Do you smoke? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Massachusetts Street on November 17, 2010

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“No.”

— Rachel Arnold, general store employee, Valley Falls

“No.”

— Jason Stevens, math major, Lawrence

“Yes, maybe 12 cigarettes a day.”

— Zach Hillis, security guard, Winchester

“No.”

— Jonathan Robbins, neurobiology major,, Lawrence

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misterlee 3 years, 1 month ago

No, and I have no desire to smoke. I wish smokers could smell themselves. They might understand what the rest of us have to put up with. Live music venues are so much better now without smoking.

RoeDapple 3 years, 1 month ago

Congrats to you! One year anniversary in 75 days!

Flap Doodle 3 years, 1 month ago

Good for you, autie!

notajayhawk 3 years, 1 month ago

Congratulations, stick with it.

kernal 3 years, 1 month ago

Aw right , Autie! Yes, most definitely a "No".

riverdrifter 3 years, 1 month ago

Good on you, Autie. I quit when ciggie butts were $0.90/pack, however long ago that was.

RoeDapple 3 years, 1 month ago

$0.35/pack when I quit. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

grammaddy 3 years, 1 month ago

I started smoking when cigarettes and a gallon of gas were both $0.39. Haven't quit either one yet but I have cut back on the smokes. I'm down to a pack every 3 days now.

JayCat_67 3 years, 1 month ago

Keep going. Hope you can get it down to "none" real soon.

grammaddy 3 years, 1 month ago

Way to go Autie!!

LogicMan 3 years, 1 month ago

It's not logical to smoke anything, tobacco or otherwise. Nor to pollute the air that all you critters must breath.

Stuart Evans 3 years, 1 month ago

baking is great!

RoeDapple 3 years, 1 month ago

Quit a three pack/day habit in '71. Have finally lost the urge to light up.

RoeDapple 3 years, 1 month ago

Alt OTS:

"Do You Smoke After Sex?"

RoeDapple (anonymous) says… I don't know. I never looked.

somedude20 3 years, 1 month ago

would you like a smoke, I have an extra

notajayhawk 3 years, 1 month ago

When I was living in a dorm in the 70's, smoking was still allowed. I was sitting in the lounge studying one day, and the girl sitting next to me asked if I smoked. I held up the cigarette burning in my hand, and she said "No, I meant regular smoking." Great school, great dorm. From what I remember.

trinity 3 years, 1 month ago

only when i'm on fire. hah. friction can cause smoke.

nobody1793 3 years, 1 month ago

zombies are horrible, horrible people.

Flap Doodle 3 years, 1 month ago

Only in hookah bars.

phoggyjay 3 years, 1 month ago

Only cannabis.

Solomon 3 years, 1 month ago

Geezus, quit trying to blame someone else for your parents' (generation) for their own free choice.

I'm probably of their generation, or near it (born in the late 30s), and I was a smoker for 41 years, quitting a 3 pack a day habit in 1993. Despite the ads featuring doctors ("Not a cough in a carload") people knew there were health risks in smoking. I was told it would stunt my growth, it would ruin my "wind", etc. Nevertheless, I started smoking and kept it up for a long, long time.

Though I wish I had never smoked, I know better than to try to blame tobacco companies, advertising agencies, the army, or any other scapegoats for my own personal decisions.

kernal 3 years, 1 month ago

Ditto, Solomon. Shoot, I remember when doctors smoked in their offices and hospital rooms had ashtrays, unless oxygen was in use.

Cappy 3 years, 1 month ago

Quit September 29 2001 12:45 PM.

Nick Yoho 3 years, 1 month ago

I quit in the third grade.

somedude20 3 years, 1 month ago

I saw an elderly lady yesterday driving, smoking and talking on the cell phone...could have been a "Seconds from Disaster" episode. As for me, I stopped smoking for about 10 years until I was dating a girl (two and a hlf years ago) who smoked and that got me back into the swing. I have stopped for a few months since then but like it

whats_going_on 3 years, 1 month ago

no, disgusting.

The people who lived in my condo before me smoked, and even though I've done extensive cleaning, I still smell it everyday. It's my own fault for renting it I suppose, but I thought it would be okay after all the cleaning. Not so, it's so effing nasty...I seriously HATE the people who lived there before, nasty __'s.

twofrogs5846 3 years, 1 month ago

you shouldn't have moved in like you already stated . . . . why hate someone you don't even know?

wikkawikka 3 years, 1 month ago

We all make choices and have to live with them. Have you ever heard "hate the sin, not the sinner? Well the same applies here.

Perhaps you should try gallons of Febreeze, Monthly.

roscoepoet 3 years, 1 month ago

my doctor prescribed chantix, took it for six weeks and had some crazy lucid dreams & then the constipation side effect kicked in. can't believe they recommend you take it for six months. also, its incredibly expensive even with insurance, which I lost shortly after I quit smoking. all the money I'm saving means I can buy food:

oneyear by roscoepoet

Raymond Munoz 3 years, 1 month ago

Smoking is bad for your teeth and gums and is one of the primary causes of oral cancer. We've got free "stop smoking" literature here at the Douglas County Dental Clinic if anyone would like help with quitting!

Ricky_Vaughn 3 years, 1 month ago

Yes. Why do people smoke? Smoking is cool and everyone knows it.

jonas_opines 3 years, 1 month ago

This thread might need a Bill Hicks quote soon.

riverdrifter 3 years, 1 month ago

"They proved that if you quit smoking, it will prolong your life. What they haven't proved is that a prolonged life is a good thing. I haven't seen the stats on that yet."

-BH

kernal 3 years, 1 month ago

Besides gum disease, which causes your teeth to start shifting, smoking also strongly contributes to (and causes) hernias, heartburn and colon polyps.

ndmoderate 3 years, 1 month ago

Chantix worked for me, and for several other folks I know. Yeah, the side effects suck, and it's expensive, but it's completely worth it to be able to quit cigarettes for good! Good luck!

FireMarshall_Bill 3 years, 1 month ago

Smoking is dangerous kids...Let me show you something... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Zg9c...

Ricky_Vaughn 3 years, 1 month ago

Ah, In Living Color...that brings back some great memories!

liberallibrarian 3 years, 1 month ago

Quit 5 years ago. Never going back.

nut_case 3 years, 1 month ago

I'd probably put myself down for ~1/2 pack a week. Not because I actually smoke, but because my co-workers love to go outside, suck down a cig and gulp a cup of rancid black coffee, then get up in my face to discuss the daily minutiae.

geekin_topekan 3 years, 1 month ago

Every New Year's Eve I vow to start but I just never get around to it.

looza 3 years, 1 month ago

I smoke at poker!

sgtwolverine 3 years, 1 month ago

I'd smoke if my beard caught on fire. Otherwise...no.

Cait McKnelly 3 years, 1 month ago

I quit about seven months ago. Sorta. I don't smoke cigarettes but I use an e-cigarette. Nothing but water vapor comes out of my mouth. So have I kicked the nicotine habit? No. I still get my fix in another way. But at least I'm not getting the tar, carbon monoxide and other carcinogens that come with regular smoking. And it doesn't stink. The last doctor's appointment I had, my doctor said my lungs sounded a 100% better. Not to mention that electronic cigarettes are specifically excepted in the state smoking ban. That may change as research into nicotine's specific effects separate from all of the other junk in cigarettes continues. I don't know. I'd like to quit entirely, eventually. God knows I've tried. But in the meantime this is an acceptable compromise to me.

gphawk89 3 years, 1 month ago

My dad used to smoke cigars and as a kid I thought that was kinda cool. He noticed my interest. When I was about 8 or 9, he lit a cigarette, handed it to me, and told me to inhale deeply. I did, then of course spent a few minutes coughing and gagging and eventually threw up. I decided that smoking wasn't so cool after all.

Then when I was maybe 14 my grandfather, a pack-or-more-a-day smoker, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He quit cold turkey on that day (something I'll always be proud of him for doing) but by then it was too late. I spent the next 18 months watching the once-strong rock quarry worker whither away, eventually unable to speak above a whisper and then not at all, breathing through a tracheostomy tube and getting his nutrition through a GI tube. That experience guaranteed that I would never ever smoke.

Not trying to offend smokers, but my personal opinion is that anyone who does is a complete fool.

notajayhawk 3 years, 1 month ago

"Not trying to offend smokers, but my personal opinion is that anyone who does is a complete fool."

Kinda' wondering what you would have said if your intention had been to offend smokers ...

;)

notajayhawk 3 years, 1 month ago

Given the circumstances you described, do you think the picture on the pack would make any difference?

DGL 3 years, 1 month ago

"Do you smoke?" No, I'm just fat, have high stress, and don't have any purpose in life.

mr_right_wing 3 years, 1 month ago

My mom died 3 years ago from throat cancer caused by close to a lifetime of smoking.

Even in the end, she kept smoking, she was so miserable that she said it was the only pleasure left in life.

She had to be on a mixture of oxygen and helium to keep her throat open; and even with that she'd have to go to the emergency room about once a week (the 'heliox' worked most of the time, but not all.)

This isn't a 'poor me' post, this hopefully will be a post that might just wake up one smoker and move them to quit the sticks of death.

Congratulations to those of you who have quit. I've heard it said more than once that quitting smoking is every bit as difficult as going off heroine.

ndmoderate 3 years, 1 month ago

Today is day 50 of no cigarettes, and I smoked a pack to pack-and-a-half a day for 19 years. I did it with lots of support, LOTS of willpower, and Chantix. Even with the pills this has been the most difficult time of my life, but I can tell you that it's been great to have my sense of smell and taste back, and I don't wheeze anymore, and I have more money and time. And, hopefully my body can heal enough that I won't die a terrible death from smoking-related disease...although I suppose I deserve it, on some level. Kudos to all others on here who have quit recently and not-so-recently!