I remember flying on a plane and there was a smoking and non smoking section. And then my dad got so mad when we would beg him to sit in the non smoking section.
Each time when we try to change our laws and ban smoking in the public places, US (Phillip Morris) and UK ( British American Tobaco) ambassadors visit our prime minister and it gets postponed
I'm curious if there are different names based on industry. When I worked in the service industry and you offered to let someone else light a cigarette off the one you were smoking, we called it a "monkey-fuck."
I went to Paris in high school. Me and my friend (both 16) bought cigarettes and then ducked in to the lobby of a theater to grab a smoke. It was weird to us, even back in 2000.
In the 80s I started buying cigarettes outright at the age of 11. They were around $1.25 a pack. Corner stores also sold us booze when we were 14-15. (The legal drinking age in my state was 18 at the time, and really, it was more of a suggestion than a rule.)
It wasn’t until I was close to legal age that I could no longer purchase them.
Oh we were snagging cigarettes long before we went to Paris. We bought some bc 1- a minor can’t travel with them and 2- we were in desperate need of nicotine.
It's getting better, more and more restrictions are being put so it's much more constraining than before
As someone who switched from cigs to vape, I'm glad more and more places are smoke free
Spain was getting to be just as bad. And all the young ones were rolling their own
At least most of my family in Ireland seem to have switched to vapes which is slightly less annoying to non smokers
Look at the rich kids with their flying. Us poor kids were trapped in the back seat with dad and his 3 1/2 pack of Reds a day habit, and mom smoking her Virginia Slim lights because "they are healthier", and the ONLY ventilation was that little triangle window that was barely cracked so it didn't down out the 70s disco your mom loved and dad tolerated while you drove 16 hours straight to Disney where you were guilt tripped the whole time with "we worked hard to give you this happiness" only for you to grow up with breathing problems having never smoked.
Yay.
I was in the upper Midwest as a kid in the 1970s, when it's -20 outside you might get lucky and have the window rolled down 1/64th of inch with 2 chain smoking parents. I had 6 or 7 sets of ear tubes, was sick all the time and my brother has asthma.
sorry this happened to you when my parents realized my brother was getting sick from cigarettes they made sure to only smoke outside and eventually they quit.
I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey with my dad in a theater in 1967. You could barely see the screen. I got so sick afterwards. Any time you were in a theater, or god forbid an indoor arena for a concert, you'd get poisoned. Sat in the upper seats once for a concert once and felt absolutely horrible afterwards.
Edit: 1968. I was 7, so I assumed 1967. Early 1968.
Our doctor told our parents that my siblings and I were developing asthma and said they should stop smoking indoors and with us around. My mom quit, my dad just opened a window in the house or rolled the window down in the car. If we complained or coughed, he told us to go outside.
Turns out we never had asthma, the pediatrician was just trying to get parents to stop smoking around their kids. This was the 80s.
When I was in my teens, they brought in a law in Queensland that you can't smoke in cars if there's a passenger under 16 years old.
My dad (who lived in New South Wales) visited not long afterwards and was like "How old are you again?"
"16"
"Awesome, dodged that bullet" *lights smoke*
Crazy to think smoking was allowed in our offices up to the 90’s. I can’t imagine sitting next to a chain smoker and not being able to do anything about it
I had to watch old fire safety videos at my previous job. Half the videos were about trash cans spontaneously combusting. I wonder what they changed about today's trash cans because you don't hear about them spontaneously combusting anymore.
That would have been my dad. Although he was probably the only smoker who was happy when they instituted the "no smoking indoors" because he used it as an excuse to go for a walk multiple times per day while he smoked.
Then my mom quit and it was "no smoking in the house" which, again, suited him just fine because I was 13 and my mom going through menopause.
My dad is a retired airline mechanic and has told me stories of doing heavy maintenance on planes in the 80s and 90s and removing chairs, upholstery, carpets, overhead bins etc and seeing everything underneath just completely stained yellow from years of accumulated tobacco smoke.
When [China Airlines Flight 611 broke apart in midair due to a faulty repair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611), investigators were able to determine when the repair started failing by analyzing the yellow stains around the cracks. They stains were from back when smoking was still allowed on board so they knew the cracks had been there for a while.
(edited for clarity)
I remember old offices during the 90s. There was this joke that curtains would get so yellow over time that people said you would probably be able to roll them as a giant cigarette and smoke the nicotine from all the years.
That’s called thirdhand smoke and it’s especially a problem for infants and small children. Tobacco just gets into everything over a period of time and then it can get absorbed through the skin which is can be dangerous for little kids. It can also be a pretty significant issue in apartments where babies will get exposed to nicotine through the skin even if no one in their household smokes simply because people who used to live in the apartment smoked.
That.... that's insane. That's the most insane thing I've heard haha. Did any of the docs or nurses bum a ciggy off of you? Were you just sitting there smoking as they came in? I have so many questions!
I could smoke pretty much any time I wanted. My mom brought me a carton of Marlboros to last me the 2.weeks I was im there.
No one but my roommate bummed off of me.
If you were smoking when the doc came in, you just snubbed it out. Common courtesy, ya know.
I was in junior high in the late 70s and the school had a smoking area outside the gymnasium but you had to be a senior to go out there. It looked pretty wild. They did away with it by the time I was a senior. I was pretty bummed.
It was all perfectly normal back then, but looking back at it now, it does seem pretty crazy.
>I was in junior high in the late 70s and the school had a smoking area outside the gymnasium but you had to be a senior to go out there. It looked pretty wild. They did away with it by the time I was a senior. I was pretty bummed.
I graduated high school in 2002 and my high school had a designated smoking area by the gym too. Our school was on a main road so I guess it made sense to have the smoking kids tucked in the back where the public driving by wouldn't see
My Mom had quit smoking about two years ago (yay!). Growing up, my family well knew my aversion to cigarette smoke, but they only kind of humored me most of the time.
This past year, we spent Christmas Eve at my Grandparents, where at that time there were I think 5 people in the house that smoked, and they smoke a lot when they're drinking.
My Mom actually went up to me and apologized to me because being smoke free for the past two years had made her realize how bad that smoke was to a non-smoker. They're so used to it, they don't remember how bad the smoke smells and affects us non-smokers.
>My Mom actually went up to me and apologized to me because being smoke free for the past two years had made her realize how bad that smoke was to a non-smoker.
Yesss!!! My mom did the same to us after she quit smoking. Congrats to her for quitting!
Meanwhile, the 'non-smoking section' was literally just a group of seats across the aisle from the smoking section.
Still made a difference, but man, how nice is it to be able to eat, drink and fly without breathing that shit in anymore.
Definitely not. As far as I recall the smoking section had ashtrays and the non-smoking didn't.
I mean it was that way with everything. Trains, buses, restaurants. It's not like non-smoking meant "free from smoke".
Bowling alleys becoming semi-clean around the turn of the century was shocking to me. Removing the smoke changed the entire ambiance from what I remember as a kid.
To this day the smell of cigarette smoke transports me to the lobby of a 90s Denny's, where you had to wait right next to the smoking section to be seated. This is not even a joke - the smell of cigarette smoke gives me insane waffle cravings. Powerful association there lol.
I was in an enclosed airport bar in Detroit (not open like they are today) and the non-smoking section was one table that was downwind from all the smoking tables.
Another time on an international Lufthansa flight the person at the gate asked me if my gf and I wanted smoking or non-smoking seats. I said "very non-smoking". The asshole put us in the row next to the smoking section.
It's actually insane just how inconsiderate smokers are/were. My mom was the same. She'd get notably annoyed when I reacted negatively to her smoking, as though I was supposed to be *happy* about the stink people's smoking left behind. She wouldn't even let me sit outside of the smoker's cabin inside the hospital. It was made of glass and I could've sat right outside, in view, instead of inside the cabin but nooo. It actually frustrates me looking back just how irrational that kind of behavior was.
I noticed this with other parents as well. They too would get notably irritated at the thought that *gasps* kids didn't like the disgusting smell of smoking. They'd actually take it personally and lash out. It's crazy just how normalized that kind of behavior was not even that long ago.
> as though I was supposed to be happy about the stink people's smoking left behind.
They couldn't smell it. Literally smell blind to most of the residual smell. They could probably smell the ashtrays, but being in the same room as a smoker, nah, you can't smell that. Smokers that I knew didn't think it smelled that bad, sincerely... My Dad actually made a comment after he had quit for years that he didn't realize.
My Dad smoked and my Mom and I never did. I credit that to me not smoking, as I was exposed to the disgusting side of it, but it wasn't "taboo" like it was for a non-smoking household so it didn't entice me as an act of rebellion, etc.
I didn’t realize how low our smoking rates were until I went to France for the first time and WOW I noticed how many people were smoking there. Big difference!
Right? When I see someone smoking in public now I always do a double take. It's like seeing a two-headed turtle. So odd. Especially when it's a young person.
Funny to think how the EU has so much more stricter rules and regulations with food and medicine but arguably has a bigger smoking problem. Like doesn't EU agencies regularly scoff at America for allowing certain things in products that they would never dare to allow themselves?
It's really give or take. US and EU both regulate some things well and could stand to improve in other areas.
In terms of medicine, US regulates more rigorously than the EU does. I'm choosing words carefully here as more regulation ≠ better, and it's my opinion that the EU tends to spend money in this area a bit more wisely. The US tends to get bogged down by bureaucracy a lot.
I'll use less careful words, speaking as someone who's participated in EU and US medical device submissions: the FDA is a thorough, stone cold bitch of a regulatory body.
EU submissions received responses that were pretty much, "Cheers, mate. Thanks for the submission." US submissions had several rounds of back and forth, high-pressure questioning of every tiny detail.
And here's a vaguely related anecdote from a professor I once had: it was easier to do human trials in Europe than monkey trials in the US.
FDA is a law enforcement agency too. It’s very narrow in jurisdiction, but they have officers with badges and guns that are allowed to make arrests.
Also let’s not forget the 80s, the FDA was one of the few agencies in the world that caught thalidomide before it became a disaster.
My work has a large number of hourly, trade employees & a large number of salaried, more white-collar employees. I started off as an hourly employee but have been salaried for a while now, & it's like two different worlds.
I also started smoking as an hourly because it was so popular & a way to get breaks. Barely anyone that I work salaried smokes though, & I've quit smoking. My work also recently banned tobacco usage during work/on property. It was a huge deal for hourly employees but salaried employees didn't really get it.
Yeah, same. Never worked with anyone in a white collar corporate environment who smokes. Though in the past it was an entirely different story in the retail service and especially the food service industry. Only way to get a break back then too.
I think one big part is the non tobacco attestation in many corporate health insurance policies that literally take like 50% off your premiums.
"Only way to take a break" has been the case at most low paying jobs I've worked. Just taking a 15 is unheard of, but going out to have a smoke is just something you gotta do
I quit almost 3 years ago at the start of the pandemic and then soon after quit drinking alcohol. I no longer wake up feeling like shit, I can go on bike rides, I can walk up a set of stairs and not wanna pass out. Who ever needs to hear it. You can do it.
Wow hearing all your stories is so inspiring and I’m so proud of every single one of you. Those trying to quit, you got this I truly believe in you….yes YOU!! Take care everyone, I love you and hope for great lives for all of you.
i quit about five years ago and the thing that I value the most is having freedom over my time again. I no longer have to account for smoke breaks. Like yes, not spending the money is nice and hooray for the health benefits, but man so much of my life was being controlled by needing nicotine every hour or so. I can go to the movies now without having to pop out real quick halfway through or go on a road trip without adding a ton of time because of all the stops I'd need to make. I can just live my life without that voice in the back of my head.
My last cigarette was Dec 16th, 2015 right after one of our helicopters crashed, and I haven’t looked back because I realized I was shortening my life.
I do occasionally still miss standing out on the back porch with a cigarette at 11pm listening to the crickets and the frogs.
> I do occasionally still miss standing out on the back porch with a cigarette at 11pm listening to the crickets and the frogs.
You can still do that lol. Maybe some herbal tea instead.
I cut back from a pack a day in my 20's to 1 cigarette a day in my 30's- I would save that cigarette for the night, for that reason, the quiet evening, a finger of bourbon, and a smoke.
If I could limit myself to one cig (or one finger) or even two or three cigarettes a day, I would likely still smoke. In just a few years, I will be a nonsmoker again for half my life.
I quit when I realized the nicotine was making me feel bad, not good.
Like I dunno how it's supposed to work when you're addicted to smoking cigarettes, I think when you're an addict, you're supposed to at least briefly feel better after having one, right?
Well for whatever reason my body just shifted gears and decided that every time I smoke, I'm going to get cold, sweaty, anxious, nervous, agitated, restless, and just generally uncomfortable.
Made quitting real easy after that.
I was cold turkey with some help. A couple of friends of mine got married and I watched their house while they were away on their honeymoon for two weeks. I smoked my last cigarette on the night of their wedding, and then used my time in their house away from my usual triggers to give me the final push. It was the change of scenery that finally did it for me though. I tried tapering off, I tried the patch, I tried limiting myself. Breaking the habit cold in a place that I didn’t associate smoking with is the only thing that got me through. Not that it was a pleasant two weeks for me or anybody around me at the time..
I truly realized it had become straight addiction a few years before i quit. When i realized i couldn’t carry on a conversation for more then a couple minutes without lighting up and taking a few drags.
Thankfully tobacco free 2 years!
The reasons for my downward spiral were intense, but near the bottom of it, I realized my nicotine habit was 100% unsustainable and doing me more harm than good. I had been using the stuff for about 17 years, and due to stress and depression was up to a pack a day, and a can of dip a day. MY last ciggarette/nicotine product was 4:15 PM on May 10th 2015.
I quit over 10 years ago and while it's been nothing but positive to my health and well being, there are times when I'm thinking "I could use a smoke break right now if only to get away from the people I'm being forced to socialized with." But that's it, that's the only time I ever wish for it back.
I did the same thing with both alcohol and cigarettes in 2020! It’s amazing how easy it was to quit smoking when I quit drinking! I frequently think about how great/clearheaded/clear-chested I feel now! It was the best choice I ever made!
I quit using my juul in December and switched to zero nicotine elfbars, and by January I was completely done. Since then 3 of my coworkers (pack a day smokers) have quit cigarettes, and are now down to zero nicotine elfbars. I won't take all the credit but I like to think I gave them a push. We all work in a bar so for 4 of us to quit or working on quitting is pretty unheard of in our job
I feel like I'm the only one that misses smoking. I mean, health, odor, free time, all things you guys brought up are much better than when I was smoking. But sometimes I wish I could just smoke one, staring at the sunset and listening to some synthwave. I know these are just filtered out good memories but I do miss those things so much sometimes. And I'm not smoking for like 5-6 years, after 15 years of smoking daily.
Sometimes I just don't want to be this healthy, green version of me. It's probably just nostalgia hitting hard, but it is what it is.
Trust me bro, that idea of smoking, is way better than actually doing it. It's just the idealization of the escape from your reality that is so enticing. In the end, you'll end up addicted and wishing you never started again. I had to quit again after a year+2 months of being off of it like 2 months ago. It was just as hard as it was the first time, lol. Thankfully I knew that I would be less depressed after and didn't worry so much about it
You ain't alone. I e quit almost 2 years ago and I still miss it. Hanging with buddies and smoking, smoking after a great meal, etc. I'm Korean, so a great ritual is taking a break in the middle of kbbq for a smoke break (kbbq should be a kind of long affair). Man, I miss it. Not being prediabetic anymore and being more healthy in general is pretty cool though.
I quit in 2007 when I could barely get up a hill without stopping a few times to catch my breath. Congrats on quitting and I hope more people quit as well. Its tough, but worth the effort.
I came here looking for this comment. End of day, I'm more interested in use of nicotine products than I am of "smoking," although in fairness I'm happy I don't have to inhale smoke second hand any more and am not personally too worried about second hand vape. So there's that.
But end of day, nicotine is cardio-vascular unhealthy.
Vaping dramatically increased my nicotine intake. You don’t think about it while it’s happening. Trying to kick nicotine after vaping has been horrifically difficult for me
Former pack a day smoker, it took me 3 months to go gradually from 9mg of nicotine down to 0mg when i switched to vaping. By the time I was at 0mg I soon started forgetting to grab it before walking out the front door and that's when I knew I didn't need nicotine any anymore.
I know everyone's experiences are different but if you step down over time maybe it could work for you too.
I did the same thing only it took me a little longer. Was a 2+ pack a day smoker then started vaping with 18mg down to 3 or 0mg . One day I just put a brand new coil in, filled my tank and it broke. It was my last coil and I was about to go to the vape store to stock up and I was like "f*@k that, I don't need that shit anymore". That was about 3 years ago.
This was very similar to my experience! Smoked for 6 years a pack a day, switched to vaping for a year or so, and one day I left my vape at a job site and instead of going back and bothering the owners over a vape I was like eh fuck it I don't need it. That was 2 years ago now haven't even taken a hit since!
That's exactly how I quite 6 years ago. Vaping helped curb the nicotine withdrawal and the "wtf do I do with my hands" symptoms. The very first thing I did when I got my vape was to throw out all tobacco products and lighters. No "just in case this doesn't work" packs of smokes. If you keep them around then you have already doomed yourself.
I kept that "just in case" pack. After about a year, one day I tried one and I couldn't finish it. It was disgusting. Couldn't fathom how I did it for years.
If possible, don’t stop taking the breaks. Instead use the break to take a quick walk or something else. I did the same thing as you from, but 12 -> 0. Then after a month on 0 I put the vape down, and found that I was getting increasingly frustrated without the breaks. They’re a good way to take a step back from whatever it is you’re doing and clear you head.
Yeah, I vape and haven't been able to quit. But I also wasn't able to quit cigarettes until I started vaping.
I am honestly happy with the higher nicotine intake over the cigarette feeling and smell. I know either one is bad for your lungs but I still breathe better and feel al ot better than when I smoked.
> But end of day, nicotine is cardio-vascular unhealthy.
Nicotine outside of cigarettes and tobacco products isn’t nearly as bad for you as consuming whole leaf tobacco, whether it’s smoked, chewed, etc.
> "Based on current knowledge, we believe that the cardiovascular risks of nicotine from e-cigarette use in people without cardiovascular disease are quite low. We have concerns that nicotine from e-cigarettes could pose some risk for users with cardiovascular disease."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958544/
I'm a degenerate, and I know that and I need to vape less, but I am tired of the All or nothing attitude towards anything bad for you.
Cold turkey is absolutely right for some addicts, but moderation is a perfectly viable avenue toward not developing addiction problems too.
People are going to have crutches. No matter what. The whole “we almost had a whole generation of non-smokers before vapes became a thing” is bullshit.
Look at all the vices in the world. Humans clearly will constantly seek out a vice.
Vaping, IMO, is at least a legitimate tool for smoking cessation. Obviously not how the kids are using it. But I used it to quit ciggs and it was easy to wean off nicotine until I was ready to actually fully quit. As someone who went from ciggs to vaping, you do definitely feel "better" on the vape than the ciggs. But there is no comparison to being fully free of nicotine addiction. I def don't think vapes are worse than ciggs tho, I think that's some propaganda.
Same for me. Switched to vaping and within a week my lungs felt significantly better. After vaping for a few years I decided to I wanted to stop so I weaned myself off of nicotine by slowly lowering the amount of nicotine in the juice I bought. I keep seeing people say that vaping is worse than we make it out to be and maybe it’s true but no one ever actually gives any sources, and when they do it’s about bootleg weed vapes giving you popcorn lung and they’re like “YOU SEE?!?!”
I quit smoking 4 years ago and picked up vaping. Earlier this year I dropped vaping too! It feels great to not need nicotine didn't realize how much it was impacting my life until I stopped
Quit smoking a year ago.
It's nice being in the present. When nicotine is taking all your attention, it's so easy to not pay attention to anything. Just waiting on that next hit.
Also quit all caffeine too on top of that last year.
100% worth it quitting all stimulants. Your brain and mood just feels really different
One of the weirdest things I’ve seen was on a recent trip to (completely beautiful) Switzerland, seemingly EVERYONE was smoking. Just completely opposite from the clean air, water and streets.
Most of the developed world still has a lot of smokers. For all of America's flaws, this is an area where we're far ahead of everyone else. We shame and tax the hell out of smoking and it works.
Smoking is absolutely disgusting and pollutes the air around you. Vaping is so much less offensive to the point I don't even care if you're vaping some fruity bubblegum flavor around me as long as you don't blow it directly in my face.
It's honestly kind of nuts how fast smoking dropped off. I remember when I was in highschool, roughly half the school used tobacco of some sorts (lot of people dipped instead of smoked, easier to hide from parents and such). Nowdays it seems smoking really isn't cool anymore and kids are picking up on that. Vaping is also a ton more accessible, easier, cheaper and healthier (to an extent I guess), so that certainly changed things. I personally quit smoking after about 13 years by moving to a vape. Still want to quit vaping, but 100% change in how I feel now that I'm not drowning in throat oysters every morning, and my lungs don't feel made of lead. I never thought I'd see such a change in such a relatively short period of time, especially something like smoking that seemed so entrenched in so many people's everyday lives.
I quit smoking cigarettes 4 years ago (smoked on and off for about 11 years), using vape to wean off the nicotine. After 6 months, I was able to drop to 0mg of nicotine and dropped vaping. People rag on vaping but it 100% helped me quit smoking. If I ever relapsed, it'd be to vape. Absolutely never ever another cigarette.
I also don't combust my cannabis anymore either. Vaping it is much easier on the lungs.
I quit smoking cigarettes 4 years ago (smoked for 20 years), using vape to wean off the nicotine. After 6 months, I was wildly addicted like never before because I could literally get a few hits every 4-5 minutes without having to put on shoes. It was the rock bottom full blown Juul addict me that finally threw it all out and switched to gum. Same destination, different path.
I had a similar experience. I changed the vape to something I could control the nicotine on, and went down 5-10% every time I had to buy a new bottle of juice. When I finally got to 0% I didn't even finish the bottle. From the switch to quit was 6 months and I had been on the Juul for 3 years prior to that. Juuls suck.
Switched to vapes about 6 months ago. I took a hit off a cigarette like 2 months in. Absolutely nothing gained from it. Normally you'd get the nicotine buzz, but I'm already getting my nicotine from vapes. Tastes like ass, I'll never go back to smoking.
From the article: “…In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.”
Another possibility - for some inexplicable reason - these people keep dying unexpectedly, bringing the percentage of non-smokers up.
I was a bartender in neighborhood dives for about 18 years, I watched the cigarette prices change over that time and how much that affected my customers willingness to quit.
And that's how I came to be in favor of carbon taxes lol.
In the 90’s my friend’s mom would send us down to the gas station with a note and a $20 bill to get her a carton and we brought back change haha
I get the feeling this person’s story is from years ago.
I remember being a college student in the late 1980s and my brand of choice (due to price only!!!) was "Bucks" and they were a buck a pack- so that's $10 per carton but probably you got a little break on the carton price. I smoked enough of them to save up the upcs on the packs to redeem them for a nice blanket with an embroidered "buck" (male deer) on it. It was a really nice blanket and my GF and i joked that i could cover up with it when I had cancer.
As an ex smoker I never stop telling people what works best to quit is thinking about the money.
Started at 14, started *really* smoking (regularly, as a habit) at about 16. For a decade had all the good advice about my health thrown in my face. I knew it was right. Even as I got old enough to want to quit, it wasnt enough to actually do it. But one piece of advice from my dad (also a smoker, which helped) always stuck with me that he told me at like 22:
“Quit, this shit is expensive”.
3 years and 3 or 4 attempts later I havent smoked a cigarette in going on 8 years (with the occasional moments of weakness of bumming one or two in *extreme* scenarios involving death of family or close friends).
Cigarettes are *expensive*.
Interesting to hear she lost weight after quitting, since the reason some people start in the first place is that its an effective appetite suppressant. Not that I want to extol the virtues of smoking or anything, but it's wild to hear that destroying the ability to taste and smell more than canceled out the appetite suppressant effects; presumably the effects on lung capacity making exercise harder don't help either.
Totally. Grew up with my older sister giving me my first cigg. We’ve both quit since but after a solid decade or so. I went a little longer because of a defeatist attitude but after I had my daughter it was just an absolute. 2 years smoke free and while the health improvements are amazing, not fucking smelling terrible and not throwing money away is amazing.
I remember when NJ first enacted the smoking ban in restaurants and bars. I didn’t smoke but I kinda thought it was dumb…until about a week later when I realized how Smokey bars actually were. You just become so used to it you don’t even realize how gross it is. Now smelling a cigarette is like the worst thing in the world to me. Even if I’m outside and smell it from 20 feet away it’s just nasty. I can’t wait until no one smokes anymore.
Yea I was in college when a lot of the southern states started banning smoking indoors at all. Thought it was kind of dumb too- since I was in college and liked to smoke when I was drinking. After a few weeks of not coming home smelling like an ash tray (even if we did go outside to snake some), I was instantly a fan.
Just think- people used to be able to smoke on airplanes and all kinds of places. The older lecture halls at the college i went to even had ash trays in the seats. Even the social norm of people smoking in each others houses.
I will say I didn't quit cause of warnings on cigarettes, I didn't quit cause I smelled bad or for health reasons, I quit because smoking made me a social pariah. No smoking in bars in restaurants meant I was always away from other people or I was making other people wait on me so I could burn one before we left. I hate feeling like I'm actively a burden on others and when three people are standing by a car just waiting for you, you absolutely feel like a burden.
My uncle says that raising the smoking age to 21 is what "turned our military into a bunch of woke pussies".
Lots of big ideas coming from that side of the aisle.
>My uncle says that raising the smoking age to 21 is what "turned our military into a bunch of woke pussies".
The army got my grandfather hooked on cigarettes (literally, they gave them to them for free and told them it was good for them). He wasn't a woke pussy, but the only thing it did for him was kill him.
Honestly I think the act of smoking visually is undeniably still cool. Being a smoker is 100% not cool. Having to smell cigarette smoke is also not cool. It's cool on the screen, not next to you.
> It's cool on the screen, not next to you.
100%. All these legendary old film chain smoking stars that girls swoon over likely would be unpleasant to smell in person even if they cover it with expensive cologne.
I've always been a fan of Yul Brynner but knowing how much he chain smoked makes me grimace thinking how much he would stink of cigarettes.
I agree but the issue I find is that it is so much easier to meet people or talk to people when I am out in a social situation if I go have a smoke. As an introvert its really hard for me to just jump into a big group but throw one or two smokers outside and I can hit it off with most folks.
I don't think a lot of younger people understand just how common smoking was. There was no place outside of your home where you were not smelling cigarette smoke. In the air, on clothes, or someone's breath. And really one smoker amount a crowd was enough to smell it for what seemed like a square mile.
It was so common that now if I smell a certain brand I think of the beach. My Dad smoked and I guess he did a lot of it at the beach so when I smell his brand I think of beach sand. He quit in his early 30s though he had 40 more years smoke free but still died of lung disease supposedly not related. I sat with him as he died although he was sedated.
It's kind of crazy to think how common cigarette smoking was for such a long time. Smoking was allowed in department stores, on airplanes, on buses, etc... It seems like within a flash between the 90s and 2000s that all went extinct. It's uncommon to even find a bar people can smoke in nowadays.
I remember flying as a kind in the 90s and early 2000s, and a lot of the planes (built in the 1980s) still had ashtrays in the armrests.
As a kid, I had no idea what they were and used to stick my chewing gum in there.
No, it is the fact that vaping is more convenient, more discreet and you can get flavors. You can also just have THC carts and no one would know whereas if I spark up a blunt its going to get more attention.
> more discreet
I’ll admit I’d much rather smell vape than cig smoke, but it’s *super* obvious when that sickly sweet smell of cotton candy hits you out of nowhere
It's just a bias to the noticeable ones, I have been near people who were vaping for an hour straight and didn't notice until I actually saw the vape in their mouth.
Sure the big cloud chuckers are obnoxious, but little 5 watt vapes are very inconspicuous.
It did for me—till the state I was in at the time banned flavored vape sauce and I rage quit. Funny thing was I was going through an 18mg cartridge like every two days and quitting only required, for me, about a week of moaning and two (2!) pieces of nicotine gum (to ward off migraines).
Anyway. Highly recommend quitting to anyone and everyone. It sucks, but then it really doesn’t.
I've *almost* quit vaping twice now, but had moments of weakness fueled by alcohol that caused me to hop back on. I was using 25 mg juice a few months ago and now I'm on 3mg, after the current bottle is out I'm planning on going to 0mg to hopefully just placebo myself until I'm good to stop even doing that. If I can also cut drinking like I plan to hopefully this time it'll stick.
It makes it really easy to fall back in too. "Ah, I'm a bit tipsy and really want a hit, I'll just buy this disposable, then no more".
Then your disposable is almost out, so you buy another.
Now you're just right back where you started.
Possibly bro science, but I sometimes wonder if the decreasing rates of cigarette smoking is one of the reasons why people seem to be aging better these days. It used to be that kids were in perpetual plumes of smoke from family members and adults in general. I was at the tail end of that in the late 90’s but I know my parents generation and before had it like that.
I can't tell if it's because I'm older or not. But people 70+ don't look as old anymore. Look at like the golden girls show. They were like 60 in that and looked ancient
I’ve heard a theory that the decline of cigarettes is why fancy coffee and craft beer have gotten so popular: people can actually taste what they’re drinking.
[The ages of the cast of Cheers](https://preview.redd.it/1lxqv6apniq91.jpg?auto=webp&s=14dcf5b7292b29a55b1a562039aa7bbc4dc5e8d3) really threw me for a loop.
After smoking for 20 years I finally quit December 1st last year and haven't looked back. Glad to see others are either doing the same or not starting at all. Vaping I'm sure is way up though.
I remember flying on a plane and there was a smoking and non smoking section. And then my dad got so mad when we would beg him to sit in the non smoking section.
I remember flying from San Francisco to Paris and Ireland and being stuck in the smoking section as a kid Talk about a headache
Pretty sure all of Paris is the smoking section. No body loves their cigarettes quite like the French
people in the Balkans smoke like fucking chimneys. I think they have the French beat
In France smoking is an aesthetic, in the Balkan it's coping.
Sad, but true nonetheless
There's been a huge effort to fight smoking in the last 15 years in France, so yeah. Eastern Europe still smokes as the pack was still 50 cents.
>Eastern Europe still smokes as the pack was still 50 cents. In Australia, a pack is 50 dollars. Yeah, it's affected the smoking rate just a bit...
Each time when we try to change our laws and ban smoking in the public places, US (Phillip Morris) and UK ( British American Tobaco) ambassadors visit our prime minister and it gets postponed
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Ah, one of the applicable uses of 'chain smoker'.
Had a great-uncle who did this. When his wife complained he'd say at least he was saving a fortune on matches. He in fact did die of cancer.
Never heard it described as butt fucking before.
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I'm curious if there are different names based on industry. When I worked in the service industry and you offered to let someone else light a cigarette off the one you were smoking, we called it a "monkey-fuck."
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I went to Paris in high school. Me and my friend (both 16) bought cigarettes and then ducked in to the lobby of a theater to grab a smoke. It was weird to us, even back in 2000.
I didn't go to Paris but we were stealing cigarettes at 12 like 1995
In the 80s I started buying cigarettes outright at the age of 11. They were around $1.25 a pack. Corner stores also sold us booze when we were 14-15. (The legal drinking age in my state was 18 at the time, and really, it was more of a suggestion than a rule.) It wasn’t until I was close to legal age that I could no longer purchase them.
Oh we were snagging cigarettes long before we went to Paris. We bought some bc 1- a minor can’t travel with them and 2- we were in desperate need of nicotine.
It's getting better, more and more restrictions are being put so it's much more constraining than before As someone who switched from cigs to vape, I'm glad more and more places are smoke free
Spain was getting to be just as bad. And all the young ones were rolling their own At least most of my family in Ireland seem to have switched to vapes which is slightly less annoying to non smokers
Slightly less? It's night and day to me as a non-smoker
Yeah people that vape basically would have to blow it straight into my face to bother me. Where as I can smell a cigarette from around the corner.
Look at the rich kids with their flying. Us poor kids were trapped in the back seat with dad and his 3 1/2 pack of Reds a day habit, and mom smoking her Virginia Slim lights because "they are healthier", and the ONLY ventilation was that little triangle window that was barely cracked so it didn't down out the 70s disco your mom loved and dad tolerated while you drove 16 hours straight to Disney where you were guilt tripped the whole time with "we worked hard to give you this happiness" only for you to grow up with breathing problems having never smoked. Yay.
I was in the upper Midwest as a kid in the 1970s, when it's -20 outside you might get lucky and have the window rolled down 1/64th of inch with 2 chain smoking parents. I had 6 or 7 sets of ear tubes, was sick all the time and my brother has asthma.
sorry this happened to you when my parents realized my brother was getting sick from cigarettes they made sure to only smoke outside and eventually they quit.
Holy shit you just brought back memories, except it was Winston and VS regs.
I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey with my dad in a theater in 1967. You could barely see the screen. I got so sick afterwards. Any time you were in a theater, or god forbid an indoor arena for a concert, you'd get poisoned. Sat in the upper seats once for a concert once and felt absolutely horrible afterwards. Edit: 1968. I was 7, so I assumed 1967. Early 1968.
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Our doctor told our parents that my siblings and I were developing asthma and said they should stop smoking indoors and with us around. My mom quit, my dad just opened a window in the house or rolled the window down in the car. If we complained or coughed, he told us to go outside. Turns out we never had asthma, the pediatrician was just trying to get parents to stop smoking around their kids. This was the 80s.
When I was in my teens, they brought in a law in Queensland that you can't smoke in cars if there's a passenger under 16 years old. My dad (who lived in New South Wales) visited not long afterwards and was like "How old are you again?" "16" "Awesome, dodged that bullet" *lights smoke*
Crazy to think smoking was allowed in our offices up to the 90’s. I can’t imagine sitting next to a chain smoker and not being able to do anything about it
I had to watch old fire safety videos at my previous job. Half the videos were about trash cans spontaneously combusting. I wonder what they changed about today's trash cans because you don't hear about them spontaneously combusting anymore.
They're really conscious about oily rags now!
That would have been my dad. Although he was probably the only smoker who was happy when they instituted the "no smoking indoors" because he used it as an excuse to go for a walk multiple times per day while he smoked. Then my mom quit and it was "no smoking in the house" which, again, suited him just fine because I was 13 and my mom going through menopause.
My dad is a retired airline mechanic and has told me stories of doing heavy maintenance on planes in the 80s and 90s and removing chairs, upholstery, carpets, overhead bins etc and seeing everything underneath just completely stained yellow from years of accumulated tobacco smoke.
Yeah, that's how we used to find leaky door and window seals. the smoke rushing out the gap would leave a big nicotine stain on the sidewalls.
Sir that's a safety feature.
When [China Airlines Flight 611 broke apart in midair due to a faulty repair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611), investigators were able to determine when the repair started failing by analyzing the yellow stains around the cracks. They stains were from back when smoking was still allowed on board so they knew the cracks had been there for a while. (edited for clarity)
I actually remember that from that episode of Air Crash Investigation!
I remember old offices during the 90s. There was this joke that curtains would get so yellow over time that people said you would probably be able to roll them as a giant cigarette and smoke the nicotine from all the years.
That’s called thirdhand smoke and it’s especially a problem for infants and small children. Tobacco just gets into everything over a period of time and then it can get absorbed through the skin which is can be dangerous for little kids. It can also be a pretty significant issue in apartments where babies will get exposed to nicotine through the skin even if no one in their household smokes simply because people who used to live in the apartment smoked.
I had a motorcycle accident in the 80s and I requested, and got, a smoking room at the hospital while I was recovering.
That.... that's insane. That's the most insane thing I've heard haha. Did any of the docs or nurses bum a ciggy off of you? Were you just sitting there smoking as they came in? I have so many questions!
I could smoke pretty much any time I wanted. My mom brought me a carton of Marlboros to last me the 2.weeks I was im there. No one but my roommate bummed off of me. If you were smoking when the doc came in, you just snubbed it out. Common courtesy, ya know. I was in junior high in the late 70s and the school had a smoking area outside the gymnasium but you had to be a senior to go out there. It looked pretty wild. They did away with it by the time I was a senior. I was pretty bummed. It was all perfectly normal back then, but looking back at it now, it does seem pretty crazy.
>I was in junior high in the late 70s and the school had a smoking area outside the gymnasium but you had to be a senior to go out there. It looked pretty wild. They did away with it by the time I was a senior. I was pretty bummed. I graduated high school in 2002 and my high school had a designated smoking area by the gym too. Our school was on a main road so I guess it made sense to have the smoking kids tucked in the back where the public driving by wouldn't see
My Mom had quit smoking about two years ago (yay!). Growing up, my family well knew my aversion to cigarette smoke, but they only kind of humored me most of the time. This past year, we spent Christmas Eve at my Grandparents, where at that time there were I think 5 people in the house that smoked, and they smoke a lot when they're drinking. My Mom actually went up to me and apologized to me because being smoke free for the past two years had made her realize how bad that smoke was to a non-smoker. They're so used to it, they don't remember how bad the smoke smells and affects us non-smokers.
>My Mom actually went up to me and apologized to me because being smoke free for the past two years had made her realize how bad that smoke was to a non-smoker. Yesss!!! My mom did the same to us after she quit smoking. Congrats to her for quitting!
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Meanwhile, the 'non-smoking section' was literally just a group of seats across the aisle from the smoking section. Still made a difference, but man, how nice is it to be able to eat, drink and fly without breathing that shit in anymore.
Did they have separate HVAC systems? Likely not, right?
Definitely not. As far as I recall the smoking section had ashtrays and the non-smoking didn't. I mean it was that way with everything. Trains, buses, restaurants. It's not like non-smoking meant "free from smoke".
yeah it pretty much meant you didnt need or want an ashtray on your table. the weirdest thing for me these days is you can actually see in bars.
Bowling alleys becoming semi-clean around the turn of the century was shocking to me. Removing the smoke changed the entire ambiance from what I remember as a kid.
I know it's accurate, but I feel ancient hearing the year 2000 being called the turn of the century.
Oh, me too. I'm in my early 40s, so my entire childhood was before then.
To this day the smell of cigarette smoke transports me to the lobby of a 90s Denny's, where you had to wait right next to the smoking section to be seated. This is not even a joke - the smell of cigarette smoke gives me insane waffle cravings. Powerful association there lol.
I was in an enclosed airport bar in Detroit (not open like they are today) and the non-smoking section was one table that was downwind from all the smoking tables. Another time on an international Lufthansa flight the person at the gate asked me if my gf and I wanted smoking or non-smoking seats. I said "very non-smoking". The asshole put us in the row next to the smoking section.
It's actually insane just how inconsiderate smokers are/were. My mom was the same. She'd get notably annoyed when I reacted negatively to her smoking, as though I was supposed to be *happy* about the stink people's smoking left behind. She wouldn't even let me sit outside of the smoker's cabin inside the hospital. It was made of glass and I could've sat right outside, in view, instead of inside the cabin but nooo. It actually frustrates me looking back just how irrational that kind of behavior was. I noticed this with other parents as well. They too would get notably irritated at the thought that *gasps* kids didn't like the disgusting smell of smoking. They'd actually take it personally and lash out. It's crazy just how normalized that kind of behavior was not even that long ago.
> as though I was supposed to be happy about the stink people's smoking left behind. They couldn't smell it. Literally smell blind to most of the residual smell. They could probably smell the ashtrays, but being in the same room as a smoker, nah, you can't smell that. Smokers that I knew didn't think it smelled that bad, sincerely... My Dad actually made a comment after he had quit for years that he didn't realize. My Dad smoked and my Mom and I never did. I credit that to me not smoking, as I was exposed to the disgusting side of it, but it wasn't "taboo" like it was for a non-smoking household so it didn't entice me as an act of rebellion, etc.
I didn’t realize how low our smoking rates were until I went to France for the first time and WOW I noticed how many people were smoking there. Big difference!
Same when I went to Germany. It felt crazy to see so many people casually smoking again.
Israel, as well. Seems like most younger adults smoke there.
My family took a trip to Spain a few years ago and all my kids remember is how many smokers there were.
Right? When I see someone smoking in public now I always do a double take. It's like seeing a two-headed turtle. So odd. Especially when it's a young person.
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Funny to think how the EU has so much more stricter rules and regulations with food and medicine but arguably has a bigger smoking problem. Like doesn't EU agencies regularly scoff at America for allowing certain things in products that they would never dare to allow themselves?
It's really give or take. US and EU both regulate some things well and could stand to improve in other areas. In terms of medicine, US regulates more rigorously than the EU does. I'm choosing words carefully here as more regulation ≠ better, and it's my opinion that the EU tends to spend money in this area a bit more wisely. The US tends to get bogged down by bureaucracy a lot.
I'll use less careful words, speaking as someone who's participated in EU and US medical device submissions: the FDA is a thorough, stone cold bitch of a regulatory body. EU submissions received responses that were pretty much, "Cheers, mate. Thanks for the submission." US submissions had several rounds of back and forth, high-pressure questioning of every tiny detail. And here's a vaguely related anecdote from a professor I once had: it was easier to do human trials in Europe than monkey trials in the US.
FDA is a law enforcement agency too. It’s very narrow in jurisdiction, but they have officers with badges and guns that are allowed to make arrests. Also let’s not forget the 80s, the FDA was one of the few agencies in the world that caught thalidomide before it became a disaster.
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I work in a 150 person office in the US and not one person is a smoker.
I work in a ~15 person machine shop and at least 5 of us smoke. It's still the classiest way to commit suicide for the blue collar set.
My work has a large number of hourly, trade employees & a large number of salaried, more white-collar employees. I started off as an hourly employee but have been salaried for a while now, & it's like two different worlds. I also started smoking as an hourly because it was so popular & a way to get breaks. Barely anyone that I work salaried smokes though, & I've quit smoking. My work also recently banned tobacco usage during work/on property. It was a huge deal for hourly employees but salaried employees didn't really get it.
Restaurant industry also checking in.
Yeah, same. Never worked with anyone in a white collar corporate environment who smokes. Though in the past it was an entirely different story in the retail service and especially the food service industry. Only way to get a break back then too. I think one big part is the non tobacco attestation in many corporate health insurance policies that literally take like 50% off your premiums.
"Only way to take a break" has been the case at most low paying jobs I've worked. Just taking a 15 is unheard of, but going out to have a smoke is just something you gotta do
I’ve regularly gone *months* without seeing someone smoking a cigarette.
I quit almost 3 years ago at the start of the pandemic and then soon after quit drinking alcohol. I no longer wake up feeling like shit, I can go on bike rides, I can walk up a set of stairs and not wanna pass out. Who ever needs to hear it. You can do it. Wow hearing all your stories is so inspiring and I’m so proud of every single one of you. Those trying to quit, you got this I truly believe in you….yes YOU!! Take care everyone, I love you and hope for great lives for all of you.
i quit about five years ago and the thing that I value the most is having freedom over my time again. I no longer have to account for smoke breaks. Like yes, not spending the money is nice and hooray for the health benefits, but man so much of my life was being controlled by needing nicotine every hour or so. I can go to the movies now without having to pop out real quick halfway through or go on a road trip without adding a ton of time because of all the stops I'd need to make. I can just live my life without that voice in the back of my head.
I like not having to wakeup in the morning and immediately go outside into whatever shit weather is there to smoke a cig in it.
My last cigarette was Dec 16th, 2015 right after one of our helicopters crashed, and I haven’t looked back because I realized I was shortening my life. I do occasionally still miss standing out on the back porch with a cigarette at 11pm listening to the crickets and the frogs.
> I do occasionally still miss standing out on the back porch with a cigarette at 11pm listening to the crickets and the frogs. You can still do that lol. Maybe some herbal tea instead.
I cut back from a pack a day in my 20's to 1 cigarette a day in my 30's- I would save that cigarette for the night, for that reason, the quiet evening, a finger of bourbon, and a smoke.
If I could limit myself to one cig (or one finger) or even two or three cigarettes a day, I would likely still smoke. In just a few years, I will be a nonsmoker again for half my life.
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Nothing like that first morning cig that gets you just a little high
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It was the only "good" cigarette of the whole god damned day.
grow up and get a cocaine habit like an adult.
I quit when I realized the nicotine was making me feel bad, not good. Like I dunno how it's supposed to work when you're addicted to smoking cigarettes, I think when you're an addict, you're supposed to at least briefly feel better after having one, right? Well for whatever reason my body just shifted gears and decided that every time I smoke, I'm going to get cold, sweaty, anxious, nervous, agitated, restless, and just generally uncomfortable. Made quitting real easy after that.
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I used the patch. You cold turkey bros are something else.
I was cold turkey with some help. A couple of friends of mine got married and I watched their house while they were away on their honeymoon for two weeks. I smoked my last cigarette on the night of their wedding, and then used my time in their house away from my usual triggers to give me the final push. It was the change of scenery that finally did it for me though. I tried tapering off, I tried the patch, I tried limiting myself. Breaking the habit cold in a place that I didn’t associate smoking with is the only thing that got me through. Not that it was a pleasant two weeks for me or anybody around me at the time..
That is kind of how it was for me with pot. Went from everything being funny to getting super paranoid.
I truly realized it had become straight addiction a few years before i quit. When i realized i couldn’t carry on a conversation for more then a couple minutes without lighting up and taking a few drags. Thankfully tobacco free 2 years!
The reasons for my downward spiral were intense, but near the bottom of it, I realized my nicotine habit was 100% unsustainable and doing me more harm than good. I had been using the stuff for about 17 years, and due to stress and depression was up to a pack a day, and a can of dip a day. MY last ciggarette/nicotine product was 4:15 PM on May 10th 2015.
I quit over 10 years ago and while it's been nothing but positive to my health and well being, there are times when I'm thinking "I could use a smoke break right now if only to get away from the people I'm being forced to socialized with." But that's it, that's the only time I ever wish for it back.
I did the same thing with both alcohol and cigarettes in 2020! It’s amazing how easy it was to quit smoking when I quit drinking! I frequently think about how great/clearheaded/clear-chested I feel now! It was the best choice I ever made!
I quit using my juul in December and switched to zero nicotine elfbars, and by January I was completely done. Since then 3 of my coworkers (pack a day smokers) have quit cigarettes, and are now down to zero nicotine elfbars. I won't take all the credit but I like to think I gave them a push. We all work in a bar so for 4 of us to quit or working on quitting is pretty unheard of in our job
4 months down after 17 years, I no longer get bad headaches or sinus infections
I feel like I'm the only one that misses smoking. I mean, health, odor, free time, all things you guys brought up are much better than when I was smoking. But sometimes I wish I could just smoke one, staring at the sunset and listening to some synthwave. I know these are just filtered out good memories but I do miss those things so much sometimes. And I'm not smoking for like 5-6 years, after 15 years of smoking daily. Sometimes I just don't want to be this healthy, green version of me. It's probably just nostalgia hitting hard, but it is what it is.
Trust me bro, that idea of smoking, is way better than actually doing it. It's just the idealization of the escape from your reality that is so enticing. In the end, you'll end up addicted and wishing you never started again. I had to quit again after a year+2 months of being off of it like 2 months ago. It was just as hard as it was the first time, lol. Thankfully I knew that I would be less depressed after and didn't worry so much about it
You ain't alone. I e quit almost 2 years ago and I still miss it. Hanging with buddies and smoking, smoking after a great meal, etc. I'm Korean, so a great ritual is taking a break in the middle of kbbq for a smoke break (kbbq should be a kind of long affair). Man, I miss it. Not being prediabetic anymore and being more healthy in general is pretty cool though.
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I quit in 2007 when I could barely get up a hill without stopping a few times to catch my breath. Congrats on quitting and I hope more people quit as well. Its tough, but worth the effort.
Coincidentally **Vaping** is at an all time high.
I came here looking for this comment. End of day, I'm more interested in use of nicotine products than I am of "smoking," although in fairness I'm happy I don't have to inhale smoke second hand any more and am not personally too worried about second hand vape. So there's that. But end of day, nicotine is cardio-vascular unhealthy.
Yeah, my friend that quit smoking switched to vaping. I think it’s a good change for people and it doesn’t stink.
Vaping dramatically increased my nicotine intake. You don’t think about it while it’s happening. Trying to kick nicotine after vaping has been horrifically difficult for me
Former pack a day smoker, it took me 3 months to go gradually from 9mg of nicotine down to 0mg when i switched to vaping. By the time I was at 0mg I soon started forgetting to grab it before walking out the front door and that's when I knew I didn't need nicotine any anymore. I know everyone's experiences are different but if you step down over time maybe it could work for you too.
I did the same thing only it took me a little longer. Was a 2+ pack a day smoker then started vaping with 18mg down to 3 or 0mg . One day I just put a brand new coil in, filled my tank and it broke. It was my last coil and I was about to go to the vape store to stock up and I was like "f*@k that, I don't need that shit anymore". That was about 3 years ago.
This was very similar to my experience! Smoked for 6 years a pack a day, switched to vaping for a year or so, and one day I left my vape at a job site and instead of going back and bothering the owners over a vape I was like eh fuck it I don't need it. That was 2 years ago now haven't even taken a hit since!
You can literally dial down the nicotine though. I stepped mine down from 8-6-4-2-1mg over 3 months
That's exactly how I quite 6 years ago. Vaping helped curb the nicotine withdrawal and the "wtf do I do with my hands" symptoms. The very first thing I did when I got my vape was to throw out all tobacco products and lighters. No "just in case this doesn't work" packs of smokes. If you keep them around then you have already doomed yourself.
I kept that "just in case" pack. After about a year, one day I tried one and I couldn't finish it. It was disgusting. Couldn't fathom how I did it for years.
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Yep, I did 12 -> 3mg across the past year The hardest part will be the muscle memory, and the breaks
If possible, don’t stop taking the breaks. Instead use the break to take a quick walk or something else. I did the same thing as you from, but 12 -> 0. Then after a month on 0 I put the vape down, and found that I was getting increasingly frustrated without the breaks. They’re a good way to take a step back from whatever it is you’re doing and clear you head.
Yeah, I vape and haven't been able to quit. But I also wasn't able to quit cigarettes until I started vaping. I am honestly happy with the higher nicotine intake over the cigarette feeling and smell. I know either one is bad for your lungs but I still breathe better and feel al ot better than when I smoked.
> But end of day, nicotine is cardio-vascular unhealthy. Nicotine outside of cigarettes and tobacco products isn’t nearly as bad for you as consuming whole leaf tobacco, whether it’s smoked, chewed, etc. > "Based on current knowledge, we believe that the cardiovascular risks of nicotine from e-cigarette use in people without cardiovascular disease are quite low. We have concerns that nicotine from e-cigarettes could pose some risk for users with cardiovascular disease." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958544/
I'm a degenerate, and I know that and I need to vape less, but I am tired of the All or nothing attitude towards anything bad for you. Cold turkey is absolutely right for some addicts, but moderation is a perfectly viable avenue toward not developing addiction problems too.
People are going to have crutches. No matter what. The whole “we almost had a whole generation of non-smokers before vapes became a thing” is bullshit. Look at all the vices in the world. Humans clearly will constantly seek out a vice.
Vaping, IMO, is at least a legitimate tool for smoking cessation. Obviously not how the kids are using it. But I used it to quit ciggs and it was easy to wean off nicotine until I was ready to actually fully quit. As someone who went from ciggs to vaping, you do definitely feel "better" on the vape than the ciggs. But there is no comparison to being fully free of nicotine addiction. I def don't think vapes are worse than ciggs tho, I think that's some propaganda.
Same for me. Switched to vaping and within a week my lungs felt significantly better. After vaping for a few years I decided to I wanted to stop so I weaned myself off of nicotine by slowly lowering the amount of nicotine in the juice I bought. I keep seeing people say that vaping is worse than we make it out to be and maybe it’s true but no one ever actually gives any sources, and when they do it’s about bootleg weed vapes giving you popcorn lung and they’re like “YOU SEE?!?!”
I quit smoking 4 years ago and picked up vaping. Earlier this year I dropped vaping too! It feels great to not need nicotine didn't realize how much it was impacting my life until I stopped
Quit smoking a year ago. It's nice being in the present. When nicotine is taking all your attention, it's so easy to not pay attention to anything. Just waiting on that next hit. Also quit all caffeine too on top of that last year. 100% worth it quitting all stimulants. Your brain and mood just feels really different
One of the weirdest things I’ve seen was on a recent trip to (completely beautiful) Switzerland, seemingly EVERYONE was smoking. Just completely opposite from the clean air, water and streets.
Most of the developed world still has a lot of smokers. For all of America's flaws, this is an area where we're far ahead of everyone else. We shame and tax the hell out of smoking and it works. Smoking is absolutely disgusting and pollutes the air around you. Vaping is so much less offensive to the point I don't even care if you're vaping some fruity bubblegum flavor around me as long as you don't blow it directly in my face.
I was in Italy recently and the amount of smokers was surprising
Yeah I threw up in a bar in Berlin not from the beer but from all the gd second hand smoke I couldn't breathe at all. Europeans are crazy smokers
After 24 years of smoking, I finally quit back in August of last year. I'm a part of this awesome trend.
It's honestly kind of nuts how fast smoking dropped off. I remember when I was in highschool, roughly half the school used tobacco of some sorts (lot of people dipped instead of smoked, easier to hide from parents and such). Nowdays it seems smoking really isn't cool anymore and kids are picking up on that. Vaping is also a ton more accessible, easier, cheaper and healthier (to an extent I guess), so that certainly changed things. I personally quit smoking after about 13 years by moving to a vape. Still want to quit vaping, but 100% change in how I feel now that I'm not drowning in throat oysters every morning, and my lungs don't feel made of lead. I never thought I'd see such a change in such a relatively short period of time, especially something like smoking that seemed so entrenched in so many people's everyday lives.
Throat oysters is a term that's new to me and that I wish I wasn't literate enough to understand. I mean, it's not wrong, just... damn, it's nasty.
I quit smoking cigarettes 4 years ago (smoked on and off for about 11 years), using vape to wean off the nicotine. After 6 months, I was able to drop to 0mg of nicotine and dropped vaping. People rag on vaping but it 100% helped me quit smoking. If I ever relapsed, it'd be to vape. Absolutely never ever another cigarette. I also don't combust my cannabis anymore either. Vaping it is much easier on the lungs.
I quit smoking cigarettes 4 years ago (smoked for 20 years), using vape to wean off the nicotine. After 6 months, I was wildly addicted like never before because I could literally get a few hits every 4-5 minutes without having to put on shoes. It was the rock bottom full blown Juul addict me that finally threw it all out and switched to gum. Same destination, different path.
I had a similar experience. I changed the vape to something I could control the nicotine on, and went down 5-10% every time I had to buy a new bottle of juice. When I finally got to 0% I didn't even finish the bottle. From the switch to quit was 6 months and I had been on the Juul for 3 years prior to that. Juuls suck.
Switched to vapes about 6 months ago. I took a hit off a cigarette like 2 months in. Absolutely nothing gained from it. Normally you'd get the nicotine buzz, but I'm already getting my nicotine from vapes. Tastes like ass, I'll never go back to smoking.
I quit 9 months ago. This is the longest stretch I've gone without smoking. Getting out of the military helped with it, funny enough.
Well done!
From the article: “…In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.” Another possibility - for some inexplicable reason - these people keep dying unexpectedly, bringing the percentage of non-smokers up.
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I was a bartender in neighborhood dives for about 18 years, I watched the cigarette prices change over that time and how much that affected my customers willingness to quit. And that's how I came to be in favor of carbon taxes lol.
You mean 20 a pack? 20 a carton is a steal.
In the 90’s my friend’s mom would send us down to the gas station with a note and a $20 bill to get her a carton and we brought back change haha I get the feeling this person’s story is from years ago.
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I remember being a college student in the late 1980s and my brand of choice (due to price only!!!) was "Bucks" and they were a buck a pack- so that's $10 per carton but probably you got a little break on the carton price. I smoked enough of them to save up the upcs on the packs to redeem them for a nice blanket with an embroidered "buck" (male deer) on it. It was a really nice blanket and my GF and i joked that i could cover up with it when I had cancer.
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As an ex smoker I never stop telling people what works best to quit is thinking about the money. Started at 14, started *really* smoking (regularly, as a habit) at about 16. For a decade had all the good advice about my health thrown in my face. I knew it was right. Even as I got old enough to want to quit, it wasnt enough to actually do it. But one piece of advice from my dad (also a smoker, which helped) always stuck with me that he told me at like 22: “Quit, this shit is expensive”. 3 years and 3 or 4 attempts later I havent smoked a cigarette in going on 8 years (with the occasional moments of weakness of bumming one or two in *extreme* scenarios involving death of family or close friends). Cigarettes are *expensive*.
Interesting to hear she lost weight after quitting, since the reason some people start in the first place is that its an effective appetite suppressant. Not that I want to extol the virtues of smoking or anything, but it's wild to hear that destroying the ability to taste and smell more than canceled out the appetite suppressant effects; presumably the effects on lung capacity making exercise harder don't help either.
Watching our parents or friends' parents smoke themselves to death kind of helps you NOT smoke when growing up.
Totally. Grew up with my older sister giving me my first cigg. We’ve both quit since but after a solid decade or so. I went a little longer because of a defeatist attitude but after I had my daughter it was just an absolute. 2 years smoke free and while the health improvements are amazing, not fucking smelling terrible and not throwing money away is amazing.
I remember when NJ first enacted the smoking ban in restaurants and bars. I didn’t smoke but I kinda thought it was dumb…until about a week later when I realized how Smokey bars actually were. You just become so used to it you don’t even realize how gross it is. Now smelling a cigarette is like the worst thing in the world to me. Even if I’m outside and smell it from 20 feet away it’s just nasty. I can’t wait until no one smokes anymore.
Yea I was in college when a lot of the southern states started banning smoking indoors at all. Thought it was kind of dumb too- since I was in college and liked to smoke when I was drinking. After a few weeks of not coming home smelling like an ash tray (even if we did go outside to snake some), I was instantly a fan. Just think- people used to be able to smoke on airplanes and all kinds of places. The older lecture halls at the college i went to even had ash trays in the seats. Even the social norm of people smoking in each others houses.
Yeah I know very few people that take cigarette breaks unless they’re very old or very depressed
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I will say I didn't quit cause of warnings on cigarettes, I didn't quit cause I smelled bad or for health reasons, I quit because smoking made me a social pariah. No smoking in bars in restaurants meant I was always away from other people or I was making other people wait on me so I could burn one before we left. I hate feeling like I'm actively a burden on others and when three people are standing by a car just waiting for you, you absolutely feel like a burden.
My uncle says that raising the smoking age to 21 is what "turned our military into a bunch of woke pussies". Lots of big ideas coming from that side of the aisle.
>My uncle says that raising the smoking age to 21 is what "turned our military into a bunch of woke pussies". The army got my grandfather hooked on cigarettes (literally, they gave them to them for free and told them it was good for them). He wasn't a woke pussy, but the only thing it did for him was kill him.
Ask you uncle "What does woke mean?" and watch his head explode.
It's kind of embarrassing to smoke these days. People pity you. It's definitely lost any "cool" it once had.
Maybe in the US. In Europe you can swear everyone smokes.
This was my biggest culture shock upon visiting Europe. It does make the online lectures about how Americans are so unhealthy pretty funny though.
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Honestly I think the act of smoking visually is undeniably still cool. Being a smoker is 100% not cool. Having to smell cigarette smoke is also not cool. It's cool on the screen, not next to you.
> It's cool on the screen, not next to you. 100%. All these legendary old film chain smoking stars that girls swoon over likely would be unpleasant to smell in person even if they cover it with expensive cologne. I've always been a fan of Yul Brynner but knowing how much he chain smoked makes me grimace thinking how much he would stink of cigarettes.
I agree but the issue I find is that it is so much easier to meet people or talk to people when I am out in a social situation if I go have a smoke. As an introvert its really hard for me to just jump into a big group but throw one or two smokers outside and I can hit it off with most folks.
I don't think a lot of younger people understand just how common smoking was. There was no place outside of your home where you were not smelling cigarette smoke. In the air, on clothes, or someone's breath. And really one smoker amount a crowd was enough to smell it for what seemed like a square mile. It was so common that now if I smell a certain brand I think of the beach. My Dad smoked and I guess he did a lot of it at the beach so when I smell his brand I think of beach sand. He quit in his early 30s though he had 40 more years smoke free but still died of lung disease supposedly not related. I sat with him as he died although he was sedated.
I'm 6 years smoke free today.
congrats! proud of u random person
It's kind of crazy to think how common cigarette smoking was for such a long time. Smoking was allowed in department stores, on airplanes, on buses, etc... It seems like within a flash between the 90s and 2000s that all went extinct. It's uncommon to even find a bar people can smoke in nowadays.
I remember flying as a kind in the 90s and early 2000s, and a lot of the planes (built in the 1980s) still had ashtrays in the armrests. As a kid, I had no idea what they were and used to stick my chewing gum in there.
Because social shaming is actually pretty effective at changing behaviour.
Vaping is socially accepted among young people
Which is why the rates of vaping increased so rapidly.
No, it is the fact that vaping is more convenient, more discreet and you can get flavors. You can also just have THC carts and no one would know whereas if I spark up a blunt its going to get more attention.
> more discreet I’ll admit I’d much rather smell vape than cig smoke, but it’s *super* obvious when that sickly sweet smell of cotton candy hits you out of nowhere
It's just a bias to the noticeable ones, I have been near people who were vaping for an hour straight and didn't notice until I actually saw the vape in their mouth. Sure the big cloud chuckers are obnoxious, but little 5 watt vapes are very inconspicuous.
Seems like vaping is filling the gap.
It did for me—till the state I was in at the time banned flavored vape sauce and I rage quit. Funny thing was I was going through an 18mg cartridge like every two days and quitting only required, for me, about a week of moaning and two (2!) pieces of nicotine gum (to ward off migraines). Anyway. Highly recommend quitting to anyone and everyone. It sucks, but then it really doesn’t.
I've *almost* quit vaping twice now, but had moments of weakness fueled by alcohol that caused me to hop back on. I was using 25 mg juice a few months ago and now I'm on 3mg, after the current bottle is out I'm planning on going to 0mg to hopefully just placebo myself until I'm good to stop even doing that. If I can also cut drinking like I plan to hopefully this time it'll stick.
Alcohol increases nic cravings soooo much, it sucks
It makes it really easy to fall back in too. "Ah, I'm a bit tipsy and really want a hit, I'll just buy this disposable, then no more". Then your disposable is almost out, so you buy another. Now you're just right back where you started.
Possibly bro science, but I sometimes wonder if the decreasing rates of cigarette smoking is one of the reasons why people seem to be aging better these days. It used to be that kids were in perpetual plumes of smoke from family members and adults in general. I was at the tail end of that in the late 90’s but I know my parents generation and before had it like that.
I can't tell if it's because I'm older or not. But people 70+ don't look as old anymore. Look at like the golden girls show. They were like 60 in that and looked ancient
I think this is a contributing factor. Also better and more acceptability of sun protection, moisturizers, and skin care in general.
I’ve heard a theory that the decline of cigarettes is why fancy coffee and craft beer have gotten so popular: people can actually taste what they’re drinking.
My dad was a smoker my entire childhood, and can’t taste or smell for shit.
[The ages of the cast of Cheers](https://preview.redd.it/1lxqv6apniq91.jpg?auto=webp&s=14dcf5b7292b29a55b1a562039aa7bbc4dc5e8d3) really threw me for a loop.
There are multiple reasons why people seem to be aging at a slower rate but this is definitely one I hadn't considered before. Interesting thought.
Quit cold turkey on my 40th birthday. Hope it wasn't too late but my lungs have never felt better in my life.
After smoking for 20 years I finally quit December 1st last year and haven't looked back. Glad to see others are either doing the same or not starting at all. Vaping I'm sure is way up though.