Smokers really get screwed with SSI. The early departure limits lifetime payments.

Then you'd have to ban beer too... ...and I'd have to hunt you down and kill ya. :D

I call BS on that - I bet in a few years somebody will prove that high fructose corn syrup is addictive and causes obesity and a host of other crap.

They make it addictive - sweet, salty...they know all the angles!

today , marks 3 months clean for me

http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif Congratulations on the personal achievement. While personally I detest smoking, I really have to take my hat off http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat.gif to people who can manage to quit. That's a personal battle that I'm not sure that I could win.

I quit in January this year! After 30+ yrs of it gave it up cold turkey...............Just damn tired of smokin. I can still be around it and it doesn't seem to bother me. I have several friends that recently found out they had some type of cancer without ever havin smoke!! My sister-in-law was actually pissed at me for smoking when she found out that she had cancer, huh!! She never smoked and working in the medical field she was floored by it. If the doctors tell me I got cancer I'll go back to smoking for sure, by then what the h3ll. bottom line I don't care if you smoke or not and I don't care if you drink or take drugs or what ever. I'm doing what I want you do what you want..... Press 1 for Happy.

The WHO did a study that found similar results. IIRC, it said that second-hand smoke can aggrivate existing conditions, but didn't lead to a statistical rise in household asthma rates or cancer within families of smokers.

I do know one person who absolutely could die from second-hand smoke. He has extreme asthma and a few other conditions that basically combine and cause him to pass out during an attack. Asthma with (i think) laryngeal spasms... a bad combo. The vast majority of people might find the smoke a little irritating, but it's not going to kill them.

At the same time... society bans things that are deemed 'unacceptable' by the majority. Walking down the street naked doesn't hurt anyone, and neither does showing boobs on TV. The majority of people don't want to see it in public, so it's banned. Banning smoking in restaurants and bars seems like the same thing to me. Instead of using phony excuses about cancer, and hyping the evil of second hand smoke, why can't they just be honest and say that they don't want to smell it. There. end of story. If enough people don't want to smell it when they have dinner out with the family, that's a good enough reason for me.

No smokin' for me. My parents smoked when I was growing up, and I thought it was so disgusting, that I've never tried it. I think I am also not a personality to get addicted to things. I like the fact that most places don't allow smoking these days. It always sucks to go someplace to eat, shop, whatever and have smoke wafting at your face. I remember being a kid and seeing cigarette butts laying on the floor in grocery stores, department stores, or pretty much anyplace. Thank goodness times have changed.

Ban them? Well, I suppose in utopia there would be no alcohol, pot, nicotine, coke, heroine, etc..., but in this world even if you could successfully ban cigarettes, something else would just pop up in their place to provide addicts with what they want/need. I think we are doing well to regulate how much cigarettes affect others in public. Besides, cigarettes are potentially less harmful to others these days than alcohol or other drugs. Not many people have been killed because someone was smoking and driving.

i actually had a low speed curb bang in a sharp turn that took off left front wheel from the Saab , because i dropped a burning ciggie tip in my crotch and had to rescue the equipment from a burning heat the kind you don't wish on your worst enemy....

if that road would have been a mountain road... i could have been dead right there and then :D:D

Nicotine increasing in cigarettes
I wonder if it's because of cloned plants?

"There's something going on either with the type of tobacco they're using or the addition of more nicotine to the reconstituted tobacco. We just don't know," Connolly said.

I receive at least twice the nicotine levels as a heavy smoker. Swedish wet snuff.

If, hypothetically, someone were to invent cigarette smoking today it would probably be as illegal as heroin. And alcohol too. Culture and tradition are strong legislation steering wheels.

Markus,

I thought you were quitting dude....?

Tomorrow is week 6 of smoke-free for me. Still on the 1/2 dose patch. Based on the crazy junky brain antics going on in my head, there is no doubt that it's an incidious drug. [tinfoil hat] I wouldn't be suprised if they were maniupulating other chemicals in it too. [/tinfoil hat]

Here's another myth. Since the tobacco industry successfully avoided FDA scrutiny, that industry did it's own regulating. They made "Tar" the culprit.

There are low tar cigarettes. But the really insidious finding is that the tobacco companies found a way to grow tobacco that yields less tar while delivering more nicotine. Yeah, you can get low tar cigarettes......that are more addictive than the regular variety.

I quit a few years ago after smoking since adolescence, and I am sure that it destroys your health since my Dad is dying from throat cancer, but I would be 100% opposed to outlawing cigarettes. I have no doubt whatsoever that life was immeasurably better 50 years ago when every aspect of our existence was not legislated to death.

jluetjen, you say that you "detest smoking", do you mean when others smoke? Do you detest smokers? Because it's easy enough to solve the first problem by not smoking if you do not like it, but if you have a burning desire to control the lives of others that is another matter. If you detest people w/ vices, I hope that we never meet. I would be offended by your very presence.

They need to start a new country somewhere for all of the people who believe in never-ending, socialist/fascist legislating of life. Sort of a permanent exile/retreat for people w/ extreme control issues. They would all kill each other over condo association disputes and the like, but we could get rid of them and America could be a great place once again. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. :cool:

Well said speeder!
I also take issue with the remark about the workers being slackers taking a smoke break.... they wouldn't have to if there wasn't a ban in workplaces for smoking, they would simply keep on working and smoking. I quit years ago but I simply hate all this shiet regulations dropped down from the chosen ones.

As a side note,
It's funny how people in general express how nasty smoke smells, but burn leaves or seer some rotting flesh on a grill and that just wonderful. Seems bandwagon biased to me.

If you don't seer it you lose flavor! No way i'm wasting a quality cut of meat by letting the juice of life (aka protein) find its way into the grease trap.


Regarding smoking i'd like to make 4 points:

1-Menthols are soooo much better than regulars (and no i'm not black)
2-5 minute breaks behind the restaurant bull****ting with friends whilst enjoying a smokey treat (Kurt if you're out there i miss ya buddy!) are among my most fond memories from years ago.
3-It needs to be banned.
4-Every dollar spent on researching a cure for smoking caused illness is a dollar not spent on cures for childhood cancers, autism, etc.

The waste of resources spent essentially trying to find a way to allow people to smoke without consequence is disgusting and shameful.

You are doing great, Chris!

I am not. Obviously.. ;)