tobacco

[mcmurray]

Prices have skyrocketed over the last month for cigarettes here Down Under.

 

Tell me about it!

 

Twin packs of PJ went up from $22 to $34. One pack would last me a day. Smoking roll your own now, one pack including papers and filters is $28 and lasts me for about 8 days.

[DeVeeWee]

I cross fingers Blackie!

[retrosurfer1959]

used to smoke Marlboro's in the box and Camels and chewed Redman plug but gave it up 30 years ago for two good reasons watched my grandfather die of emphysema and married a beautiful woman who was deathly alergic to smoke couldn't be around smoke. So it was worth it to stop for her and I missed the whole smoking is next to leprosy and that you can't smoke in bars or anything indoors basically.

 

I still miss it sometimes and smoke cigars every once in a while but rare.

[EVOL!]

Used to smoke jazz cigarettes.

 

Wait, that's not a brand, is it?

[cabba2203]

nobody said weed yet?

[Bowdiddley]

nobody said weed yet?

 

Weed isn't Tobacco is it?

[milod]

I seriously wish at times people would - or could - put aside some personal feelings on tobacco and consider where current culture and politics are taking its taxation, etc., and recognize that other "legal" products are increasingly likely to have similar arguments made about them.

 

The legal precedent makes it that much easier...

 

Whether one figures smoking is "fine," or "obscene," the precedent allows all kinds of opportunity for such things that then easily allow destruction of an industry. Today we look at the US "Prohibition" as ludicrous, eh? Consider how many companies lost everything and the effect on the grain market.

 

Don't say almost any product, or ingredient in a product, can't be targeted. As I heard on the TV this morning, any substance regardless how benign can be toxic. Then one gets a media campaign going, a substance is determined to be too dangerous and... it becomes politically popular to ban or tax it and voila!

 

m

[Riverside]

Smoked for 25 years.

 

Smoked well. I liked it a lot.

 

If someone said I had the big C with only a few weeks/months to go, I'd start again.

 

Its got to the point where one can't (won't) smoke in the house, in the car, and it's even difficult to even just take a walk in the park - not allowed.

 

Smarts has nothing to do with it - folks who don't hating on folks who do is just ignant.

 

Oh well.

 

I hear people say that they smoked for a few weeks back in (take your pick) and then after they quit, they tried one a few years later and "it was nasty!"... All I can say is that while they may have smoked, they didn't smoke well...

 

I have no doubt that if I had but a single cigarette now, the next stop would be to pick up a carton. I liked it a lot.

 

(Remembering my old man, who smoked in grocery stores, hospitals, and anywhere else he darn well felt like it.) BTW, he did not die from a smoking related illness...

 

Cripes.

 

Never mind.

[ShredAstaire]

I'd just rather not have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get in or out of a building....thasall.

 

Also - i just watched "Thank You For Smoking".....decent movie...looks like a damn tough industry to work in!!

[Riverside]

I'd just rather not have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get in or out of a building....thasall.

 

Don't blame you at all. I'm not a big fan of bad smells, and I think that anyone who doesn't understand that is just a bad guy.

 

Someone who sparks up in the way of folks who would rather not is probably not someone I'd like to be with.

 

But smoking in and of itself is not a cause for hatred. Any more than is the eating of bacon, or downing a few beers, or riding a motorcycle.

 

Folks who don't will never get it.

[Big Bill]

I smoked for over twenty five years and I quit in 2007. I swear cigarettes are as addictive as crack. It's been 3.5 years since I smoked last and I still crave a smoke once in awhile, especially when somebody pisses me off.

[dROK83]

I use to smoke when i was 13 and i smoked these uh...indian cig's.

It was real tobacco and it had no chemicals in it so it wasnt as bad.

I quit cause it was just stupid and tobacco it self also has its badness.

 

i think what you're talking about are Bidi Cigarettes, they are handrolled and from India (unless you meant Native American "Indians"), supposedly they are better for you cause they are all natural, but who knows.

 

Personally, I don't see what the reason is for smoking cigarettes, I mean I've done it and all it's ever done is made me light headed. Atleast with weed you get high. If something is gonna kill me slowly, I atleast want to get something out of it.

[zigzag]

m

 

Taxing and banning are obviously two different things.

 

I believe that it is not the government's responsibility to protect us from ourselves, but I suppose it makes sense to try to protect us from other people. Most smokers try not to burden other people with their smoke. I smoked for around 35 years and quit. I didn't care then, but it sure is nice now to be able to walk into a restaurant and not have to smell cigarettes. I can't see where the health issues associated with smoking are costing the tax payers anything, though I suppose a legitimate argument could be made that my insurance cost more to pay the price for health care to smokers.

 

I know we pay too many taxes as it is, but I personally don't have a problem with sin taxes. The government has not made smoking illegal- just smoking in public. I know that you and libertarians tend to see the implications and possible extensions and precedents of making certain laws, legitimately so in most cases, but I'm thinking and hoping that politicians do not forget what happened with prohibition.

 

In the case of tobacco companies, I've lived in North Carolina and Virginia most of my life, and I've seen first hand what the near death of the tobacco industry can do. Luckily, the tobacco companies were smart enough to diversify, and today remain pretty strong. Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds are still pretty strong stocks to have in a portfolio. And since a very high percentage of Asians smoke, American tobacco companies are still reaping the benefits of those markets.

[Riverside]

...I've done it and all it's ever done is made me light headed. Atleast with weed you get high. If something is gonna kill me slowly' date=' I atleast want to get something out of it.[/quote']

 

Just drive to work - or take a shower.

 

What's so objectionable with getting light-headed?

[Big Bill]

Why do some of you feel the need to turn the simplest of topics into a political discussion which is not welcome within the Gibson Forums? Isn't the rules clear enough for you?

[dROK83]

Riverside, to each his own. If someone wants to smoke cigarettes, go right ahead. It's just not for me.

 

And not sure what you meant with "Just drive to work - or take a shower", but driving to work gets me to work, and taking a shower makes me not smell, so those are both very useful.

[Riverside]

Riverside' date=' to each his own. If someone wants to smoke cigarettes, go right ahead. It's just not for me.

 

And not sure what you meant with "Just drive to work - or take a shower", but driving to work gets me to work, and taking a shower makes me not smell, so those are both very useful.[/quote']

 

To each his own, indeed.

 

Everything has its own risks, outward appearance, etc.

 

We all do what we do for our own reasons. What we "get" from those actions is very obviously "worth it" - or we wouldn't do it.

 

That's my point - and only that.

[LPguitarman]

Never did, never will. 'nuff said

[zigzag]

We all do what we do for our own reasons. What we "get" from those actions is very obviously "worth it" - or we wouldn't do it.

 

Most addicts, if given the choice, would quit their addictions if quitting was easy. Of course, if quitting was easy, we wouldn't have addictions.

[ShredAstaire]

Its a vicious cycle...arrrgh!!!!

[Riverside]

Most addicts' date=' if given the choice, would quit their addictions if quitting was easy. Of course, if quitting was easy, we wouldn't have addictions.

[/quote']

 

There are many things to which we are all "addicted" that may have bad consequences.

 

Just sayin'.

[RichCI]

I wish it was as simple as "to each his own." Nothing pisses me off more than somebody I've never met in my life or is nothing more than a casual acquaintance telling me that I should quit or that smoking is bad for me. "Oh really, Captain Obvious? I must have missed the warning that covers up an entire side of the box!" More times than not it's a middle aged to older woman with a big fat *** who's going to die from a heart attack due to overeating and lack of exercise. I wonder how they'd react if I told they shouldn't eat so many damned Twinkies because their heart is going to explode.

[Riverside]

I wish it was as simple as "to each his own." Nothing pisses me off more than somebody I've never met in my life or is nothing more than a casual acquaintance telling me that I should quit or that smoking is bad for me. "Oh really' date=' Captain Obvious? I must have missed the warning that covers up an entire side of the box!" More times than not it's a middle aged to older woman with a big fat *** who's going to die from a heart attack due to overeating and lack of exercise. I wonder how they'd react if I told they shouldn't eat so many damned Twinkies because their heart is going to explode.[/quote']

 

Kinda what I was driving at.

[Big Bill]

It's very difficult to quit smoking. It must have taken me a 100 attempts to quit back in 2007, I still crave a Marlboro Lite. My life may take a turn where I start smoking again. It's wise never to start.

[Riverside]

...It's wise never to start.

 

No argument there.

 

But there may be some wisdom for those who were smart enough (not to smoke) in understanding that they may have problems of their own...

 

I'll take what I've caused for myself' date=' but it really pisses me off off to hear some fat bastard pontificate about how a friend or co-worker is/was to blame for (whatever) caused an illness or death as if they themselves are perfect in their own life choices.

 

People do what they do, and they get what they get. There's no room for the holier-than-thou perspective in my opinion.

 

Ever know anyone who died in a car wreck? Was it [b']to be expected[/b] because they were so injudicious as to ride in a car?