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[AugustWest]

I don't get why Canada, the UK, and other countries whose economies aren't as bound to tobacco don't just ban them outright instead of futzing around with giant warnings. The US will never do that because tobacco is a money crop and it would be expensive to convert all the farms to something useful. But what's stopping countries that don't actually grow the stuff? Vice taxes, I'm guessing.

Why not?  Because prohibition doesn't work.  Didn't work for alcohol, doesn't work for marijuana, doesn't work for cocaine, doesn't work for meth, doesn't work for heroine.  Won't work for tobacco.

[theinevitable]

I think it is time people admit that cigarettes are awesome and the only reason everybody doesn't smoke them is because of health, which is a valid reason, I guess.

I mean, a lot of people also think that cigarettes smell bad. I think they smell awesome (at least, some kinds do), but I don't smoke because of Health and Social Ostracism.

[jaydub]

Some cigs smell good, as do good cigars and pipe tobacco.  To say otherwise is pretty silly (although as with many things, tastes differ).  Stale smoke, on the other hand, is a pretty wretched stench.  I've never gotten into a smoker's car and gone "mmmmm".  Let alone sniffing my jacket the morning after visiting a bar.

Edit:  I think I'm dating myself here - California banned smoking in bars in 1998.  I don't think I've been in an honest-to-god bar in the interim.

[Arachno-capitalist]

We built a balcony off the club room just for the smokers because of that. You want to hear bitching? Listen to 70 year old guys having to go out in the winter for another lung dart after a beer.

Me, I twitch when I pop into a restaurant out of state that has smoke/no smoke sections because I've forgotten the stale odor that creeps in everywhere.

I was just about to ask if the law applied in your Elk club. In NJ, its illegal smoke in an indoor public place, unless that place is New Jersey's biggest cash cow - Casinos and Racetracks, then suddenly the government doesnt care who or what gets second hand smoke.

[side_show]

Vice taxes, I'm guessing.

Basically, yes.

Also, plenty of Aboriginal folks here are all about their "traditional" rights in regard to tobacco - which conveniently includes selling it for profit, making money off allowing smoking at their gambling facilitates in spite of it being illegal in all non-reserve public places.  I wish these bands would own up and admit that there is a fairly blatant difference between traditional, spiritual uses for tobacco and selling it to people/allowing people to use it in a way that damages their wellbeing.  There is a big gaping difference between traditional rights and greed, and if we as a group are asking the government to live up to their moral obligation to fulfill treaty agreements, there's also a responsibility on our side to act morally on this issue too, I think.  Granted, if these bands stop these practices, where the hell would they get the money to survive... it's tricky.

[Doc]

I don't smoke but I wouldn't want to see cigarettes made illegal, it's just the kind of thing that seems needless. People want to smoke let 'em but they should be fully educated about the risks involved.
Smoking in bars and public buildings has been illegal over here for a few years now and it just doesn't feel the same coming home not smelling of smoke.
Not saying it's worse mind you, just different.

[Drygioni]

There is nothing sadder to me than when in the shop we've sold out of a smoking customer's favourite brand. There's a look of desperation in their face and craning of the neck in hopeful searching, and when they realise they'll have to satisfy their cravings somewhere else it's terrible. I've had abuse, people asking to come behind the desk and search themselves, buying a different brand and complaining it's not good enough.. lordy.

Not to tar everyone with the same brush. Most smokers we get with their brand in stock are relatively convenient, moderately polite customers (they are always very quick) who always have the note ready before the actual purchase, which is nice. And there are many who are happy to look somewhere else or choose a different brand when we've sold out.

And yes, the UK warnings do rock. SMOKING KILLS. SMOKING SERIOUSLY HARMS CHILDREN. SMOKING MAKES YOUR DICK GO FLOPPY etc.

(If you just wanted to read a till person's view on smoking, stop reading here)

Now, this is all just personal, but I hate smoking. A lot of that is due to the way it's viewed by most of my age group, and family death/illnesses potentially caused by it.

Teenage fads will always be around, but one which is both harmful and very difficult to drop... why the hell do people with developing bodies do it? I've seen so many of my friends who were potential athletes have to give up physical activity due to effects of smoking, people failing at school due to skipping entire lessons so as not to miss their hourly fag, not being able to buy cars/save for university/pay for the bus to school due to a 20 a day habit...

And even worse is the way people defend it. But I'm sure no-one here needs to be patronised by me going further.

I do not know of anyone on this forum who is not an intelligent, likeable human being, and if they smoke I view them no differently. I hope it's clear that it's not smokers I hate, just smoking.

[linnea]

It is really weird how some people just get hooked and others don't care about smoking. My twin sister and I are supposedly identical, but there's a good chance we're the type III twin (polar body twinning). Anyway, it's kind of weird how we have starkly different responses to smoking. We both smoked heavily in high school, but I've quit and never really looked back, but she has continued to smoke. She and our mom both love(d) smoking, but our mom has been smoke-free for over a decade to my knowledge and my sister continues to smoke. Our mom had to have $20,000 worth of periodontal surgery (gums) to repair some of the damage that smoking left. Mom & sister also drink coffee like mad. My dad and I, by contrast, can hardly ever drink caffeine and although we smoked briefly in our youth, we really don't have much desire for tobacco. I drink tea in the morning and the occasional soda (I'm trying really hard to quit because I'm sure that aspartame, Splenda, and their ilk are all terrible for you).

I understand that cigarettes are a vice like any other, and I don't care if adults choose to smoke. However, smoking is a dealbreaker for me and I won't date anyone who smokes. It does strike me as a little unfair to pass a sin tax on tobacco, though - that means that an unduly large burden would be placed on poorer folks, who are the majority of smokers. Some argue that it's an incentive to quit, but a dyed-in-the-wool, take-no-prisoners smoker is going to just spend less on food or their kids' clothes in order to buy their carton of smokes. They're going to buy them even if they are $6 a pack.

[Doc]

Judy: I'm with you on the inexplicability of smoking. I've got no major hang ups with smokers and though it used to affect my asthma something terrible when I was a kid these days I don't really mind if someone is smoking near me. But when I see (and saw when I was that age) these fuck*ng 14, 15 year old chicks smoking like they are all that just perplexes me.
Though it does make a kind of sense since the only attraction of smoking (as far as I can see) is an image thing, the only reason I've ever had an urge to smoke was because I figured I could look pretty damn cool doing that thing where you inhale and blow the smoke out your nostrils.

[side_show]

I hate the smell of cigarettes, more so the horrible stench of a smoker's clothing, hair, car, home, etc when they're not smoking.  So disgusting, pervasive and trashy.  Most of the smokers I know seem to have no idea that they smell like sour death, and that's the really disturbing part.  Do their brains edit out the stale smoke smell, or are their noses so fried from all the smoking that they really don't smell it?  Bleh!

I love the smell of certain types of pipe tobacco though.  Why is it that pipe smoke doesn't seem to linger and stink up everything else?

[Doc]

Maybe it's because the modern world makes it more difficult to smoke 20 pipes a day?

[side_show]

Yeah, but I've spent time in the home of a few pipe smokers in my day, and their houses don't stink, where as cigarette smokers houses do...  I think maybe most pipe smokers don't smoke near as much?  Or maybe pipe tobacco is less acrid for whatever reason?

[pmcd9]

Why is it that pipe smoke doesn't seem to linger and stink up everything else?

A lot of it has to do with pipe tobacco being more natural than cigarette tobacco.

I've never smoked, but being around smokers never really bothered me until recently.  Just this week I paid a visit to a friend, three people all smoking.  I had to get out of there after 15 minutes.

[linnea]

Yeah, but I've spent time in the home of a few pipe smokers in my day, and their houses don't stink, where as cigarette smokers houses do...  I think maybe most pipe smokers don't smoke near as much?  Or maybe pipe tobacco is less acrid for whatever reason?

I think that pipe tobacco smoke smells sweeter (I have several perfumes that are based upon unsmoked tobacco, such as Serge Lutens' Fumerie Turque), but I still don't like smoke. Cigar smoke is teh nasty, and is ten million times worse than being stung by Marlboro Lights.

[AlohaDawg]

Yeah, but I've spent time in the home of a few pipe smokers in my day, and their houses don't stink, where as cigarette smokers houses do...  I think maybe most pipe smokers don't smoke near as much?  Or maybe pipe tobacco is less acrid for whatever reason?

Also, pipe smokers rarely chain 'em; there's a lot to packing and lighting the pipe, and keeping it going. It's less likely a pipe smoker will walk around with a pipe, or cook or do other activities with the pipe in their mouth. Most pipe smokers I've ever seen sit when smoking; or maybe at a party stand and converse.

Cigarette smokers, on the other hand, cut the grass, drive, fix the car, etc. All while smoking.

Pipe smoking is a conscious habit involving a certain amount of ritual in order to smoke. Cigarette smoking is an unconscious habit that involves getting one out and lighting it.

I think pipe smokers are more likely to smoke in one room of the house whereas cigarette smokers go from room to room, smoking while doing other things. I don't know if you <could> smoke  20 to 60 pipes a day, but I have known 3 pack a day smokers.

I love the smell of pipe smoke. I used to smoke cigarettes but now the smell is nauseating.