there should have been a wiser decision made to begin with. Peer pressure should have ended 10 years earlier.

Haha, I get the distinct impression that the OP doesn't wanna hear our shit, as he hasn't put in another appearance.

Well, go get a box of tissues then, 'cause you're gonna get saddened ;)

Look, if I came in here and asked what it's like for other people when they disembowel a puppy while it's still alive because I can't seem to get much reaction out of the puppies I've tried it on, would you claim to be saddened that no one was willing to answer the question I asked? Sometimes if you tell everyone that you're doing something monumentally stupid, they're going to comment on it, even if you didn't ask. That's the price you pay for being a part of a community that gives a shit about its fellow man.

After all, if I didn't give a crap how much harm he does to himself, why would I waste the time and effort writing a post that essentially says "Kpax, dude, that's a really dumb thing to do, don't smoke" ?

Oh, forgive us our trespasses as we stray into the land of hyperbole.

He's smoking, not disemboweling cute little puppies or putting babies on spikes for shits and giggles. He made a conscious choice--and legal, I might add--as an adult and then came here to ask the question. There is a fine line between giving a shit about someone and expository moralism for its own sake.

So, Kpax, instead of telling you all the bad things about smoking--like you couldn't possibly know anyway--and berating you endlessly with links to statistics or belittle you with snide offhand remarks about how stupid you ultimately must be, I'll just answer the damn question to the best of my abilities based on my experience.

I have no idea what the difference is other than preference. Although I smoked for a number of years, I only ventured a handful of times towards the menthols and then quickly regained my senses and went back to regulars. My roommate at the time, however, swears they are a wonderful decongestant in the winter and, whether a testament to the menthols or his freakishly excellent health, he never suffered like the rest of us when it got cold.

For me, it was as much the act of smoking as the cigarette itself. I'm sure the chemicals floating around my system did a bit to keep me calm and such, but it was the physical act of pulling one out, lighting and then methodically smoking it that was the more effective, in my experience.

Congratulations on making the stupidest decision of your life.

Bra-fucking-vo.:rolleyes: :shakehead: :shakehead: :rolleyes:

You claim that's it's due to peer influence, yet you also claim to be 25. There'sa huge logical gap there.

I see that other posters have quite rightly castigated you, so I will jsut say this: you have made a decision which will truly affect all aspects of your life. People will deliberately avoid you and shun you, and rightly so. Your sense of smell and taste will be affected/damaged, which is a big one because everything in your life will now smell like cooked shit. You, your clothes, your apartment/house/dwelling, your car, EVERYTHING.

Again, a hearty congrats on deliberately choosing to shorten your life span by 15 years.

If you've already started smoking, don't you already know what the effects are? How does it affect you? That would be the effects.

This was true for me as well...the "little rituals" and physical habits related to smoking were almost as soothing and addictive as the actual smoking itself.

..............

and on another note:

Let's put an end to the name-calling and put downs now, okay? Lots of people smoke. It doesn't make them dumb or deserving of your scorn.

The OP does not ask for anyone's advice about whether or not to start smoking.

So let's end all that now, capice?

If you want to start your own thread decrying the sins and stupidity of smokers then go right ahead. Although, I'll bet good money that deal's already been done.

Thanks. :)

bob is right:

smoking is healthier than fascism.

Smoking is, for me, definitely about the habit and the ritual of doing it, rather than the nicotine. I could probably quit by going through the motions of smoking but just not lighting up, if I tried (which I haven't). I never feel "relieved" afterwards or even really have a physical urge for one... it's all mental for me.

I really should quit. Really, really.

Anyway, I've been smoking menthols since the beginning (back in the day before you could tell the difference between brands, I realized that nobody would bum cigs off me if mine were menthol, so that's what I chose). To this day, I can still walk into a party with half a pack, and walk out of the party with most of them remaining. I doubt many regular cig smokers can say the same. :D

To me, the difference between the two is that a menthol is a cigarette, and a non-menthol is a stick of dirty air. I'd rather not smoke than smoke non-menthol.

Honestly, I'd rather not smoke. I'm not soapboxing here... just quit while you can. The minute you stop getting a buzz when you smoke, you're officially addicted, so stop smoking while you can. Please.

quitting is easy - i've done it a dozen times

I don't know what you guys are thinking ...gorgeous babes and doctors can't be wrong, can they?

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...gsandbabes.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...igsanddocs.jpg

I'll add that I used to be a smoker. I have chronic bronhcitis and asthma now so smoking isn't an option. I'm glad that I quit when I did.

When I'm walking around the city, I see pretty girls about, then I see them raise their hand and take a drag out of a cigarette. At one point in time, I thought it sexy. Now I think of it as smelly and not so tasty kisses.

Hahaha agreed. I don't think that works though. Last time I lit up in front of a girl, it was "eww gross, smoking" and I could have gotton into her pants that night but for the cig I lit up.

Blowing it in her face (cigarette smoke) would have gotton me slapped.

I recall something from high school where one would blow smoke into another's face to indicate a desire to sleep with them. I wonder how well that works out for folks. :lol:

I also remember flipping two cigs in every new pack upside down... one for "good luck", the other for a "good fuck". Weird...

if you're going to smoke, go to a pipe store / tobacconist and get reasonable rolling tobacco, then roll your own. you typically get higher quality tobacco, plus double the ritual.

What is the difference (chemically) between cigarette tobacco and pipe or cigar tobacco?

For that matter, include marijuana. I know that they may be different plants or leaves, but from what I have heard, cigarettes have a load of additional chemicals that are toxic.

Are these natural to cigarette tobacco, or do they somehow get added in during the manufacturing process? And are they also in pot & cigars???

I think a lot of it has to do with the chemical transformation that takes place when the leaf is burned. There are a lot of chemicals in smoke that are by-products of the smoke, not the tobacco itself.

However, cigarette tobacco is notoriously over-processed for flavor and strength. Pipe tobacco is more "pure" tobacco than what you'll find in most cigarettes.

There are more chemicals in marajuna, but it's unlikely you would smoke as much marajuana as you do cigarettes. But a joint vs a cigarette, there is more tar (or maybe one of the other delicious chemicals) in the joint. I started smoking menthols and quite liked them, but can't remember why I switched to regular smokes. I smoke regular size ones too. In Canada, there are regular and kingsize. When I went to the states, the regular sized smokes were as big as our kingsize cigarettes and I thought that was a trip! What are the bigger ones there called? It's completely slipping my mind... I dunno, I agree with all the other smokers though, it's as much about the rituals that go along with smoking as the smoking itself that keep you addicted. And yes Hanxter, quitting is easy, I've also done it about a dozen times ;)

I think Camel brand has a "wide" variety, which are slightly thicker than an average cigarette. Otherwise, I've never heard of a "king size" cigarette. Unless you're referring to 100s? I think they're called 100s because they're 100 mm long, or something... I don't know. I smoke the regular size.

The regular size are AKA 'kings'.

Yeah I'm sorry, I didn't mean thicker, just longer. Like the regular sized cigarettes in the US (that I had seen) were as long as a "king size" cigarette here in Canada and the 100's (thank you I completely blanked on what they were called) were even longer, it blew my mind!

People still do the cigarette flipping thing. Not me personally, as I always seemed to light one of those from the wrong end when I was in a dark place.

Oh and, I'm a smoker, I've been smoking since January 11,2001. (I just turned 27 last week) I started out smoking mentol and over the years switched to non-menthol. When I smoked menthol I would come down with bronchitis atleast 3 times a year. I always felt worse the next day after heavy smoking menthols. Don't quote me on this, but a few people have told me menthol have more charcoal in them.

Yeah, we super-size everything down here.

I'd completely forgotten about flipping one over in the pack. I did that too.

I smoked between 2/3 of a pack a day and a whole pack a day for 10 years. I quit March 1, 2001 when I was 26. To this day, there are times when I walk through a cloud of smoke on the street and experience a full-body craving. I figure maybe another 5 years and I'll be a non-smoker.

today is my last day of smoking, i hope it goes well... ive tried once before but gave up pretty quickly because we had a huge party two nights after :S hopefully it goes better this time, smoking is too expensive of a habit for me now, im too broke constantly to spend like 8 bucks a day on sweet sweet belmonts

Amen man, Today is my fourth without a cigarette, and I'm currently listing to myself all the reasons why I should not go down to the store and buy a pack. Another part of me is trying to justify buying a bag of rolling tobacco, as if that is somehow better.

This is fuckin tough.

drink water. lots and lots of water.

He mentioned peer pressure, which really was a cry for help. So we are simply applying peer pressure to help him stop. If he had not mentioned the peer pressure, the situation would be different.
So here is peer pressure from your internet peers:
STOP SMOKING!
Besides, it will save you lots and lots of money.

Menthols contain menthol, and black people smoke them.
If I'm drinking (the only time I smoke,) I smoke cloves because they intensify the alcohol intoxication and numb my body.
Nicotine is a stimulant. At first, you'll feel a nicotine buzz, but after a week it'll die down (this habituation is how you know your brain has formed extra receptors for any addictive substance and means you'll need more of that substance to saturate them and get the same effect) and all that smoking will do for you is remove the feeling of needing to smoke (commonly known as withdrawal.) If you're addicted and quit, you're going to feel like shit for about three days as the extra receptors shut down, but after that it's all mental.

Ciggarettes today have many many times more nicotene and tar than ciggarettes in the 40s - 70s, which is when most of ads and movies portraying heavy smoking were made. Thats why smokers from the 40s...WWII vets and the like...seem to live (or have lived) a lot longer than smokers today.

This is probably due to the fact that in their day they consumed in 1 years the nicotine and tar that smokers today consume in one.

I don't know why the formula changed...maybe the current smokers were becomming "immune" (or used to since you dont become immune to chemical drugs) to the current mix and asked for more. If i'm not mistaken it increases a bit every year.

Oh my gawd!!! I'm black!?!?!?! :D

woah.. you are!

ugh.. i had a marlboro tonight... ugh sucked

Does that mean you aren't a cowboy?

I only smoke when I am extremely stressed, so one or two packs over a one or two day period once a year or so.

I also smoke three or four cigs with people when I'm drinking once every couple months.

The only effect smoking has for me is that it relaxes me, as it forces me to breath deeply and slowly. I also get a slightly calming effect from the nicotine...an advantage of smoking very occasionally is I have no built up tolerance to overcome.

Smoking a hookah has a similar 'high'...the high of oxygen deprivation. It's relaxing, and tastes good, but I imagine a spritz of breath spray into a paper bag would be a healthier way to oxygen starve my brain.

When I smoke, I smoke unfiltered Lucky Strikes if I can find them, otherwise Marlboro Reds...'Candy cane' menthols taste terrible to me. Why do I smoke those two brands? Lucky Strikes because they're most likely to be a conversation starter (and people are less likely to mooch them) and Marlboro's originally because they were 'manly' and I like how they taste now.

Oh yeah, PS: don't smoke, it's bad for you, etc etc. Becoming a smoker is a terrible idea.

Meanwhile, 55 posts later, the OP has not returned...

To the OP:

Thank you for doing your part to keep Social Security solvent for the rest of us.

Well, at first I only smoked on occasions, and there was never a temptation to do so at any other time, such as New Year's Eve. It was weird, like I could make a pack last months.

The girl I'm friends with now has gotten me into it. At first I only smoked when around her, but now I'm around her like every other day. I've bought two packs now. I used to just bum 'em off someone in the party that was doing it. I only smoked when the group I was with was smoking, and that started like last November.

I don't know if I'm addicted. My limit is five. I smoked five on New Year's Eve, and by then I got so sick I couldn't stand another whiff of one without getting nauseous. Last night I smoked five, first time since then, I thought I was going to vomit all of the McD's I just ate.

Ironically I work in pharmacy and see customers paying $128.00 for the Chantix, since most insurances don't cover it. At that cost, it still flies off the shelf.

I also consider it an irony when a customer hands me a prescription for an antibiotic in the drive-thru with one hand, while a cigarette simmers in the other.

Anyway, I coulda sworn that after chaining a few cigarettes the lights get brighter, like light-sensitivity, and I start to feel really loose. There are a lot of chemicals, you know.

Anyway besides that, my question had to do with what the differences are in the cigarettes out there. There are so many different kinds, and I've mostly limited my choices to the ones that my peers smoke. I think I could drop it, especially after last night, but we'll see!

All the guys that smoke around these parts smoke Drum tobacco, and I smoke it if it's mixed with pot and rolled up with a paper (spliffs). I occasionally bum smokes off of my friend V., who smokes Marlboro No. 27s. I also like Camel Lights.

For the record, I don't smoke often, and I am adult who knows the health risks associated with smoking. I have smoked before and quit for several years, so I don't have a problem with stopping once I get older and wiser.

Kpax, you are an adult that has made a decision, and that has to be respected. Those of you who posted about the health risks of smoking--I don't think anyone around here is stupid enough to suggest that smokers don't know that smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, COPD, and asthma. But I think for those of us who are young and do smoke once in a while--we know the risks, and we're not in it for the long term. At least I'm not--but that's easy for me to say...I'm not addicted, and I don't plan on getting to that point with smoking.

I should point out that I'm not sure any cigarette smoker intends to do it for the long run. It's usually about 6 months later when you realize you've been smoking a pack and day, and need that next cigarette that you realize you're addicted.

Okay, I know next to nothing about menthol, but I just wanted to say listen to this man. All those chemicals people whine about being in cigarettes (which are really only in a few brands, one of mention - marlboro) are absent from this. It is just pure tobacco.
I smoke about 5 cigarettes a week, always hand rolled decent tobacco. It costs a lot less ($18-25 for a tin that is equivialent to a carton) and is purely as a compliment, like a garnish to whatever situation I'm in. It seems no worse to me than eating a candy bar but anyway.

The only reason I can think of that menthols produced more smoke is that maybe less was sticking to your lungs.

deleted...

When I smoke hookah I feel super drunk... I only do it every few months though.

If it's just tobacco you're smoking, and you're not drinking, you need to get a dictionary and look up "psychosomatic." It could be oxygen deprivation, but it's more likely that you feel something because you want to or expect to.

Well, as far as smoking only "while extremely under stress," as one poster mentioned, yeah, I do that...

I mean, I'm usually shy around girls. The girl that influenced me to take up smoking was someone I was seeing like every day, so I would smoke while around her, just to preoccupy myself with something else other than social anxiety, and it kinda worked. I mean, I couldn't even light the thing on the first try...

Anyway, I haven't seen her since last Saturday, and I'm tactfully trying to sever ties with her. My bank account takes a beating whenever she is around. At the same time, now I'm stuck with almost a whole pack of unused cigs that I have no desire to use at the moment.

well at least you have that car :thumbsup:

Well, that's some good news!

I don't actually have the car yet. She keeps luring me somehow, almost to the point of giving it back. I sure don't want to. I would rather get back on financial track.

It's funny. She'll ask me for money, and use that money- to go out with other guys! What th?!?!

I mean... They don't even have any money to their name. Why is she going out with them, but taking from me? Wow... I thought prestige counted for something in the world of romance...

Anyway, back on topic... I haven't smoked since I last saw her. It's hard to keep my teeth pearly white when I do that anyway. I was afraid I was getting addicted, but apparently not.

Congratulations, you're a doormat.

...and a well-used one at that. Most people step on and over a doormat. Me they actually wipe the crud on, if you know what I mean...

LOL just kidding, in a way. She finally spent some "quality" time with me this evening. I kept asking her if she is miserable. She just laughed. Anyway, today I smoked the whole rest of my Newports today to put myself at ease, and didn't get sick. That scares me because I know I should've, and everytime I chain it I swear, I feel weak at the knees... Maybe it's a placebo thing? My boss (in pharmacy) emphasized to me that "the tar has nowhere to go and so it just collects in the lungs." That got me skeptical for a moment or two......

Funny but true story....

In the 50's my uncle (my mother's brother) eloped.

My Grandmother almost had a nervous breakdown that the apple of her eye, her son, would run off and get married without having the huge Eastern European wedding. (I don't know what he was thinking.)

Anyhoo, my Grandmother by all accounts was losing it, so the family sent her to her doctor and HE said to her, "why not take up smoking, it'll help calm your nerves"

She was in her 40's at the time and smoked from that day forth till the day she died.

Small Rothman's Kingsize was her pack of choice I remember.

Another aside, has anyone seen that new TV series "Mad Men" about the world of advertising in the 50's I would guess. Maybe the 60's I dunno for sure. The one thing that is startling is how EVERYONE is smoking. Smoking is one of the predominant themes of the show. Everyone lights up all the time, in the office, at home, around the kids, when they are pregnant. And they all hold their cigarettes kind of wierd, like with an inverted hand sticking them out to be front and centre.

You're watching this show and you keep thinking, "man, I can't believe they used to smoke like that"

Then there's all the overt sexual harassment that is just sort of expected to be part of the office environment.

Great show by the way.....

Starting is easy. Quiting is hard.
Stay away from that sucker by all means necessary.

It drives me crazy when non-smokers say I should just quit like its no big deal. I've tried three times and I'm on my fourth time now. I'm drinking water constantly and chewing Wrigley's like nobody's business.

You're on the right track with the water - it helps flush your system. Therapy really helps.

I quit many times but finally for the last time in '89. Therapy was the missing ingredient since smoking is just another psychological addiction once you get past the first two weeks. Life is so much better and I really enjoy having the $1,500/year in my pocket for something else.

when I smoked (quit 10 yrs ago) I smoked 'regular' cigs unless I got sick with a cold / sore throat. Then I would switch to menthols because it was easier on the throat! When I was a kid we were told that menthols had fiberglass in them to give them the flavor! Another 'folklore' that was passed along was that black people smoke menthols exclusively.

"It drives me crazy when non-smokers say I should just quit like its no big deal. "

Varrybarry, nonsmokers today (most) are fucking crazy, and not just for that reason. You'll quit when you're ready, and when you're ready, it'll be relatively easy. I'm almost 6 months without a smoke. It's liberating, fun, and makes me appreciate not smoking.

I'll never consider myself a non-smoker though. You smoke 'em up and quit whenever you're good and ready. Piss as many non-smokers off as you can in the meantime. They'll yell and scream but as much as they wish it weren't true, you're smoking within 20 yards of them isn't taking time off of their lives.

No need to try. DO IT! "Peer acceptance" is the ONLY advantage in smoking and with such friends in that particular peer you'd be much better off changing lanes where the "peer pressure" is on NON-SMOKING.

Smoking is truely one of the most ridiculous of pass-times. No personal offence intended but anyone who smokes is an idiot beyond the messure of logic. I mean, smoking came from the lingering primitive tribes of human kind. You may just as well live in a cave - or up in the trees.