Smoking.

[shadowmoon]

What are your thoughts on smoking.?

 

I haven't had a cig for a few days, quit for years before, 5 years being the longest time.

I eventually get offered one and find myself smoking again.

Never been a heavy smoker 6 rollies a day would be about the most.

[CosmoGenesis]

DONT YOU KNOW YOUR SECOND HAND SMOKE IS KILLING MY NAN?

[Rachel Underhill]

I find it strange that the government did a clamp down on smoking a couple of years leading up tp the first lockdown, introducing chemical smoking instead. They must have made a fortune from smokers.  

[pi3141]

5 hours ago, Rachel Underhill said:

They must have made a fortune from smokers.  

 

Decades ago, cigarettes were cheap. People who smoked them could afford to. But it was damaging their health and adding a 'burden' to the NHS. So the politicians came up with the idea to put an extra tax on them to discourage people from smoking. The idea was if the cigarettes cost more, some people could no longer afford it and people that could afford it might think twice. 

 

So, decades have gone by and what has been the result. Cigarettes have got progressively more expensive. Every year the government adds a bit more to top up the tax.

 

The situation now is the government have assumed the position of drug dealers. Truth is, they are reliant on the income the cigarette tax brings to fund their little projects and every year they want a bit more. The tax is no longer about discouraging people, it is an income revenue and proved a reliable revenue so I bet you every penny I possess they rely on that income to fund other stuff. Hence the tax is no longer a means to discourage, if they wanted to do that then they could make cigarettes £50 a packet but they don't want to stop it dead because they want the income. This is just like a drug dealer dependent on the income to survive, its just the government don't actually produce it they just take a cut to allow its sale on their territory, they call it a tax but its not. Because if they wanted to they could ban it altogether, bit totalitarian I know but they ban Magic Mushrooms, Cannabis and all the other drugs so if they really wanted to save lives why not ban it outright? They don't want to stop it because the income is very handy so they drain every penny they can get out of it every year and tell us its for our own good.

 

The government are like drug dealers. Profiting off peoples addiction.

Edited August 7, 2021 by pi3141

[pi3141]

19 hours ago, shadowmoon said:

What are your thoughts on smoking.?

 

I am a smoker, would like to switch to Vaping but I just can't get on with it, makes me cough. I need to persevere with it apparently, turn down the heat, use weaker mix. I also smoke weed and again I would like to be Vaping that.

 

The Native American Indians would inhale smoke from Rosewood I think to help with chest issues, there's been a study that says 5 cigs a day reduces Heart disease. 

 

I personally think its a personal choice, I'm an anxious person and smoking helps me control that. I would love to reduce it to 5 or 6 a day that would be perfect. I envy people who can do that, social smoke or just smoke a few a day and take it or leave as they will. I have met a lot of individual thinkers who are smokers.

 

As for weed, well I get inspiration from it and super anxiety control, if I'm really anxious a joint straightens me out. I like Timothy Leary's theory that different drugs open different channels in the brain or rather activates circuits in the brain, I think it does, so does Juggling, and any form of determined practice, be it meditation or Yoga, if we train ourselves to focus and persevere and make sacrifices to attain a goal it helps us develop as human beings.  Smoking cigarettes relaxes people and that allows inspirational thoughts. I like it.

Edited August 7, 2021 by pi3141

[Ethel]

I am an ex smoker, but I slip up every so often and begin again, usually for a few weeks. It is the single hardest addiction to stop that there is, and I've had a few. I won't go into the details of how ending this addiction brought many suppressed feelings to the surface. 

 

It taps into something in particular, which the government know, and that's why they were created. It's the same with all addictions; smart phone, alcohol, porn, TV, gambling. Each of them taps into a particular thing which the person is missing. But where cigarettes are concerned it goes even deeper. The cigarette becomes a physical extension of the person, literally. The intake of smoke is like 'adding to' yourself, to replace lost aspects. Those who smoke do so to ameliorate emptiness and loneliness if you go deep enough. That's why so many people replace it with something else. 

 

Conveniently, the government have introduced what will eventually replace fags altogether; the electronic vaporizers, which, by the way, we will eventually find to be every bit as harmful as fags, if not more so. Remember the medical profession used to promote the benefits of cigarette smoking and even prescribe fags to patients.

 

Tobacco in it's raw form is relatively harmless; less so when the tobacco has been treated with hundreds of carcinogens. 

 

Yes, the government are drug dealers. By comparison, weed, acid and shrooms are relatively harmless when used responsibly, but they are illegal. Fags are far more damaging, and are legal. 

[Grumpy Owl]

2 hours ago, pi3141 said:

 

Decades ago, cigarettes were cheap. People who smoked them could afford to. But it was damaging their health and adding a 'burden' to the NHS. So the politicians came up with the idea to put an extra tax on them to discourage people from smoking. The idea was if the cigarettes cost more, some people could no longer afford it and people that could afford it might think twice. 

 

So, decades have gone by and what has been the result. Cigarettes have got progressively more expensive. Every year the government adds a bit more to top up the tax.

 

 

The cigarettes themselves must be dirt cheap to produce, as its always been a profitable industry for the tobacco manufacturers, who must also be saving a fortune now as they are not allowed to advertise their products.

 

And its always been a nice little earner for our Government, collecting their tax from us smokers. (This is on top of the VAT that applies also)

 

But they also shot themselves in the foot, because while they were encouraging people to give up smoking, the more smokers that quit, the less tax income they were receiving. That's the main reason for the annual tax rises on tobacco products, making them "less affordable" is just a nice consequence.

 

I'm a smoker myself, and have been for the last 25 years or so, thankfully I don't smoke as much as I used to, mainly as since moving into a new flat a few years ago, I effectively 'banned' myself from smoking indoors, but do have the luxury of a private garden where I can go and have a smoke.

 

I've travelled abroad a few times in the last few years (though obviously not at all since 2020!), and cigarettes are far cheaper in other European countries.

 

In 2017, I enjoyed a long weekend in Gibraltar, and picked up from a local tobacconist a sleeve of 200 Rothmans for just £18.50. Later that year, I visited the Greek island of Rhodes, and the local supermarket sold various sleeves of 200 cigs for between 45 and 70 euros.

 

Here in the UK, even the 'cheap' brands are nearly £10 for a single pack of 20. I'd say that our tobacco products are the most expensive in Europe, if not the world.

 

So it surprises me not to hear of 'illegal tobacco busts', where shops are importing cigarettes and tobacco products, and selling them cheap "under the counter".

 

How dare these people deprive our Government of their tax income?

 

I haven't been to a doctor or hospital in years, so I hardly consider myself a 'burden' on the NHS, considering the amount of extra tax I pay every year.

 

 

[4444444444]

Disgusting habit that does nothing for you.

 

Quit asap and start exercising.

[shadowmoon]

I am REALLY getting cravings for a smoke now.

 

[shadowmoon]

1 hour ago, Ethel said:

Yes, the government are drug dealers

 

The queen is the best-armed dealer in the world, fleets of warships,soldiers,planes..

[Grumpy Owl]

8 minutes ago, 4444444444 said:

Disgusting habit that does nothing for you.

 

Quit asap and start exercising.

 

Well that is your opinion and you're entitled to it.

 

As a long-term smoker now, my advice to anyone who hasn't tried this would of course be 'don't do it'.

[shadowmoon]

32 minutes ago, Grumpy Owl said:

 

The cigarettes themselves must be dirt cheap to produce, as its always been a profitable industry for the tobacco manufacturers, who must also be saving a fortune now as they are not allowed to advertise their products.

 

And its always been a nice little earner for our Government, collecting their tax from us smokers. (This is on top of the VAT that applies also)

 

But they also shot themselves in the foot, because while they were encouraging people to give up smoking, the more smokers that quit, the less tax income they were receiving. That's the main reason for the annual tax rises on tobacco products, making them "less affordable" is just a nice consequence.

 

I'm a smoker myself, and have been for the last 25 years or so, thankfully I don't smoke as much as I used to, mainly as since moving into a new flat a few years ago, I effectively 'banned' myself from smoking indoors, but do have the luxury of a private garden where I can go and have a smoke.

 

I've travelled abroad a few times in the last few years (though obviously not at all since 2020!), and cigarettes are far cheaper in other European countries.

 

In 2017, I enjoyed a long weekend in Gibraltar, and picked up from a local tobacconist a sleeve of 200 Rothmans for just £18.50. Later that year, I visited the Greek island of Rhodes, and the local supermarket sold various sleeves of 200 cigs for between 45 and 70 euros.

 

Here in the UK, even the 'cheap' brands are nearly £10 for a single pack of 20. I'd say that our tobacco products are the most expensive in Europe, if not the world.

 

So it surprises me not to hear of 'illegal tobacco busts', where shops are importing cigarettes and tobacco products, and selling them cheap "under the counter".

 

How dare these people deprive our Government of their tax income?

 

I haven't been to a doctor or hospital in years, so I hardly consider myself a 'burden' on the NHS, considering the amount of extra tax I pay every year.

 

 

I smoke(d) american spirit roling baccy for years now, its the only one I  have found that doesn't  have that sort of treacly sugary taste and is just pure tobacco,  even down to finding twigs in it occasionally and a packet lasted me about a month.

Packet cigs are crazily expensive. 

[Useyournous]

I don't but I don't judge smoking. My 92yr old parent has smoked like a kipper factory - forever!

[pi3141]

2 hours ago, shadowmoon said:

I smoke(d) american spirit roling baccy for years now, its the only one I  have found that doesn't  have that sort of treacly sugary taste and is just pure tobacco,  even down to finding twigs in it occasionally and a packet lasted me about a month.

Packet cigs are crazily expensive. 

 

Yes I smoke American Spirit too, no additives just pure tobacco, cleared up my chest pains, seems much better than normal tobacco.

[pi3141]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Owl said:

I haven't been to a doctor or hospital in years, so I hardly consider myself a 'burden' on the NHS, considering the amount of extra tax I pay every year.

 

I don't go to the doctors much so I don't consider myself a burden on the NHS but I accept the argument that smokers do cost thd NHS money so if the tax was purely used and measured against that cost I wouldn't mind but I bet the tax they raise doesn't all go to NHS and is partly used to fund pet projects.

[shadowmoon]

2 minutes ago, pi3141 said:

 

Yes I smoke American Spirit too, no additives just pure tobacco, cleared up my chest pains, seems much better than normal tobacco.

I scrounged a rollie off a mate a while back as I forgot to bring mine, it was some other brand and it was just so nasty tasting.

I've often wondered what the native American cancer rate is? They invented the habit but its never mentioned.. Personally I put it down to the additives put in the tobacco.

[pi3141]

49 minutes ago, shadowmoon said:

I've often wondered what the native American cancer rate is? They invented the habit but its never mentioned.. Personally I put it down to the additives put in the tobacco.

 

Not sure what the rate is but I read in a childrens book about the Indians that they used to eat Apricot kernels as a cure for Cancer.

 

Apricot kernels are high in vitamin B17 which is like a naturally forming Cyanide thats kills Cancer cells but doesn't harm normal cells.

[shadowmoon]

1 hour ago, pi3141 said:

 

Not sure what the rate is but I read in a childrens book about the Indians that they used to eat Apricot kernels as a cure for Cancer.

 

Apricot kernels are high in vitamin B17 which is like a naturally forming Cyanide thats kills Cancer cells but doesn't harm normal cells.

And I seem to remember reading these kernels were being banned from the public, more dirty tricks.

[shadowmoon]

14 hours ago, Useyournous said:

I don't but I don't judge smoking. My 92yr old parent has smoked like a kipper factory - forever!

My gran was ok until until on her doctors advice she stopped smoking aged 80, her health fell apart not long after. Course it could be coincidence.

?

[pi3141]

11 hours ago, shadowmoon said:

And I seem to remember reading these kernels were being banned from the public, more dirty tricks.

 

Yes they were, in the USA in the 1950's they banned the sale of Apricot kernels and you could only buy de-stoned Apricots.

[shadowmoon]

8 minutes ago, pi3141 said:

 

Yes they were, in the USA in the 1950's they banned the sale of Apricot kernels and you could only buy de-stoned Apricots.

Cheers, I half remembered it!

[TetraG]

On 8/7/2021 at 11:01 AM, Rachel Underhill said:

I find it strange that the government did a clamp down on smoking a couple of years leading up tp the first lockdown, introducing chemical smoking instead. They must have made a fortune from smokers.  

 

It was to prepare people to help them spread their germs even beyond conventional smoking. 

 

Because why else was it never stopped in public places during the Dumbdemic? 

[shabbirss]

nicotine increases alert levels.

and smoking itself feels like a 6-10 minute meditation session to me.

[Fluke]

Smoked since i was 13. Used to spend my lunch money £2.00 which would buy me 6 fags and towards the end 2 for a pound. There was always some guy who never smoked selling them for about a pound and making a killing. 

 

I have been ex smoker for over 2 years. If you can smoke in moderation and you enjoy it go for it i am not going to try and say otherwise because i don't want to be that guy. For me my health went down hill but i smoked like a trooper. I honestly wouldn't encourage it but like tea, having a cigarette was one of the few pleasures in my life. Now its cups of tea - chain drinking literally, and a vape. 

 

The thing is you can get these genetic freaks that smoke and live long and seem relatively healthy. But for me it isn't worth it. You are just setting yourself up for trouble. 

[shabbirss]

i have been finding that brands like marlboro red & beyond, rothmans red, camel double switch
have a very weird after taste and smell.
currently im smoking dunhill boost, the green one seems fine.

its odd, was wondering if anyone here experienced this too.