The Student Room Group

Do you smoke?

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Reply 60
I smoked a couple puffs of a cigarette once but I didn't like the taste. Just wanted to experience it. In the future I'll most likely smoke some cannabis for similar reasons.
Reply 61
smoking is for homeless people & the mentally ill
Original post by the bear
smoking is for homeless people & the mentally ill


... lovely.
Part of me wishes I hadn't started but I know why and how I started.

I remember having a friend who I thought was really cool and when I was 13/14 she used to give me puffs of her fags and show me how to do it properly because I wanted to be able to have a puff off a joint if it was offered to me without coughing my guts up and embarassing myself.

Then when I was 16 I had a boyfriend who smoked and he liked it when I lit them for him and then I had one or two whole ones and then one time I was at a wedding and a girl I knew who was a bit of a social smoker like myself wanted to go halves on a pack with me (they only had 20s in the pub). I was soon buying them myself as I got served in a few places.

So there, thats honesty.

I do wish I hadn't started because it's so expensive and now my mum smokes again thanks to my bad influence which is the bit I hate the most because if she gets cancer it will be my fault. I want her to give up and I think she will when I go to uni in september but it's become like a social thing that we do together in our late night mother-daughter time (which may sound a little bit messed up to non smokers) but yeah I don't think we can quit together. It's horrible because I love smoking but I hate her smoking. I hate that my fear of losing the person I love the most is over run by my stupid, expensive, killer addiction that whispers into my ear "you can give up another time" "a couple more won't make any difference" etc.

I definitely wouldn't encourage anyone to start smoking.
Original post by llessur123
I smoke alone in my back garden and in my back garden only, so it is unlikely that you will have to breath my fumes or see my cigarette butts. Why would you assume that I litter and blow smoke into peoples face?


I was speaking to smokers in general not you personally. I did include a proviso in my post for smokers that smoke in private without littering. If you are one of the latter then you are an inspiration to the rest, but unfortunately there are many smokers who are not so considerate.

Most smokers don't do this.


Source?

Although on that point, even if I did smoke elsewhere the effects of second hand smoke in open air are non-existent, car fumes do more damage.


That depends on the nature of the car fumes and the second hand smoke. If you have to wait in a train station for 15 minutes morning and night with people smoking beside you, and constantly walk down narrow streets lined with pubs where you pass through a fog of smoke, then you are at a pretty serious risk of developing respiratory problems after a year or so. That wouldn't happen with car fumes unless you lived in a large town or city and did a lot of walking around in it.

Some people will inevitably still find something to complain about though, obviously my lung function is of top priority to many people.


Well to be fair, it will be taxpayers paying for it when you get lung cancer and have to take up hospital beds that people who didn't wilfully poison themselves could have had. (oh but don't tell me, you have private healthcare I suppose :rolleyes:)

Original post by DaveSmith99

If you live in a town/city then the fumes from the traffic will be doing you more harm than walking past someone smoking a cigarette. Go moan at car drivers.


Fortunately I don't live in a town or city, I live in a small village. But tbh, what you are saying is rather like asking me to turn a blind eye to mosquitos when I am on holiday in Africa, because there are lions on the prowl which could be far more damaging to my health. Just because the threat is smaller it doesn't mean it pales to insignificance, I still have the right to complain when people are impacting negatively on my life. So do you, so does everyone: you're moaning at me right now.

Original post by Eldedu
I try to be conscious of others when smoking (standing downwind, separating myself from crowds etc.) but let's face it, if I'm standing outside my house smoking and you walk by, who's at fault?


You, same as if you were standing outside your house throwing water balloons across the road as I walk by.
Reply 65
Original post by Copperknickers
If you have to wait in a train station for 15 minutes morning and night with people smoking beside you, and constantly walk down narrow streets lined with pubs where you pass through a fog of smoke, then you are at a pretty serious risk of developing respiratory problems after a year or so.


I highly doubt that. Everyday for 30 years maybe...
Reply 66
Original post by Copperknickers
You, same as if you were standing outside your house throwing water balloons across the road as I walk by.


Come on, you know that's crap logic. Throwing is active, smoking is passive...**** example.

Apparently all that copper hasn't stopped them from getting in an unjustifiable twist.
http://www.ash.org.uk/media-room/press-releases/new-passive-smoking-study-shows-alarming-stroke-risks-to-non-smokers

Even if you take in only 1% of the smoke of an active smoker, you're risk of having a stroke skyrockets. It would take too long to list all the various problems that passive smoking causes. It would take quite a lot of smoke outside to harm, but the situation I described is easily enough.

Come on, you know that's crap logic. Throwing is active, smoking is passive...**** example.


In what way is smoke passive? You step outside, you light your cigarette and you puff at it, releasing smoke from both the cigarette and your mouth. What part of that does not require direct action on your part?

Apparently all that copper hasn't stopped them from getting in an unjustifiable twist.


3 years of using this nickname, and that's the first time someone has made that joke. Well done.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Eldedu
In my case:
It's relaxing
It's something to do with your hands
I enjoy it (to be fair, only sometimes)
It's a good way to clear my head or focus on something (enough physical activity to avoid becoming restless, not so much that I can't think things over well)
And often, sadly, because it helps pass time when there's nothing else to do (bus stops, taxi rides, etc.)


- Get a massage
- have a ****
- have a ****
- get a phone
- get a better phone

All viable alternatives to your dilemmas which wont put your lung health at risk.

Ok in all honesty, I'm more curious as to why you started in the 1st place and dont be ashamed to admit that you did it to be cool/your friends were doing it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've got stupidly drunk because of peer pressure/doing what I thought I should when I was out. I just genuinely can't think of any other reasons why someone would start smoking.
Original post by Wilfred Little
Why did you start again?


Stress. As cliched as it is, I was going through a really difficult time.
I smoke the odd cigar now and again.
I'm a non smoker. There is not a situation in which I would begin to smoke. But when I close to my parents it could be that I'm a passive smoker.
Used to smoke when I was drunk, but soon realised it was a stupid and pointless thing to do and haven't had a cigarette since.
Never tried it, never will.
I'd quit but it's the only way I get breaks at work.
Reply 75
It's not something that I've ever been interested in trying, so I can't see myself doing so in the future.
I smoke a pipe :biggrin:

If we're going out for a BBQ or something like that I'll pick up a pouch of amber leaf and puff away.
I dont. I've personally never seen the attraction to it. I see it as a dirty habit and if you smoke regularly then you're just asking for bad health in later life. Not to forget it costs the NHS millions and millions every year.

Having said that, I don't really mind if other people smoke. Other people's health is not my responsibility, what they want to do to their body is their choice.
Reply 78
I used to smoke,but I quit last year.Just gave up and went cold turkey.It wasnt as hard as I thought it would be to be honest, and that's after being a smoker for 2 decades.It's only been recently that the craving for one in the morning after I get up has ceased completely though.


Saying that there are times when I could quite easily smoke a fag, but I'm worried that it might lead me to starting again.When that happens I just think about something else.
Reply 79
only when being around my friends .

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