Quote from Rappa Z :

go get some of each brand and smoke 'em all at once. like here
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/11011/smoker.jpg

What an idiot. illepall

Quote from zeugnimod :

What an idiot. illepall

yes.. He should use a proper blowtorch to light them with,
instead of those crappy papers.

I quit yesterday... 36 hours without a smoke, oh well... they say the first three years are the hardest, eh?

I really do want to quit. My health is gradually turning to shit, and I've promised myself some new techie bits after three months. Will keep ewes posted

Quote from mrodgers :

Don't smoke, but do use snuff (smokeless tobacco, dip, chew, just incase you know it by different name). I'm curious if snuff is as common in other countries as it is in the US.

Same as Kev, I want to quit, but I'm too weak.

Snuff (Snus) is very common in sweden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus

Quote from dontsimon :

Health risks not that much of a concern? ...blah blah blah...

• Half of all regular smokers will eventually die from their addiction, most before their natural time.
  
• On average, smokers lose about 15 years off their lives.
  
• The global death rate from tobacco use will rise to about 10 million per year within 30 to 40 years.
  
• About 500 million people alive today will eventually die from tobacco use if current smoking patterns hold

...blah blah blah...

Half of all regular smokers will eventually die from their addiction, most before their natural time. Yeah, If they live really boring lives.

On average, smokers lose about 15 years off their lives. So? those are the end years, and I for one don't wanna go out of this world in a diaper, not remembering who I am.

The global death rate from tobacco use will rise to about 10 million per year within 30 to 40 years. wanna tell us what the rate of death from car crashes, food poisioning and slipping in bath tubs are gonna be in that time?

About 500 million people alive today will eventually die from tobacco use if current smoking patterns hold. are the other smokers... Immortal? You mean to say that by smoking I have a roughly 50-50 chance of being a GOD?

Yeah I smoke. It's a bad habit and I don't recommend it.

Oh well, gotta go (cough cough...HACK!) and remember
the next time you light up, your actually saving yourselves from the dangers of 2nd hand smoke and you probably look a little cool too

You can look as cool as you like; the taste of a smokers kiss to a non smoker is very nearly the most rancid thing I've ever tasted.
Remember that next time you come on to someone who doesn't smoke.

Quite a few of you have said we do more dangerous things every day than smoke, but how many of them are addictive and how many will slowly kill you or your girlfriend / wife & children?

As for dying in a diaper, if you are unforunate enough to get lung cancer, how about dying laid up in bed being too weak to even breathe, let alone eat or get up to go to the toilet because your body is slowly suffocating? Even worse, how about contributing to one of your loved ones having to die like that?
Hmmm, yeah, not my idea of cool or fun.

I saw that first hand 2 years ago as lung cancer took hold of my grandad, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but to actively take a risk of not only killing yourself, but others as well in such a horrific way is beyond stupid to me.

Sorry for having a rant, but having had this touch me personally, it is something I feel pretty strongly about.

*edit*

Oh, a small comment on the weed... lots of people start on weed but eventually want a bigger buzz so advance on to pills. Then the pills arent enough so they get on to the coke or smack. I'm not saying everyone works out that way, but quite a few of the people I've known to smoke weed get bored of it eventually and move on to harder stuff. Just something to think about.

Everytime a smoker buys several packs of ciggies, a needy demo racer could've used that money to get LFS!

Support the cause, don't smoke

Quote from Anarchi-H :

Oh, a small comment on the weed... lots of people start on weed but eventually want a bigger buzz so advance on to pills. Then the pills arent enough so they get on to the coke or smack.

I know that cannabis is NOT a so-called "gateway drug", because i've smoked the stuff for years, and not once have i ever felt the need to move onto something stronger.

If anything is a gateway onto stronger stuff, its the Prohibition of cannabis.

Because it is STILL illegal, people have to visit a dealer. Usually, a dealer doesnt only sell cannabis, so if someones tempted to try something else, the dealer will have it.

Remove the dodgy dealers, and you remove the temptation (If you have it, which i do not.) to try other stuff.

Just IMO.

[Edited to add] Lots of people start off drinking only alcopops, yet move onto the stronger stuff like vodka, absynth ect, do you suggest we make alcohol illegal aswell?

i bet beer is more of a gateway drug than weed. beer is deffinatly more fatal. I bet no one here can name a case where weed caused a death. You guys ever heard of prohibition? thats sorta whats going on with weed. because weed is illegal and stores cant sell it... Criminals supply the product. and criminals dont have to follow the same rules as legal businesses. which =violence, murder etc. more money to people willing to kill and do whatever to keep control of territory...

Of course weed isnt fatal, but niether is it safe, it is clear that it can cause severe mental health issues.

Dan,

Quote from Gabkicks :

i bet beer is more of a gateway drug than weed. beer is deffinatly more fatal. I bet no one here can name a case where weed caused a death.

how can you say that beer is more of a gateway drug? what does beer(alcohol) lead to? Alcohol is alcohol. The effects don't change from beer or wine, or scotch...etc. Weed leads into narcotics, opiates, hallucinogens..etc..which all have very different effects and symptoms.

i also, personally, know of two fatalities caused by weed. Both were car accidents(i'm a paramedic and responded to both of them). Granted, alcohol does cause more fatalities per year, BUT, just because something doesn't make national headlines, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I won't even get started on the fact of drug deals gone wrong and shootings/stabbings over...you guessed it...weed.

Quote from dave4002000 :

Weed leads into narcotics, opiates, hallucinogens..etc..

No it doesnt, as i've just proved in my post above. I know of many other cannabis smokers who would also not touch anything else.

Quote from dave4002000 :

i also, personally, know of two fatalities caused by weed.

It wasnt the weed that killed them, it was the sudden stop after the crash, the weed might have had a part in it, but it wasnt the ultimate cause.

Quote from dave4002000 :

Alcohol is alcohol. The effects don't change from beer or wine, or scotch...etc.

So, why is your choice of mind altering drug any better then my choice of mind altering drug? They are both drugs, so please, in your opinion, tell me why one is ok to be legal, yet another is not?

Quote from dave4002000 :

Granted, alcohol does cause more fatalities per year, BUT, just because something doesn't make national headlines, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Not going to mention all the pissed up people, fighting ect that happens on a fri/sat night? Alcohol causes far more aggro then cannabis ever has done. I mean really, when was the last time you seen a couple of stoners having a fist fight or argueing in the street, or singing at the top of their lungs at 3 am in the morning?....

Cannabis is as natural as natural can be, its normal. People have smoked it and eaten it for thousands of years. Long before a law was passed against its useage.

I wont even get into the medicinal usage of cannabis, which has worked for lots of people who are suffering various conditions.

Quote from L(Oo)ney :

No it doesnt, as i've just proved in my post above. I know of many other cannabis smokers who would also not touch anything else.

If that is truely what you believe...then i am afraid that you are very naive. You might know of a few people who wouldn't...but there are many more out there that will. Someone didn't just conjure up the name "gateway drug" one night because they felt like it.

Quote from L(Oo)ney :

It wasnt the weed that killed them, it was the sudden stop after the crash, the weed might have had a part in it, but it wasnt the ultimate cause. The fatalities were caused by the person choosing to drive after having a smoke, not the cannabis itself.

So then every alcohol fatality where the person died for anything other than alcohol poisoning is totally out of this debate.

So now considering that over 95% of alcohol related deaths are not from the alcohol directly....there really isn't that much difference between directly related fatalites or either weed or alcohol.

Quote from dave4002000 :

Someone didn't just conjure up the name "gateway drug" one night because they felt like it.

Have you smoked cannabis? Did it instantly make you wanna go out and purchase a £20 wrap of heroin off your local dealer? Because it never has for me, or anyone else i know that smokes cannabis.

The only gateway to other drugs, is the person choosing to take those drugs. If you dont want to do other stuff, dont. Simple really.

(if you want to skip this tiresome tirade, just read looneys comments further up)

Simply saying that weed leads to hard drugs is greatly simplifying the argument.I believe it is an position most often held by politicians that are opposed to legalization.It isn't so much that you criminalize a large group of people (at least not here, I imagine possesion of cannabis is punished much more severely in the states and elsewhere), but that you force all these people to consort with shady dealers of highly questionable character.I've met a few of them while I smoked myself, and I did not much enjoy the environments I came in contact with in those situations.Conservatives will most likely say that is a great deterrent, but it just doesnt work that way.People are gonna get their grass, even if they have to briefly socialize with some rather unpleasant personalities.This is where the potential for hard drug abuse increases greatly, because these people will often have other 'products' available, and like good merchants, well they want to sell it, to you!

:Eyecrazy: anecdote alert :Eyecrazy:
A part of Copenhagen is called Christiania.For many years this place was the center of cannabis market here.Hard drugs was forbidden out there (something they enforced with their own sort of jungle-law). It was a street in this closed off part of the city, where street merchants would openly sell cannabis - in effect it was legalized, the cops pretty much had an unofficial agreement with the inhabitants and the dealers (I suppose) to not raid the place, and the police knew it was in their own best interest to centralize the cannabis market in Copenhagen.Well, that was it was like until a few years ago, when our new hardline government decided to put a stop to it.Now the cannabis market is heavily decentralized with hundreds of little 'hash-clubs' opening all over the city, and I imagine hundreds of local dealers on top of that.The hash-clubs often become centers of all sorts of criminal activity, from drugs ( duh!) to stolen goods, weapons asf.I don't think I need to stress what I think about this development.

Are politicians generally more stupid than us normal people? well..yes damnit, I am starting to believe they are.

To close off..I'm not on a crusade to whitewash cannabis.There's a reason I stopped smoking, and I believe long term abuse can be very damaging to some people.However I do know people who have smoked daily for 10+ years, and they are for all intents and purposes completely normal people, with normal jobs and normal lives.

Quote from bo-kristiansen :

http://www.st.dk/sw567.asp


...too many. :tired:

If they were the only cigarettes you could buy in the UK NOBODY would smoke! I mean, who'd buy a cigarette called Cecil?

Just to clarify, I said nothing of my opinion of the legality of anything here. I couldn't care less as to the legal status of weed, but IMO all public smoking of anything should be banned. That way, if you want to kill yourself with tobacco / weed / whatever, that is your call. At least you won't be inflicting it on others involuntarily.

As for "knowing" that cannabis is not a gateway drug; as someone said, you are truly naive if you believe that you KNOW that.
I can personally name 7 people off the top of my head that have started on weed and gone on to harder stuff versus 4 that have just stuck with weed.

Just because your social group hasn't gone on to harder stuff, doesn't mean everyone is like that.

Ok, this thread started in Febuary and almost ONE THIRD
of people that voted are smokers...yes I know
that those numbers dont really mean anything
as most non-smokers probably didn't even look at this thread.

As we are almost celebrating Novembre
and drwawing closer to a new year let's see
who's got the will to quit.

The point to this post is obviously try to help people quit this antisocial, discusting habbit.your thoughts please.
Who's in?

I have smoked once...15 years ago. Didn't find it fun or any other way good. So that one smoke was first and last for me.

Sadly over half of my co-workers smoke. Even if they use special room for that...they stink like hell after smoking

And what's worst about smoking? When you see nice girl...and then notice smoke in hand :banghead:

I had my 1st cigarette when I was 9 or 10, smoked daily when I got to 13 and finally quit 7 weeks ago at the age of 38. I do still get the urge for one now and again, but theres no way I'm going back to smoking them, they cost a fortune,make you stink and bad for your health, thats more than enough reasons to quit

ive never smoked, will never want to smoke either. The only smoking i do is passively from my mum (nothing much i can do as she smoke 20-30 a day which isnt half as much as she used to smoke). but smoking is horrible and costs a fortune...

I smoked for about 6 years. Preferred Camels, but rolled my own with Top or Bugler almost as often (so much cheaper, and fun in a way). Even smoked pipe tobacco for a few months here and there (Captain Black ftw). I quit two years, 10 months, and 24 days ago though Pretty much all my friends and everyone I work with smokes, which made it *extremely* difficult to quit, but once I found myself telling enough people "nothx bro I quit" it started to become easier because I wasn't bumming smokes and drags from people. I still smoked a cigar every now and then when I went golfing with my dad, but he passed away a couple months ago (not smoking related, though he was a 30+ year smoker) so I don't see myself doing that anytime soon. It's nice being able to give my friends shit about it. Haven't been able to get anyone else to quit though, as many times as people say they're going to ^.^ I'm pretty sure it's true about the physical addiction only lasting a few days and the rest being all head trips though. After a few days, as long as I disassociated myself from smoking (i.e. don't go outside when everyone else does, and such) it wasn't so bad. It's just when you start to think about it that it gets bad.

EDIT:
Finished reading the thread. Wanted to note that THC is indeed quite effective by ingestion. It's been quite some time since I've used "illegal" drugs, but I can definitely say that the most intense high I've ever experienced from cannabis has been from eating brownies, not from smoking. I know several people who would also attest to the same thing. As for other hallucinogenic drugs, I've done my share and have had experiences both wonderful and fondly remembered as well as scary ones, whereas I know others that have tried mushrooms only once and had horribly frightening, nearly psychotic episodes.

Currently, I drink 2-3 cups of coffee just about every day, more so out of habit than actually consciously thinking something like, "I'm tired I need some coffee to wake up." I often buy a six or twelve pack of expensive beer on paydays, which usually lasts me a week or two of having a beer or two every couple nights after work. I almost always drink whenever I hang out with friends playing music or frisbee golf or whatever. It's tradition. Plus all my friends are alcoholics. Lol not really. It's just one of those things I guess.

dont smoke YEAH !!!

I'm glad somebody reopened this thread, otherwise I would most certainly have missed it!

A few great points have been raised, but here is my story!...
I tried my first ciggy at about 8 or 9...used to nick them from my Mum and smoke them up on top of our shed (my hidey-hole!)..by the time I was 14 I was on 15-20 a day.
At 21 I was hospitalised for the SECOND time with Bronchal Pneumonia; first time was a reaction to anaesthetic during an appendix operation at 15...
I sufffer acute bronchitis EVERY winter, and lose time at work because of it.
My 71 yr old mother is permanantly attached to an oxygen tube due to emphysema.
At 24 I was getting through about an ounce of hash a week, and at 28 I was seeing off the best part of 2 bottles of Bacardi a day.

I am now 51, I cant get out of bed without a coughing fit to kickstart my lungs, but have knocked the dope and the booze on the head..still like a drink now and then, but never to excess (mainly because of the job, been driving professionally for 20 years or so!)

I STILL smoke about 20-25 a day, but mostly roll-ups (Old Holborn).

What would I pay for an EASY way to quit? well, my left testicle is something I would willingly give!
I have tried and tried and tried...everthing from nicorette gum and patches, acupuncture, hypnosis, just about everything!
After major throat surgery about 6 years ago, I was out on the balcony at the hospital having a crafty drag within minutes of coming round after the operation.
I must have SOME willpower, because giving up the booze and the weed was pretty easy, but for some reason, I just can't quit the cigs!

Just as a footnote, have you (the smokers) ever noticed that the people who shout the loudest on the anti-smoking soapboxes are those that managed to give up? I feel that it is only an egotrip for them, sort of saying...LOOK AT ME, I'm really clever!!!, _BUT_ it is ALSO them trying to remind themselves that they have given up...I'll bet 80% at least of ex-smokers really get the craving from time to time, and some find it harder to resist, so they have to rant and rave as an outlet to their craving, otherwise they could quite easily slip back into it!

I just hope that any body who HASN'T started yet will read this and think again before taking that first drag...the ONLY sure way to stop is to never start in the first place!

after i read that i wont be smoking thanks m8