<![CDATA[Lighting Up - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> April will mark 10 years since I quit cold turkey, and haven't looked back.
Granted, I only smoked about 1/2 - 1 pack per day, but it was for 13 years. I didn't start to join the "Kool Kids", but to join the uncool kids - social rejects - just like myself, who didn't fit in with the social norms of american high school in the 80's.
I realize how John Hughes-ian that sounds, but that's my story.
Now, my husband? Totally addicted. He quit 5 years ago and would pick it up again tomorrow, but he knows I'd KILL him if he did.

sandu2342

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> For the record- my attempts thus far...
Nicotine Patch- 3 x- both worked the longest and most successfully
Chantix-Wellbutrin- meh- made me kinda want to off myself and gave me the barfs
Accupuncture- helped for a week, although i got to regular practitioner for neck pain.
Nicorette- tried about 10 years ago
Inhaler- off the market for me because I take meds.
Cold Turkey- made it 2 months
The problem for me is that I smoke mainly to ward off a rather spectacular battle with depression. I cannot keep on a happy balance without the cigs (yet).

The funny thing is, I volunteer as an addicition counselor. How sad is that?

TheUptightMidwesterner

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> My brother quit smoking during boot camp. Said it worked great for three months 'til he got sent to Iraq. Now I call him Chain.

dirty_di

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Oof. I started smoking cigarettes when a good friend of mine died. Nice and self-destructive way to deal. But I was living in Argentina at the time where everyone was smoking, and packs were 5 pesos, which is like $1.50. Then I came back to the US where it's not as socially acceptable and where a pack costs like $8. Pft. Who can afford that shit? I dropped that habit right away and I'm never going back.

Kate

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I wonder if those studies saying healthy people cost more to the healthcare system are taking into account the contributions in taxes and productivity of those who live longer. And I wonder if they are counting the externalities of second-hand smoke - non-smokers who live with smokers get more smoking-related diseases which also cost money.

Dalinae

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> those aren't cigarettes she's smoking...they're american spirits...this guy named patchouli told me the difference one day....or was it two days.

mentalmagnate

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @Courtney: *puff puff*

sonikka

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @Magz: That was a delight to read. Many thanks.

Word to the rolling. who the fuck can afford tobacco anymore?

sonikka

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> My dad started smoking at 9 (!) and quit for good at 48, hasn't smoked since. It wasnt easy though, very painful, but it's possible people! Don't give up the fight!

AddObviousErrors

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: True.

LipstickLibrarian

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Ooooh!! A smoky post! I'm *drag* one who genuinely LOVES smoking, only quit when preggers and nursing, feels like it's intrinsic to my identity and gets super depressed every time I briefly quit, had no problem cutting out booze, pot, meat, rec drugs, junk food, tv, whatever from my life, yet a couple hours without a cig make me cry, then maim. It's who I am. Sad, whatevs, I know, "I'll quit when I'm ready" or when my daughter gets bummed about or interested in smoking, excuses, excuses, but the two cents: It's a slow, suicidal RIGHT. Get off my back. (Gov, not necessarily jezzies. You guys seem tolerant enough.)
Note: My friend had a creepy Chantix experience (fucked up dreams about her dead mom or harm befalling her kid every night...) Beware of drugs to replace drugs.
My mom quit after 40 yrs. with hypnosis.
To each her own!

Tiny-Moves

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Ah, the great debate! Yes children, us smokers are a dying breed (please don't read that as a bad joke). I have smoked for 20 years and, somehow, seemed to manage not to become addicted. My dr. says is could be funny body chemistry, which knowing me would be apropo. I enjoy my Dunhills the way I enjoy a glass of wine. And I don't like having a glass of wine EVERY darned day of my life. I've gone for days, weeks and months without a ciggie and never have a craving. I've been this way for 26 years.
The French tend to get many things right, and I think that "all things in moderation" is one of them!

Gretchen

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: Have you tried acupuncture? I know it might sound "out there" to some people, but I promise you it works!

PhillyLass

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Sheesh. P.S.
Did I mention that LIFE is going to kill at least a billion people by the 21st century,
With or WITHOUT Government Interference??

Magz

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Day-Umm. For the 1st time ever, I skimmed most of these comments since it's an Idiot's Game to try & back either side of this argument.

For the record, Nicotine is addicting.
Also for the record.. No One ever forced that 1st hit O Nic into your system.

Follow the Money, Hunnies: and ask yourselves who ever told you that only the Kool Gang smokes Ciggies/Butts/Nubs/Cancer Sticks etc, eh?

Shuuuurrrre.. you can
Beat heroin! Whup that cocaine or crank Jones! Give up fattening foods/caffeinated drinks, sugar habits or alcoholism, or every other addiction that plagues folks in out Modern World easier then you can break the Habit of Commercial nicotine.
"I wonder... why is this, huh?"

And why, exactly.. while we keep stressing over just how it's killing off EVERYone and Endangering the Innocents, and needs to be LEGALLY sanctioned & controlled (For the good of the masses, of course)
Probably most of you can think of at least one old doofus who's smoked for 50 yrs and aint died from it yet.

That said, it's become a Popular Public Crusade, brought to you by many of the same fine folks who addicted us in the first place. FTM, Follow the Money.

Brought to you by a 50+ yr ole broad, long term Smoker, now savvy enough to grow, process, and roll her own reasonably clean tobacco products.

Magz

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @goodcheapfun: Because yer in America, son!

I know this argument has been trotted out, but I don't want to pay for SUV smoke choking the planet (but not my lungs, they're already fried), but I pay for roads in my taxes. I don't drive, why should I pay for something that kills 1.2 million people worldwide each year. La la la, NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY.

FemiNuisance

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> "On average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. Smokers and obese people tended to have more heart disease than the healthy people.

"Cancer incidence, except for lung cancer, was the same in all three groups. Obese people had the most diabetes, and healthy people had the most strokes. Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on.

"The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000"

So smokers actually cost less than the obese or even thin non-smokers. Because they die sooner, but still.
[news.yahoo.com]

camisado

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I'm one of those people who just could not quit no matter what. Even when I did manage to quit for a year or so, I invariably went back. Chantix has been the least painful w/r/t withdrawal, but it gives me nutty dreams, and I suspect that it's making me a little depressed. I also can't take it on an empty stomach without vomiting. But I'll take an increased dose of antidepressants and those wacky, wacky sex dreams over smoking. My biggest regret ever is picking up smoking in the first place.

JNOV

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @FemiNuisance: With my insurance premiums the way they are I don't give a fuck what people think of me (and I'm not the original poster). If I make good choices why the fuck should I literally have to pay for your shitty ones?

goodcheapfun

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @sjct: Smokers don't pay for their own health care (their premiums won't cut it). It's the rest of us that pay ever HIGHER premiums to cover these costs.

goodcheapfun

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Cigarettes will not kill 1 billion people in the 21st century. 1 billion people will kill themselves in the 21st century, slowly, and probably enjoy doing it.

judgingnora

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I only know, in a personal way, about 75 people whose death would upset me. If a billion people I don't know die after living a life full of experiences, only one of which was smoking, who am I to feel sorry for them, to invade their memory with my tears. Who indeed?

gaythings

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I have a pretty strong aversion to smoke smell, so that's what kept me from smoking after my first pack of ciggarettes right after my 18th birthday. If you could smoke without having your fingers, nose and clothes smell like smoke though....oh mama.

Jadoremonchat

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> the only thing I would like to add, as a child of a long time smoker, is that people's bad choices do affect the ones that love them. Regardless of what it costs for healthcare for non-smokers vs. smokers, at least if my father, the non-smoker, gets alzheimers, it is through no fault of his own. On the other hand, if my mother, the smoker who refuses to quit, gets lung cancer, that is her fault.
I think that's why people are so quick to denigrate smoking, b/c unlike obesity, it is easy to pinpoint the cause of the damage.(not that I'm saying obesity or any other condition should get a free pass. Medical care is expensive, and I think there is definite truth to the argument that healthy people cost more money in the end.)

fumbler

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Well, I've done alot of shit in my life including giving birth 2 times without any drugs, and I'll tell you what. Quitting smoking was the single most difficult thing I ever did. Worth it? D'UH!! Of course.

That said, oh, man...... even though it's been 11 years, there are times when I get a wiff of that first puff of a freshly lit ciggy, I would LOVE to smoke just one. Only one.......

That's why I promised myself I'd start smoking again when I reached 70.

MissLadyJane

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I quit a year and a half ago, just decided I was done and stopped. I've had one or two since then and they tasted horrible. Not saying it's easy for everyone, just that it was for me.

My chain-smoking step-father quit using laser therapy, which works like acupuncture only with (obviously) lasers instead of needles. He used to smoke in between courses at dinner, would leave movies to light up, and smoked IN THE SHOWER. He hasn't had a cig in over 10 years.

DebbieDoesDamage

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @laos: Someone might have added on to this already but I heard about a study in Britain(?) that said healthy people end up costing more in health care because they live longer. I'm personally not a smoker but we do all gotta diea somehow, is all I'm saying. I dont like to be around smokers but everyone has ther vice. The only problem I have with smoking is the second hand smoke. But you can't tell ppl no tot do something just cause its bad for them. You'd havve to campaign against damn near every thing Americans do.

Boogie Down in London Town

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @FemiNuisance: I don't get who WOULD blow smoke into someone's face, stranger or not. It's just incredibly rude and nasty, in my opinion.

I quit three weeks ago, after 7 pack-a-day years, and in all honesty I'm still waiting for it to get hard. The first two days I was a bit jittery. Then I started recognizing the moments when I'd usually light up (when I'm waiting for someone/something, when I'm bored, when I'm having a beer, while walking to class etc.), and would just tell myself, "yes, this is when you'd usually light up. But you don't need to." And believe it or not, that works 90% of the time. I think I may have become addicted to the amount self-control I can muster up. It also helps that I've allowed myself to gain a few pounds. I'll work them off when I'm a bit further along in the quitting process.

And my skin is looking SO PRETTY!

haguenite

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @JessaFields: Word. I am a hardcore smoker but I make a Point to not blow my smoke in strangers faces, move when children are present, and politely ask non-smokers in my company of they mind if I smoke in their presence when we are outside. Smokers get a bad rap for many reasons--- it's stinky and obtrusive--- and I totally respect that. At the same time, I expect people to not legislate my right to make good or bad decisions. I repect you, you respect me. Deal?

FemiNuisance

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @LipstickLibrarian: i'm not arguing that we should outlaw or tax vice i'm arguing that we should reduce public spending.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @probationer: "smokers are losers" as a national campaign?
namecalling is an ugly thing and not something I would want my children to emulate.

satori

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Vanity seems to be to be enough of a reason to not smoke. Think of what it does to your skin. I went to a high school reunion and every woman that I saw there who smoked (who had been smoking since high school) looked, at a minimum, ten years older than everybody else. Unless you are super vigilant about skin care, I believe that before and after pictures of smokers in fashion magazines would do it for many women.

I think the good news is that for many women I know who quit(that I didn't go to high school with), their skin was luminous in no time.

oohlala13

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: Public money also funds the care of people who drink themselves to death and eat themselves into oblivion. In reality, the healthcare costs over a lifetime for those who die young are LOWER than for those that live a long and healthy life devoid of tobacco, alcohol, and trans fats. So, even if end-of-life care is a fixed cost, the cost of regular care is dramatically reduced for those that suffer vices which end their lives prematurely. They admittedly have less time to pay toward the cost of their own care, but their total cost of care is lower, so being so Judgy McJudgerson on the smokers is probably a wee bit unnecessary.

And I'm NOT a smoker, by the way.

pssshwhatever

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I started smoking when I was 12 and classified myself as a "casual smoker" for years. About 3 years ago, I realized that just because I do not smoke during work does not make me a casual smoker, even if I was only smoking ~2 packs a week. Nevertheless, till this past December, I did not have the gumption to quit. I at first did cold turkey pretty successfully, but after the Oprah show the other week, I finally bought some Nicorette which seems to be ebbing the 'Battle of the Bulge'. Still, this is the hardest thing I have ever done. Harder than giving up any of my favorite party drugs of my youth.

ae38

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: I work for the highest federally funded hospital in the country. I get insanely awesome health insurance for pennies. I smoke two packs a day.

And I won't pay a dime for my chemo.

*deep inhale*

MaggieMGill

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: " . . . it only matters what people do when someone else covers the cost." You could make the same argument for dozens of other health hazards. I don't drive; why should I have to cover the cost of thousands' asthma treatments?

Should we outlaw cars? Fast food? Alcohol? Childbirth?

LipstickLibrarian

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> No government can legislate someone away from his/her risky habit, hobby, or legal occupation. The cost-to-others economic argument is your basic slippery slope.

Two things will work in reducing the harm form smoking--convicing kids that smokers are losers and just don't start (very hard, thanks to the tobacco companies), and restricting the places where one may smoke.

And, smokers, governments snatching away folks their rights to do what they wish where they wish happens every day. It's as democratic as Athens. I'd love to drive as fast as I wish and let luck or Darwin determine who gets through intersections alive, but the government won't let me.

probationer

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @distractedbyshinyobjects: Exactly. Smoke all you want, but don't blow that shit in my face. Or your kid's face. Or my kid's face (if I had a kid).

JessaFields

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: If you haven't, try hypnosis (with someone who comes highly recommended). It can be amazingly effective.

ossicle

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Darwinism at work. He always wins in the end!

ossicle

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> The main thing about smoking which makes it different from many behaviors that people want to legislate is that it poses a very real health risk to all people, smokers and non-smokers alike, in close proximity to a smoking person. Personally I think the only part of the smoking habit that should be legislated is the 'where it is allowed', but I tend to be really strict about this. I would be really happy if we could outlaw smoking inside private residences that house minor children as a form of child abuse. On the one hand, I know that kind of invasion of privacy is a really slippery slope, but on the other - kids don't have a choice where they live, and if their home is full of secondhand smoke, they need some advocacy.

distractedbyshinyobjects

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I was a pack-a-day for about three years and I quit with the help of this wonderful book. Buy it, love it, carry it around.

Luxbot

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> what i'm driving at is that it only matters what people do when someone else covers the cost. if everyone paid their own way then no one should have any right to deny anyone their dangerous vices. it's only an issue because it's public money funding the care and it will always be an issue as long as there is public money funding the care.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> i smoked for a few years, and as a nervous person, ah it was delicious. i've quit now, about two months.

i believe that then number of smokers has gone down because of all the public smoking restrictions. I went overseas recently and actually became nauseous in all restaurants, cinemas, bars that smoking. if you are kicked out all the time, you smoke less. believe me, its made a HUGE difference. it also makes the distinction between people smoking for leisure, and the real addiction, as people are forced separate themselves from friends, go outside and light one up.

crazylazy

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: Both my parents smoked for over 30 years, tried many times to quit, etc. I don't wanna sound like I'm advertising for drug companies or anything, but they both successfully quit using Chantix. I knoe, prolly not for everyone...

sarabadara

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I'm a social smoker. I don't really have a desire to quit right now, so I know it would probably be futile of me to try since I'm not committed to it(and then be disappointed by my failed effort a couple years down the road when I really do want to quit). It's hard for me to conceive of the health issues associated with smoking because none of them have affected me so far. I'm a distance runner, never short of breath, no nagging cough, etc...I know that if I had some of these problems I'd be much more likely to quit, but right now it just feels like a lark - something that I do when I'm drinking and damaging my body that way, too.

Scoregasm

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> As a former 3-pack a day smoker (affectionately known as Nicotina by my good friends), is it too harsh for me to say "Survival of the fittest?" I mean, really, we all know it is like crack, what else can you say? If you choose to smoke, then so be it. More power to you. As a society, we'll let you make that choice as long as you don't expect us to die with you.

Disclaimers: I started lighting up when I was 15, didn't finally make the quit until 29. I'm asthmatic. I still dream about smoking A LOT, and I love the vicarious--and immense--pleasure I get from those dreams. And I also know that I can never, ever, smoke another cigarette again, because I can never, EVER, quit again. And if I make it past 80, I'm lighting up on my birthday and every day until my end. That is all.

knitterly

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: Yes, of course it is. But my point was that once smoking eventually falls out of favour (and it will - that battle has been lost), something will crop up to replace it as the percieved number one public health threat. And then what? Do we deny healthcare to fat people? to people genetically predisposed to be at a higher risk for breast cancer? If you limit health services to only the healthiest (lifestyle and genetics-wise), you're gonna be living in a pretty shitty world.

laos

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Your attention, please! The library is closing in two minutes!

God, I can't wait to spark up a Springwater.

LipstickLibrarian

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: O, that's weird. I swear I was writing my reply when you used 55 and 90 as age examples.

sjct

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: Okay, I disagree with you, but we are friends again.

FemiNuisance

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I was enticed to smoke because, when I was 15, my cool as anything boyfriend smoked.

Gotta love peer pressure.

We smokers are a dying breed.

KimberleeJ

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: I don't like generalities because as soon as you say something like you did, you are wrong. But, let's say the average smoker might get cancer after 40 years of addiction. During those four decades they pay 15% of their paycheck plus wherever additional to insurance. Surely, that adds up to the cost of their end term treatments. Then, they die.

I have a personal example: My mother smoked for 55 years, got brain cancer and died. The total bill was around $150K. She worked most of her life and therefore put approximately $210K into Social Security, $350K into the insurance risk pool and my father still had to make $20K in co-pays. So how did she impact your pocketbook exactly?

On the other hand, my father is still alive and quite healthy at 90 years of age. He has been drawing on his SS benefits for 25 years already. I suspect he is costing society more than my mother did.

sjct

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @laos: ahhhhhmen

covergirlofdoom

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> the bush administration sunk SCHIP, a programme that would have paid for millions of uninsured kids to have access to healthcare for TEN years, all because it would have taxed TOBACCO. grrrrrr.....

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @laos: if end of life care is a fixed cost who is better paying for that care given a periodic insurance payment, someone that dies at 55 or someone that dies at 90?

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @girlinterrupted: Did you ever try Welbutrin, and how does Chantix compare to it? I ask because for me, Welbutrin, while it reduces the urge to smoke and makes cigarettes taste funny, it greatly increases my urge to curl up in a ball and cry uncontrollably.

dotcomdork

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I think that the main thing that people miss when they talk about the "increased costs" to the healthcare system brought on by smokers is that EVERYBODY DIES. End-of-life care is damn expensive, and it doesn't matter if it's a 55-year old pack-a-dayer coughing up his last lung, or a 90-year old nonsmoking teetotaler slowly succumbing to alzheimers. It's really easy to isolate certain behaviours and talk about the burden they place on public health care (obesity, driving a car, mountaineering), but trying to progressively prohibit behaviours through laws (as we appear to be wont to do) just leads to nightmares. And it doesn't change the fact that we'll all die in a hospital bed, anyway! So leave the smokers alone. And the fatties, too!

laos

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @girlinterrupted:
Chantix has some risk..I was on it and totally went off my rocker- totally negated my urge to smoke, but that was becasue I was barfing, and it made my anti-sads not work AT ALL>

TheUptightMidwesterner

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Isn't smoking Darwinism at work?

veryrestricted

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: My uncle almost died of pnemonia before he quit. His doctor told him if he'd been a non-smoker he wouldn't have ended up in the hospital at all. He stopped a 30 year long pack a day habbit. His daughter was scared into quitting for two days and then started again. Her attitude is "fuck it, I'm going to die of something, I might as well enjoy a cigarette while I wait to get hit by a bus."

BlondeGrlz is having a BlondeBoyz!

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I quit over 9 months ago using Chantix. If you can afford it, I highly recommend it. I have moments still where I crave a ciggie, but not hacking up black loogies or coughing like a 90-year-old emphysema patient is worth it.

My mom also quit using Chantix. She smoked half a pack a day for 30 years; I smoked a pack a day for 8. It can be done!! Be strong, ladies!!! And check out this website: [www.chantix.com]

girlinterrupted

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> 46.6 million people in the USA did not have medical insurance in 2005. In 2004 44.5 million people in the USA smoked according the CDC. Smokers in the US continue to smoke, even when they pay their own medical bills. Smoking is more addictive than heroin. Addiction isn't influenced by a medical bill.

foofer

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I was kind of a social smoker but never had the nicomonkey on my back, knock on wood. If I have a few ciggies in a week and get pissed off about something and then WANT one, I know that is the ciggie not to smoke.

Now I only smoke when drunk or in a particular mood.

Not too useful if you've been smoking since you were 14 or whatever, I know. Many of my friends and exes smoke- you guys have my sympathies.

Inkymonkey

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @Elevendy: I KNOW! Building God's Army one creepy child at a time!

StupidFace

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @FemiNuisance: flame war... punny

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: I think it just has to be the right time. The hubs and I quit cold turkey 8 years ago, but it was tough, lots of minor relapses, but we had hit our bottom, like with alcoholics.
In New Orleans, New Years Eve, 2000. Fun times, but ouch!
Good Luck!!

allora

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @sjct: do you think all smokers are contributing to their health insurance or state sponsored insurance proportionally to the amount of increased risk their smoking presents?

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @dotcomdork: i know. that's why i had the disclaimer first. it seems so logical to someone who's not addicted... :(

titania1285

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @StupidFace: Oh, fuck! I was just telling my cousin about them. Hate!

@JessicaLovejoy: My favorite old boyfriend had the most heavenly light smoke breath. And he was the best. kisser. ever! Ooh, nostalgia.

Elevendy has a sequin for an eye

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Price will never truly influence smokers. I've often said when cigarettes reach $X per pack, I'll quit, but I never do. I know its bad; I've cut down to three a day or so, but quitting entirely, for sustained periods of time is really hard for me because I genuinely enjoy smoking the way some people enjoy drinking or other recreational substances. I'll also add that smoking as an appetite suppressant is quite effective. I quit over winter break and wanted to eat everything in sight.

BoredPhDiva

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @warmaiden: A huge part of it habitual. The only time I would smoke was in the car, as I have an hour commute each way. I would get sooooo damn bored. It was the car, Red Bulls/coffee and loud dance music that would trigger me.

Archetype

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @titania1285: It's not that easy when you're addicted to something.

@TheUptightMidwesterner: It's hard as hell but you can do it! It's all about making a plan, getting the support you need (books, friends, nicotine gum or whatever) and believing you can do it.

dotcomdork

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: You're trying, that's something. My father has been smoking for 30-odd years. My mother and I bug him but I empathize with how hard it must be to quit.

Bullshit on the higher taxes. That's not going to stop addicts from smoking.

I never understood the smoking as an appetite suppressant. I smoked for a few years and would often get nauseous, then I would need to eat something to make it go away. I never lost weight while smoking.

Archetype

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: There is nothing so high and friggin mighty than a non-smoker. Not trying to start a flame-war here, but cool the condescention. *Puff, flick*

FemiNuisance

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> i'm really naive. i really am. so don't get angry. and withdrawel sucks, i'm sure...but if you don't want to smoke...just don't buy them?

titania1285

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> Whatever, we're suffering from overpopulation anyway, aren't we?

Also, I smoked 2 packs a day for 5 years, and quit. I think it's a mental thing - like weight. If you want to change habits, you do. If you don't, nothing changes.

That's right. I'm Judgy McJudgerson today. But it's okay, you can judge me back, I'm fat *wink*

warmaiden

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> tmmkitten: if you get could a pack of malboros for a dollar, I'd bet that everyone would smoke here too.

vanka

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @StupidFace: Sorry, DuggAr.

I would like to point out that they have a game entitled 'Name that Duggar'. All their children have names that start with J, so I bet with all EIGHTEEN MILLION OF THEM it would get pretty tricky!

StupidFace

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: You could be like the good Mrs. Dugger!

[www.duggarfamily.com]

StupidFace

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: Okay, I have to ask: Do you think ALL smokers are uninsured, don't pay FICA out of their paychecks or what exactly?

sjct

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> But, have the tax increases here in the US really contributed to less smoking?

Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> I am a smoker who has run out of options. I have tried every thing there is to quit. I hate it, but love it at the same time.
In March I am going back to the patches for the 9th time.
Staying pregnant-forever and ever- is the one way I know I won't light up.

TheUptightMidwesterner

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> @tetracycloide: Let's not go there, please?

LipstickLibrarian

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> The first guy I was ever really really into smoked, so now I love the taste of smoky mouth, unlike many non-smokers.

YOU NEEDED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT ME.

Jessica Hussein Lovejoy: BRB, getting Rahm'ed

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> tobacco use would not even be an issue if smokers actually paid for their own medical bills.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> in russia, EVERYBODY smokes. though facilitating interaction seems like a weird reason to get cancer. "lets get it together, we can share oxygen tanks!!!!"

tmmkitten

]]> <![CDATA[Lighting Up]]> but someone has to support the economy $5 at a time!

hydeordie

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