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Image of smoking today?

16K views 151 replies 51 participants last post by  starthrower 
#1 ·
What's people's impressions on the current image of smoking.
Do you think that kids growing up now will still be as fascinated by it as 'we' all were?
Because the glamorising of smoking has proved to be a disaster. Tragic for many.
I'm feel awful I spent 10 years doing it, mind you it is nice.
I just hope that maybe the buck can stop somewhere here, and the young uns don't buy into it.
 
#2 ·
I do not see it in and around Nashville as much as I used to. It has pretty much been banished to out of the way places outdoors, because people even complained about the smoke hovering around building entrances and exits -- and rightly so.

I think we as a culture have gone about it the right way. We have never tried to ban the practice. That would backfire worse than the current "war on drugs." Nor have we over-stigmatized the victims of the tobacco industry. We have merely made it gradually less and less tolerated -- not by authorities, but by peers. I'm not sure how that was done but it seems to be working. I'm sure kids will still do it to rebel, but it's not portrayed as cool anywhere I've seen. Maybe I'm sheltered.
 
#3 ·
I was a smoker, on and off, for about 15 years. I haven't had one in quite awhile. My impression is that cigarettes are more expensive these days with higher taxes. I don't see too many people smoking in public anymore. I do not watch many new TV shows but I notice less smoking by movie characters. Would be good if they could somehow ban smoking by TV/movie characters. I'm sure there would be less smokers if they did, but that's not very practical.
 
#4 ·
Smoking is bad.... mmkay...
 
#5 ·
I grew up with smokers. My father gave up after a heart attack, and Taggart gave up seven years into our marriage. He couldn't do it directly - they're so addictive - but for a year or two he smoked a pipe, and that was easier to give up. We had to repaint the ceiling, and his teeth took six months to shed their brown-ness. His parents were the proverbial chimneys and I dreaded their visits. Both died in their seventies of smoking-related illnesses.

Fewer people smoke today. When I was young there was a presumption in favour. I once sat in a non-smoking train carriage. I was a student & I complained to the guard when a man lit up - he supported the smoker! That couldn't happen today.

But smoking is still considered to have a fashionable, streetwise, rebellious, edgy quality to it. Playwrights and actors include it in plays, despite some in the audience protesting. And when I taught in sixth-form college (1990s) there were still a lot of 16 to 18 year olds who took it up - never mind despite the warnings of parents & teachers, but because of them.

Alas. :(
 
#6 ·
Back in my early days, smoking was an accepted 'social' practice; there were no public restrictions on where anyone could light up.

I am a former smoker ... and lit up those coffin nails for 39 years. I quit, cold turkey, in late 2004 - and have not smoked since, nor have I had any cravings whatsoever.

After I quit, I could then smell it on peoples clothing and on their breath ... egads, I used to smell like that too ... literally a walking ashtray, and no butts about it. :lol:

I do however feel that smokers rights are being abused/violated ... this is a legal activity for any person of the legal age to do ... it is their right to do so, just as others can consume alcohol in public places. If a person truly wants to end their life sooner, then that is their choice and right to do so.

My Dad smoked a pipe ... died 23 years ago from esophageal cancer ... Mom, who died 21 years (heart attack) and never smoked.

I truly believe our government is in error trying to penalize and single out smokers unfairly ... imo, a real killer is alcohol, like when driving ... how many reports to we hear of a traffic accident that says "the driver was smoking a cigarette"? No, the report says alcohol was involved, 99.9% of the time.

The tax rates keep being hoisted on smoking items ... and seldom on alcohol ... I wonder why. The phrase by the surgeon general: smoking can be dangerous to your health. Is there not any surgeon general warning on beer cans ... (?).

I am not against the consumption of alcohol ... again, it is (like smoking) a legal activity by anyone of the legal age in their respective region/country, and smokers and drinker alike do have rights that are being violated, like being told by an employer that they cannot smoke, even at home, or face losing their jobs. That is so very wrong ... so wrong, imho.

Kh ♫
 
#7 ·
Problem is so called passive smoking. We had an entertainer called Roy Castle who was a non-smoker but died of lung cancer in 1994, 2 years after being diagnosed. He blamed his illness on passive smoking through playing a trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.

As a student, I remember watching the communal tv in a room where everybody smoked. When the lights went up, the top half of the room was full of smoke. Similarly, in my parent's house when we cleared it after their deaths, a number of items - pictures etc - were stained with a film of tar and nicotine.

Don't agree with the idea of encouraging suicidal behaviour particularly when it can affect others - bit like encouraging bad driving.

As to alcohol, I think that will be coming next in the UK. In the US where you don't have general free medical care, I think it's different because insurance policies which you pay for will set conditions on what you can expect if you make yourself ill. In the UK where we do have socialized medicine, we don't have that "luxury" so we have to control people's behaviour in other ways e.g. a tax per unit of alcohol.

You can't (unfortunately) have a general right to the pursuit of happiness because one person's "happiness" may be another person's discomfort.

All of this imho.
 
#8 ·
What's people's impressions on the current image of smoking.
In a word: antisocial.

...
Do you think that kids growing up now will still be as fascinated by it as 'we' all were?
...
I think yes, as young people have a tendency to rebel, but I think the society around them is (has been for a while) changing regarding perceptions of smoking. I think as they grow older, even if its seen as cool in their teens (or tweens?), it gets less and less cool after that. The difference between you as a smoker and non smokers becomes increasingly market. Its banned virtually everywhere indoors now, except from private homes, and also banned near entrances of public buildings and offices, on the grounds of hostpitals, in parks, on railways stations, and so on. Smokers now have basically become pariahs. I'm not saying they are, its an addiction and not their fault, I'm saying thats how they're preceived.
 
#11 ·
I think one of the next instalments of the 'salami tactics' policy used to further marginalise smoking will be to ban smoking in all vehicles, at least while they are on the move and then in time maybe altogether. Difficult to enforce maybe, but even as a smoker I can see a strong case for outlawing it in this particular instance.
 
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#14 ·
I plan on giving up soon, nothing to do with the comfort of others, moreso the inexorable increase of prices is bothering me. When i was a wee lad it were about 2 quid for 10 Windsor Blue, cheap but functional British cigarette, now they are over £4. Not smoked not-rollups regularly in years but there's no way i could possibly afford to.

As for being a smoker, i smoke in my own house or outside when i'm anywhere, i never litter cigarette ends, and i enjoy it (A thrill that becomes diluted, you tend to go from enjoying each one to about one every 10 or 20). I take reasonable consideration to the habit and don't do it if it would make anyone uncomfortable. As for the smell, a man can develop his smooth Virginia musk, just because i smell of tobacco doesn't stop non smokers from smelling like tea tree oil or raw meat or cheap perfume.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I plan on giving up soon, nothing to do with the comfort of others, moreso the inexorable increase of prices is bothering me. When i was a wee lad it were about 2 quid for 10 Windsor Blue, cheap but functional British cigarette, now they are over £4. Not smoked not-rollups regularly in years but there's no way i could possibly afford to.
You're showing your age. When I were a lad you could get 5 woodbine for 1/- ! Them were the days, you could have a ***, a drink, go to the pictures and still have change out of half a crown.
 
#15 ·
I thought the anti-smoking campaigns were ridiculous when I smoked and I still think they're ridiculous now. I can't stand those non-smokers who get on their high horses about it or people who walk up to groups of smokers and start coughing ("that's a bad cough you've got there, good job you don't smoke!"). I say let the smokers grow their tumours in peace, you've already kicked them out of public transportation and buildings, that's enough.
 
#16 ·
Mad Men has made it look cool again. I'm a non smoker but I don't mind others smoking. In Vienna they smoke in bars and it almost felt nostalgic. I love the smell of tobacco. I know, it's not healthy, I understand the concerns and sympathise with people who have lost loved ones, but life sometimes needs things that aren't healthy. It's part of the tapestry. Having said that, most smokers I know are trying to give them up, as far too costly.

I agree with crud above, about the tension between smokers and non. There's no need for the cabaret act, if somebody is smoking in a designated area, then non-smokers shouldn't be prudishly fake-coughing and laying a guilt trip on them...
 
#20 ·
I am really sorry to hear that, and hope your health does not deteriorate too fast.

You can never stop smoking, drinking and drug abuse. People are people. Controlling health abuses, particularly as they affect children or young people, however, is the compassionate and mature thing to do.

It's made things a lot pleasanter, the smoking ban in public places. Drinking has got out of hand in this country among young people - cirrhosis of the liver being seen in 30 year olds, for example. So something has to be done to help. This doesn't make one a tyrant, any more than trying to curb drinking in the gin century (18th) or in Victorian times did.
 
#30 · (Edited)
The OP asked about the image of smoking. I think that it still is seen as attractive in some quarters. Drinking, especially of wines, is also 'cool'. What is different now from when I was young was that it is fashionable for women to get plastered. For my group of gals, it was taboo. And since women's livers can't take much alcohol, it's a real shame.

The more the elders fulminate, however, the more attractive a habit is for the young. I had a friend once who researched the effects of anti-smoking drives in schools in the 1970s, and the results bore out this very point. :(
 
#31 ·
"But for the record, moody didn't like Taggart's point and I decided to wade in on my Man's behalf. Probably a silly idea...

Yeah, probably.

I used to be puzzled by the way so many 'liberals' push for Big Brother government. I've since decided it's simply an example of 'compartmentalized' thinking.
 
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#32 ·
Interesting thought.
Since you quote me at the beginning of it - a quote I took off almost at once - I am wondering if you mean Taggart & me by 'liberals' and 'big brother government'. Point of information - we are not liberals, and we don't like 'big brother government'. We just think it's nicer not to have our lungs clogged in public places. Smokers can do what they want in their own space.

You may be right about the wider generalisation, of course. e.g. a lot of 'liberals' on social issues in the UK are very keen on stopping local protests to windfarms and so on. (I am not part of any such protest; it's just an observation.)
 
#42 ·
I don't like smoking at all. Allergic to it all.

I avoid smokers due to my terrible reaction.
 
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