Who Smokes Anymore? I Guess A Lot...

[rokkerr]

I was surprised to see this graphic...

I thought smoking was a thing of the past...
I have kind of noticed more smokers in strip joints recently... especially cigars....

Do you smoke?
Shouldn't you quit for your health?

Just curious...

[WalterB]

Oh, come on. You knew this was coming:

After the first time Rokkerr and Vicky had sex, while they were just basking in the afterglow, Rokkerr rolled over and asked, "Do you smoke after sex?"

Vicky looked at him and replied, "I don't know. I never looked."

[WalterB]

i don't remember exactly, but I am sure I smoked 5 - 10 a day. Quit in 1985 using Nicorette gum. I smoked very low tar ciggies (Tareton, etc) for about 6 months, then quit in maybe a week using the gum. Only used about 1/2 a box. Woke up one morning and just knew I was done. Took the gum and ciggies to work, but didn't have either. After that, left everything home and I was done.

[Steinar]

I quit smoking in 1989. I think I smoked about 20 a day or so. None of my friends believed I could stop but I proved them wrong.
But I do enjoy a good cigar now and then though.

[WalterB]

I can't figure out how anyone can afford the habit these days. $3.50/pack for the cheap ones. Dang near $5.00 for the top brands. And they're buying them by the pack, which has to be around 50% more than the carton price. 3 cartons a month at the pack price? $135. And, if you're working at McDonald's, and just can't get ahead?

[CGYMike]

I bet our friend Handcock could address this topic with a great deal of expertise. If I'm not mistaken the numbers of smokers in North America is steadily going down, but the rest of the world is merrily smoking like crazy. ..numbers are in fact going up.

Our friends in the tobacco industry lost market share in North America but ramped up their advertising dollars elsewhere. From what I gather the industry has never been more profitable.

[viper23]

Stared smoking when I was 14 with my parent's consent (they both smoked). Continued until I was 21, at or a little more than a pack a day. Then the moment happened. Got so tired of paying so much for cigs that I researched rolling my own and started making my own. Beauty is, I was blending my own tobacco, no added chemicals. Cigarette companies actually add crap that makes the nicotine delivery more efficient, similar to the way crack cocaine enters the system. After about a year and a half of this, I was rolling fewer cigarettes until I finally realized it was a waste of my time and stopped.

Outside of the USA some countries, especially in Southeast Asia, have the tobacco distribution controlled by the government, which profits from the sales (revenue enhancement, haha). I am not surprised to see the numbers on the map, knowing that.

[stickyvicky]

That map is from 2007? Anyone have a more recent map?

[WalterB]

This is the best I could find. It's from 2014. Use the controls to move the map and zoom in. Then click on a country and it will give you a number. not as detailed as Rokkerr's map, but it's what I found.

http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/topic/cigar ... -globally/

[CGYMike]

From 4 out of 5 Doctors, to Lucy and Desi...hard to believe that cigarettes were peddled like oat bran back in the day

[stickyvicky]

This is the best I could find. It's from 2014. Use the controls to move the map and zoom in. Then click on a country and it will give you a number. not as detailed as Rokkerr's map, but it's what I found.

http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/topic/cigar ... -globally/

Russia and Asia are still the worst, wonder why that is?

[TheShaft]

Never got started...never will...

[PeterL22]

images.png (6.49 KiB) Viewed 111 times

[scottb]

In Wisconsin, they changed the law a few years ago making it illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants. Since a lot of people smoked when they drink at the bar and now they can't anymore there is a lot less smoking going on around here!!

[WalterB]

Yeah, Bars screamed bloody murder when the no smoking craze started, Lost business! No one will come here any more!!

Right, like people are gonna quit drinking, LOL

[CGYMike]

Our bars and restaurants, workplaces, basically any public place went "No Smoking" years ago...people rebelled at the beginning, but now its the norm to step outside, light up your face, and come back when you are done...people adapted...no big deal

[WalterB]

Same down here. People don't want to do something, so you simply force them. They have to do it, so they start doing it, and, before you know it, it's the norm, lol. There's always someone who will bitch about change. Ask me how I know

[Whitehat]

I started smoking when I was 14. When my daughter was born I quit cold turkey (tobacco not weed). I was tobacco free for a little over 20 years. When I turned 74 I decided "what the fuck" and went back to smoking a pipe. I decided that if it shortens my life it won't be by much, and I enjoy it.

[WalterB]

I quit in '86 or '87. when I was 43 or 44. I had been smoking a pack a day since about 19 (unfiltered Pall Mall, one of the strongest out there.). I switched to a very low tar and nicotine cigarette (Carlton, about 10% of the t&n of Pal Mall.) and smoked those for about 6 months. At first, I would smoke 2 or 3 at once, because they were so light. But in maybe 3 days I settled down and fell back to my pack a day routine. But now, I was taking in only 10% of the t&n I had been getting from Pal Mall.That actually allowed my body to clear itself out. But I couldn't make that final break.

So my Dr. prescribed Nicorette gum for me. I had read about it in Readers Digest. At that time it was still prescription. The article said it typically took people 4 or 5 boxes to stop. A box cost $20 and contained 96 pieces of gum. At that time $20 was reasonably expensive.

It took me near 2 weeks and about 1/2 of one box. I would take the gum and cigs with me. I had to have the cigs with me "just in case." But the gum was working. Finally, I woke up one morning and just "knew" that I didn't want a cigarette. I took the gum with me, but, for the first time ever, left the cigs at home. But that was it. I never had more gum or cigarettes.

And, I'm happy with that.

Weed? I"ll save that story for chapter 2.

[rokkerr]

I started smoking when I was 14. When my daughter was born I quit cold turkey (tobacco not weed). I was tobacco free for a little over 20 years. When I turned 74 I decided "what the fuck" and went back to smoking a pipe. I decided that if it shortens my life it won't be by much, and I enjoy it.

My grandmother smoked all her life until she was like 85 and then started getting sick. My mother was caregiving for her. She stopped her from smoking. She told me she regrets stopping the one thing that gave my grandmother some joy in life. If something gives you that much joy and it hasn't killed you yet, who is to say stop?