smoking or non-smoking?

[ghost of miles]

Our fair city recently voted to enact a comprehensive ban on smoking in public and private establishments (including, gasp! bars) as of Jan. 1, 2005. As somebody who quit smoking a few years ago, and who feels for the waitstaff and musicians who have to work in smoke-filled atmospheres, I thought it was a good move--but still found myself jonesing for a cig and a brew at the local pub. How many here have kicked the habit, and how many still indulge?

[Noj]

I smoked about a pack a week of Parliament Lights from when I was 16 until I was 24. Quit cold turkey, without any lapse or difficulty three years later. Most smokers I know struggle to give it up. I think the key is to actually want to quit. I enjoyed smoking cigarettes at the beginning, but at some point I decided I didn't want to do it anymore so I didn't.

[chris olivarez]

I smoked two to three packs a week from 16 to 21. What led me to quit was a cough I was starting to develop.One day when I was at the community college that I was working at I took a half a pack of cigarettes that I was smoking,wadded them up and threw them in a trash can and that was it. I had the urge for a number of years to start up again but I have successfully avoided the temptation.Nicotine is a powerful drug and not easy to walk away from but somehow I did it.

[Rooster_Ties]

For all intent and purposes, I've never smoked. Technically, I think I've smoked less than 10 cigs in my whole life, all back during college, most when I was a freshman. Just thought I'd try them, for the heck of it, but I never had any intent other than curiosity.

My Mom smoked (and still does). I think the most she ever smoked was about 1 full pack a day, maybe slightly more. I think she's now down to less than half-a-pack a day, maybe even one-quarter pack. I don't really know for sure, but when I visit her, I never see her smoke all that much any more, and when she does - she only seems to take a few puffs on one before putting it out, only half-used.

My Dad smoked for a few years, way back in the 40's - when everyone did. I'm not sure how long he smoked, but it wasn't any more than about 5 years at most. One day he decided to quit, and my Dad has incredible will-power. I don't think he ever looked back.

Watching my Mom smoke, as I was growing up, gave me enough info to know that I would never take up smoking, ever. Nor would I ever get involved with anyone (romantically) who smoked. Disgusting habit, and I can't tell you how nice it is to go to jazz bars where smoking is not allowed.

That said, I've never let smoking turn me away from a jazz club, or even a bar with a good juke box, and decent pool tables. I used to bartend, and I realize smoking goes with the territory. I just try to plan my wardrobe, realizing that everything I wear is gonna reek after I get home, and need to be washed. I'm always sure to wear an old jacket, or one that need washing anyway. Or, unless it's really, really cold out - I'll just skip a jacket, or leave it in the car. Man, can't stand the smell of my clothes after I've been someplace where people are smoking.

Funny thing - I don't really notice the smell of smoke at my parents house (nor does my wife, so it isn't just me being 'used to the smell'). BUT, then, for some reason - when we get back home and start taking all our dirty clothes out of our suitcase (it's a four-hour drive) - they smell of smoke just as bad as if we were bar-hopping all night long. Strangest thing.

Personally, I'm all for banning smoking in all public areas, especially restaurants. I guess having smoking in bars is not the worst thing I could imagine, but it would be just fine with me if they banned it in bars too. I'm not the most anti-smoking person ever, and I'm normally not very vocal about my views on smoking. But anything that can be done to discourage smoking is perfectly fine with me.

Edited April 8, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[chris olivarez]

If I was going to advocate a lifestyle change to anyone it would be to quit smoking.

[Rooster_Ties]

I never badger friends of mine to quit, but if I know they're trying to - I always offer to take them out to dinner anywhere - finest restaraunt in town (within reason) - if they can manage to make it 3 months without a smoke. Unfortunately, nobody I've made the offer to has ever made it that far.

And, about me vowing never to get 'involved' with anyone who smokes... That wasn't always the case (not always a 100% hard/fast rule) with me. It was one of many factors, but never a deal-breaker, absolutely. That was, until (back in college) I got frisky with a couple gals who smoked (yes, at different times ), and I realized that kissing someone who smokes, was like LICKING out the contents of an ashtray!!

That's when it became an absolute dealbreaker.

[chris olivarez]

Licking the contents of an ashtray-oh man!! hack! cough!hack! cough!

[Jim Alfredson]

The day they do this in Michigan will be a very good day indeed. Hell, they should do it across the whole country.

Nasty, disgusting habit. I worry about my own health having to play in clubs every weekend and breathe that shit in for two days straight. It always takes me at least a day to recover.

[JohnS]

I quit in my thirties (thirty years ago). I spent the equivalent of the cigarette money on lps. Being rather lowly paid at the time there was nothing left for smoking and it worked. Recommended as a way to stop.

[vibes]

The day they do this in Michigan will be a very good day indeed. Hell, they should do it across the whole country.

I agree with you completely. I'm waiting for this in Minnesota. Having spent most of my life in California and Utah, where such laws have been around for quite a while, moving to Minnesota, where smoking is still allowed in normal restaurants as well as bars, was quite a shock. I've never even tried smoking, and that makes it that much more difficult. I just find it difficult to enjoy a meal with that smell in the air, and it's always in the air regardless of where in the restaurant you sit, if that restaurant allows smoking.

Measures have been introduced to ban smoking in restaurants and bars here, but they always get shot down. I guess the smokers here are a pretty large, vocal group.

[Jazzmoose]

I started smoking cigars and pipes when I was about 16. Switched to cigarettes at 19 in college. I smoked until just shy of my 41st birthday, and quit on December 9, 1998. I tried to quit for decades, but it didn't click until then. Thanks to an attitude change (you don't try to quit, you quit. Hiding the ashtrays and lighters doesn't cut it; throw 'em away!) and the miracle of Nicorette gum, I made it.

Since then I've had one cigarette (two years after I quit); sucked it down as I used to, turned green and stayed that way for four hours. I don't think it'll happen again...

You know, I always said that I'd never become one of those anti-smoking jerks if I ever quit, but of course, I have. I simply cannot stand the stench, and the smell of a smoker is worse to me than the smell of actual smoke. Can you believe that??

[Alexander]

I have never smoked. Both of my parents quit when I was about five years old, so I don't remember growing up in a smoke-filled household. I had a grandmother who smoked, and visiting her house was always an ordeal for me. I got violent headaches just being around cigarette smoke, and it would dry my eyes out.

I used to live in Boston when they enacted a very strict anti-smoking law, and I have to say that it was heaven. All the bars predicted that they would go out of business, but they didn't. Brookline had an even stricter rule that basically stated that the only places you could smoke were your house and your car. New York is about to adopt an anti-smoking law, so I'm pleased! I've been waiting ever since I moved away from Boston!

[Parkertown]

Coming up on 9 years since I quit smoking cigarettes. I smoked from age 13 (made me cool...yeah right) to 29. Watching my mother die of lung cancer did it for me. Cold turkey!

I still smoke, just not cigarettes...

I always said if I was gonna give up one or the other, it would definitely be the cigarettes.

I really should try to give up smoking the 'other'. . .

NAH!!!

P.S. My wife quit smoking about a week later. We weren't married yet. Two years later, on our honeymoon in Aruba, we tried it again and, like Jazzmoose, it made me sick as a dog. I felt like I had POISON in my body (come to think of it, I did; that's what they are...)

[Dan Gould]

For all intent and purposes, I've never smoked. Technically, I think I've smoked less than 10 cigs in my whole life, all back during college, most when I was a freshman. Just thought I'd try them, for the heck of it, but I never had any intent other than curiosity.

I smoked even less-all told, I smoked for approximately 30 minutes in High School. Had to experiment of course but fortunately never got the hang of it, let alone addicted.

I do have strong memories of the first pack my friend and I procured. This was in the early 80s, long enough before the full-frontal assault on smoking, so that in the upscale tennis club our families had joined, there actually was a cigarette machine next to the other vending machines in the club's pantry .

We carefully scoped out the situation and split the process between us: One put the change in the machine and pulled the knob, immediately exiting through the rear, rarely used entrance to the pantry. The other followed immediately behind, snagging the cigarettes and exiting the other way. We then met up at the far end of the building where we knew there was very little foot traffic, and carefully hid the pack in one of our equipment bags and waited for our parents to pick us up (we were careful to choose a Friday night when few courts are in use and fewer people hanging around). Later that weekend we hooked up to give 'em a try. I guess I was lucky-I gave up pretty quick, my friend is still a smoker to this day.

As to siblings, I'm the only one who didn't end up smoking. My older brother quit a few years ago (says he still misses it when he drinks and after meals). But the addiction is strong-my younger brother smoked through a large portion of his cancer treatment (not related to tobacco) and my sister has refused to quit. I hoped she would quit simply because who would want to expose themselves to a known carcinogen if their own brother has already had a bout with cancer. That shows a family propensity toward cancer, so why expose yourself further?

As far as my younger brother goes, it was a pretty simple proposition: I'm giving the bone marrow, you quit the cigarettes. It probably wasn't a necessary ultimatum, truth be told, but I gave it anyway.

[Parkertown]

I'm giving the bone marrow, you quit the cigarettes. It probably wasn't a necessary ultimatum, truth be told, but I gave it anyway.

Yikes! That's really painful, isn't it?

[Dan Gould]

I'm giving the bone marrow, you quit the cigarettes.  It probably wasn't a necessary ultimatum, truth be told, but I gave it anyway.

Yikes! That's really painful, isn't it?

Not nearly as painful as you might suspect. I got spinal anasthesia, about midway up the back, and they use a fairly large gauge needle, jabbing it into my butt about a dozen times or so in three different locations.

It took much longer to recover from the anasthesia than they expected but I still left the hospital that day. (The last thing you have to do is to demonstrate the ability to urinate. This was difficult to do considering that while I still had no feeling, they decided to catheterize me. You might think THAT is painful but it actually wasn't at all. Very discomforting to watch, not discomforting to feel, provided you have no feeling down there anyway!

(I realize the foregoing was totally unnecessary, but when asked about bone marrow donation, I always give the unvarnished truth )

As for pain afterwards, it basically feels as though you slipped on some ice and fell on your butt. It happened just about seven years ago exactly, and the day after the procedure, I actually felt well enough to head to Camden Yards for the Orioles game with my other brother.

[pryan]

Never smoked cigarettes in my life (OK, one single smoke during high school), but did buy and smoke a few cigars, when our high school bands took a trip to Cuba. But as far as tobacco goes, that's been it for me. Both my parents used to smoke and I guess after seeing my Dad come down with lung cancer (and losing more than half of one lung), 16 years after he quit, definitely had a big impact on my decision to avoid nicotine.

Last year here in Winnipeg, they put through a by-law banning smoking in indoor public places where minors were allowed. I couldn't believe they didn't just do a complete ban, but apparently they had trouble passing the new by-law as it was. This year, much to my approval, the city council seems to have come to their senses and the total ban (including bars) should be implemented by July, I believe.

Edited April 8, 2003 by pryan

[Jim Dye]

I smoked from the ages of 17 to 32. I quit for 4 years once during that span, but picked it up again after a night out drinking. If you are going to give up smoking, give up drinking too. In my experience, If you have more than 3 beers, your will power is gone and you'll pick a smoke up when the opportunity presents itself. And believe me, it'll present itself!

I gave it up for good 3 years ago this past March. It is a bad, addictive, nasty habit, but I tell you, if it weren't so bad for your health, I'd still be smoking now. I even lost my father to Lung Cancer in 1990. He was only 46, but that tragedy wasn't enough to make me quit. You really have to decide to do it for yourself, not for anyone else.

[shawn·m]

Sure wish I could quit. At a pack-and-a-half per day, and in this area, it’s a rich man’s vice. Let’s see, Granddad died of lung cancer at 49, Dad died of lung cancer at 59… my addiction doesn’t seem responsive to logic or reason.

[RDK]

Hey let's try to shove this into the *political* forums!

Well I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and I'm selfishly pleased that one can no longer smoke in restaurants, bars, and offices here in California...

And yet i'm not in favor of banning cigarettes (a legal product) and I'm quite concerned about some of the more vociferous attempts by the government (mostly locals) to restrict smoking just about everywhere.

How does everybody feel about laws curtailing smoking even in your own home? They've been trying it guys! Or outdoors in public parks?

[Big Wheel]

Ray, I hear you. Draconian bans do seem to offend most of our libertarian sensibilities.

But on the other hand...there have been several once-legal and very available products (like opiates) that have been restricted and ultimately banned entirely (outside of medical use). Moreover, I can see how partial bans can make matters worse. Say we institute a total ban on cigarette smoking except in a private home. It seems to me we'd just have a lot of REALLY agitated smokers on our hands who simply can't get through the whole day without getting really, really irritable. Never having been a smoker I have no idea what it feels like to have to go without a cigarette when you're addicted, but I wonder what kind of consequences this would have on crime rates of the road rage, domestic violence variety.

[AfricaBrass]

I quit smoking 5 years ago, after smoking for 10 before that. I used to really love smoking. It was nice being able to sound like Satchmo.

I agree with Jazzmoose, when you quit, you have to just quit. I haven't touched a cigarette in the 5 years I quit. I had tried a couple times to quit before I was successful. I went 10 months once, but I figured it would be okay to just try one again. Game over, I was hooked again. I couldn't stop thinking about having another one.

I couldn't imagine how awful I would feel if I was still smoking. I do feel bad for my co-workers who still smoke. They are treated like third-class citizens. It really pisses me off when people get all nazi-like about smoking. I don't like being around smoke now, but it's their right to smoke, so I just stay away from them when they're smoking.

I have to admit that it is nice not to have to breathe smoke in restaurants and bars here in California. Whenever I go to Vegas or Reno, my lungs get pretty worked being in the casinos and restaurants.

I'm sure glad I quit.

:rsmile:

[Big Wheel]

I do feel bad for my co-workers who still smoke. They are treated like third-class citizens. It really pisses me off when people get all nazi-like about smoking. I don't like being around smoke now, but it's their right to smoke, so I just stay away from them when they're smoking.

The thing is, I feel like many smokers feel the onus is on the nonsmoker on most occasions to just walk away if the smoking is being done in an open area. Does a nonsmoker have to linger outside behind the breakroom while people are out there smoking? Of course not. But in parks, on the street, even when you're stuck in traffic, it can be hard for a nonsmoker to avoid people around them who smoke.

[Jazzmoose]

I felt like I had POISON in my body (come to think of it, I did; that's what they are...)

Exactly! I could not believe how incredibly sick I was...

[mikeweil]

Nasty, disgusting habit. I worry about my own health having to play in clubs every weekend and breathe that shit in for two days straight. It always takes me at least a day to recover.

That's exactly what happens to me after a gig in a smoky club! As much as I love to play for them people, I hate their habit!