Same here. So you're not alone in this.

Edit: Damn spelling.

- I'm not crazy, I'm a car. And if you don't believe me, you can get out and walk home. -
*** The Titan flies like a cow ***

@zlo

I assume that you'll be hung over when you see this. Hope I don't give you a headache with this post.

Where I live, the mayor recently put a ban on smoking in ANY enclosed public space. Smoking already has been banned from bars, restaurants, places of work and places open to the public (theaters, malls, stores, etc.). Smoking is permitted only in designated smoking areas.

In the USA those warnings on cigarette packs have been required for well over three decades now. The message used has changed over that time and the most recent regulation requires a variety of different warnings, about preganancy, cardiovascular disease, stroke, pulmonary disease, and cancers, etc. I think that potency message is another one as well.

So, this is a very long winded way to welcome you to the club.

PS. I used to smoke up to three packs of Camel filter cigarettes a day. I quit cold turkey a long time ago. It was very rough going for the first three months but after that, I finally had kicked the habit. Luckily, I quit before the "No Smoking" rules got really tough where I live and before the price of a pack of cigarettes went through the roof (currently about $7/pack in NYC).

uck! i hate going into places where people are smoking, whenever i see that, i feel like saying,"excuse me, but people are trying to breathe here!!"


this is my world; it goes round and round and round

@ zlo i hate those ciggy packets as well but that is why i use a stainless steel cigarette box now only problem is it should have a health warning as ive sat down with it in my hip pocket once too often and it hurts, boy does it hurt

luckily for me I smoke roll-ups, and carry my tobacco around in a small tin, so no health warnings for me

However Indy, you think that US cigarettes are expensive?!...its £4.50-£5 a pack in england, and its going up pretty fast every year. I'll give it 5 years and you'd be lucky if you get change from $20 a pack over here.

I've tried a couple of times to quit...but obviously I didn't do a very good job of it. Last time I managed to quit for 8 months using nicotine patches...unfortunately though I got addicted to the patches!! (they don't warn you about that on the adverts now do they?!!)

My doctor recently offered me Zyban, and I'm seriously considering it. Biggest problem I have though is that my missus smokes at home, so until she quits I don't have much chance of being successful....and she doesn't want to quit yet.

Hmmm...or maybe thats just cognitive dissonance...aah who knows...

@Grom,

You both smoke? That's a tough situation. Neither of you will be able to quit unless the other one does at the same time, as you say.

Well, you know the drill and I'm sure your wife does as well. Good luck on trying and hope you guys succeed. Having been there, I've got to say that I felt so much better (felt so much more healthy) after I'd succeeded.... but I did put on about 20 lbs. in those first three months. But that is to be expected and it has nothing to do with eating more. It's what your body no longer has to do for you after you quit.

The warnings are global. Soon you'll only be able to smoke in Amsterdam, and death-squads will patrol the streets looking for smokers!!!
Either that, or they'll just tax it to death...

-OFFICIAL AGENT OF THE FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA-

Those warnings now have to cover a third of the face of the packet in the UK. Last I heard they were considering putting pictures of smoke damaged lungs on the packets to deter people even more. The rises in price haven't been that bad lately, when I started working at a newsagent about 4 years ago the price for a pack of 20 B&H or Silk Cut was £4.19, by the time I left recently it was £4.39, a less than 5% rise in price over 4 years on a commodity that needs to be taxed isn't that bad.

The labels also have a finaceal reason too. This is to curb there liability of being sued for giving you cancer, and other health problems. We have people even sueing McDonalds for making them fat and not telling them it was unheathy.

Finalday

Habaq Mot / Aspazomai Thanatos / Capere Obitus... /Keith Green\ (1953-1983)

@Fd

That McDonalds bit is really something innit? Oddly, the Golden Arches seem to think that they need to do something about the point of those law suits. I hear that they will stop "Super Sizing" in a few months.

The thing about that decision, for me, is that it is as if there actually may be some valid truth to what those law suits are saying.

P.S. To all of those who think that these law suits are so stupid they would never hold up in court, check back on the history of the tobacco lawsuits in this country. In the beginning, they were mocked and belittled. Then, when all of the different States attorneys general got into the act and sued the tobacco companies for the aggravated costs of state healthcare precipitated by tobacco smoker's ailments, the rotten deeds of the tobacco companies came out into the light of day:

The fact that they KNEW they were selling an addictive slow acting poison product, that they KNEW they had to influence the statistic takers and medical recorders to prevent the ever growing medical evidence from becoming overwhelming, that they KNEW they had to get to the young ones early to assure a continuing flow of new "replacement" smokers as the older smokers died, expectedly from expected causes, etc., etc., etc.



Edited by - Indy11 on 3/5/2004 10:14:27 AM

I quit over a yearago, used the patch, but then I was rather light anyways at 10
or so a day, already cut down from a pack a day. Best way to cut down is to
eliminate auto-reflex light-ups by making it a little harder to grab a cig.
I used a cig case, with fire some other pocket. No more auto-pilot light-ups.
Second thing was no more indoor or car smoke, only outside in the fresh air.

I didn't mind all the restrictions, but I firmly believe some bars ought to be
able to allow it. (Cigar bars, etc.) Nobody HAS to go in there, free choice.

on the rare occasion I that actually buy fags at shop prices (cos i get me thousands of cigs via net and duty-free and blokes in pubs) I always try to get the scariest grimmest health warning I can, just to add a a bit of frisson while i spark up with my HM Prisons issue lighter.

The warnings don't bother me except on nice packets like Sobranie or UK sale Luckies or Gauloise. That's why we don't get Sweet Afton anymore, because Reynolds refused to put the warnings on for the UK and EU as SAs have beutiful packaging.

if anyone sees Sweet Aftons anywhere in the world, get me some and I will re-imburse you double the cost; Sweet Afton are the best cigarettes in the world, that's why they're so expensive c'mon you know you want to help Uncle Taw get lung cancer.

@taw how did I just know that you're the kinda guy to pick his fags up in bulk from "the guy in the corner of the pub" ditto

my friends annoy shopkeepers by refusing cig packets that have anything except "Smoking while Pregnant can seriously harm your child"...they figure that these are "safe" because they're men and can't get pregnant!

@indy yeah the girlfriend smoking isn't good for either of us...we've already talked about it though and agreed that after the wedding we'll try to quit together. We both reckon that gaining 20Ibs before the wedding might be a bit of ****!

the worst is a sign "thank you for not smoking", makes you want to light up right there and say "no need to thank me, i wasn't going to not smoke"