A little survey?

I was never involved in the Canadian or US military. The closest I got to that was visiting Trenton Ontario, driving by their base.

 

Sometimes a pipe or cigar when with friends.

Who drinks alcohol?

 

Not me or my immediate family

 

Remember the days when smoking was allowed on airplanes? I flew on a lot of commercial aircraft in the 1970s, and it seemed the entire cabin was filled with smoke. Man, that had to be terrible for the flight attendants, always being exposed to that second-hand smoke! I wonder how many of them developed cancer later on in life. I got off the plane, and my clothes would stink.

I worked in a large medical center in the early 1980s, and the nurses would smoke right there in the emergency room. They didn't do it in front of the patients, they went into a supply room and puffed away... filling it up with smoke. You could smell it all away down the halls and in the exam rooms.

But I don't believe for one minute, that the majority of Prius drivers are ultra healthy, and ultra "green." I think most just buy the Prius for the good gas mileage. And they certainly don't slow down in a Prius, they're always blowing by me like I'm standing still! (Crazy California drivers.)

 

Isn't that a cider?

 

Hmm, I think Prius owners in the Pacific Northwest (Washington/Oregon) as well as Colorado may actually smoke quite a bit, it's just what do they smoke HAHAHA.

And, no, not me....not even our newly legalized Hemp....I dated a smoker one night back when I was 18, that was one bad decision.....

 

You think that's bad? Try a room full of smokers working on a tobacco farm!

 

I used to smoke in the office. Thinking back, it seems kind of nuts.

Nowadays, the smokers have this semi-official perk: to skip out to the street 3~4 times daily.

 

Used to smoke tires if that counts.
Never smoked anything else though.
EMT then Paramedic from 18 years old until 25 really cut the desire as well. Nothing like walking into a trailer park in East County San Diego and seeing oxygen tubing running through the place and a guy sitting on the couch complaining of shortness of breath.....speechless and an explosion hazard. Great deal of my coworkers now though in a different industry seem to smoke quite a bit although most have moved to the "vapes" ....funny how most drive Subaru's too....i kid i kid......but seriously

 

I'm 36 years old. I first started smoking when I was about 15. Smoked cigarettes with friends through the summer, school started again and I had no time to run around with them so it just sorta stopped. Fast forward a few years, to 1999 - 2000. I was in college and working as the only on call desktop support for an organization of about 500 people. It was a 24/7 job and I'd often find myself torn away from whatever class project I was working on to go work where I'd stare at a computer for sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes several hours. I started smoking because I became friends with some in the organization and when they'd walk by an office I was in they'd say "hey want to go smoke!" so I'd take a quick break and often times I found the solution jumped out at me when I got back to it. (similar to how I do my best coding when drunk). After my contract ended in June of 2000 I just quit smoking. I never wanted a cigarette but I did find when I was in the bars I'd bum a smoke but it was more so I had something to do with my free hand. Just felt right to have a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. After a short period of time (month or two) that just went away as well. Then in 2005 or so my mother of all people bought me a humidor. She's also a nurse so you'd think she'd be against this. But I quickly filled that up with some random cigars and I started smoking those. Eventually I had to upgrade from that 30 count humidor to a 250 count as I became more of a collector, but I still smoke on a somewhat regular basis. It probably averages to about 1 or 2 cigars a month, in the winter I smoke much less. Again I never crave a cigar, but I do enjoy them. I view it more as a hobby than a habit. I haven't had one now for probably 2 months, but I keep two in a humidor at my desk at work. I should probably just take them home now though because with the cold weather finally here I won't touch them anytime soon.

The only vehicle I smoke in is my Jeep, no carpet, fiberglass roof (if there's a roof on it) means very little smell sticks around. Yesterday I was taking out my off-road stuff (straps, shackles, etc) to make room for a christmas tree and found a long forgotten cigar just sitting in there. It's probably ruined but I threw it in my humidor anyways..... maybe I am an addict?

 

What is with the vapes? I'm a bit curious about it and have seen the ones without nicotine so I was thinking of getting one. A cop buddy of mine, in passing, said that most of the people here in Colorado are using those vape pens for marijuana.

 

No, I don't smoke. I tried it when I was in my teens, and just thought it was horrible. The taste, the feel, the smell, everything.

It's definitely not for health reasons: I drink plenty of alcohol. I just don't like smoking. If I thought smoking was a bit nicer than not smoking, then health considerations would definitely come into it.

It's not for money reasons, either, but it does astound me that people will blow so much money on it. At the moment, a pack of 25 cigarettes in Australia costs around US$20, and the government has already said this will rise by 12.5% per year for four years, so it will have risen to about US$35 by 2020.

In my youth, I used to hate it when I'd come home from the pub stinking of cigarettes. Now, in Australia and Britain, you can't smoke in pubs, and it really is a vast improvement.

As @tochatihu will attest, China has long been terrible for this. The cigarettes smell even worse than Western ones, and for a long time, everyone smoked. It would often ruin a meal: you couldn't taste the delicious food because the four men at the next table would be chain-smoking.

But in Beijing now, they've banned smoking in restaurants, and it's made an enormous difference. One of the most interesting things is one of the ways it's enforced. In China, everyone uses WeChat, which is like Twitter and Facebook and Visa and Skype and WhatsApp all combined. If you see someone smoking in a restaurant and the staff won't do anything about it, you can take a photo and WeChat it to a Beijing government account. The photo carries GPS information and a timestamp. The Chengguan (municipal enforcement officers) will come straight round. If the smokers are still there, they'll be fined. If they're not, the restaurant will be fined.

 

Most airlines had their smoking sections at the back of the plane, which was bad enough. But on JAL and ANA, the two big Japanese airlines, the smoking section was on the left (or right?) and non-smoking was on the other side. So it really didn't matter whether you sat in smoking or non-smoking: the smell was pretty much the same either way.

 

When I went to Britain at Easter, I was amazed at how many vape stores there were. They were just everywhere. And you'd see loads of people vaping in the street. Which was OK - it doesn't smell as bad as a cigarette.

Here, it's not really a thing. Some convenience stores sell vape pens, but it isn't common at all.

And, to confirm what your cop friend says, pretty much everyone I know in Australia who uses a vape pen doesn't use it for tobacco.

 

China is the world's biggest cigarette producer and consumer, and most of the tobacco is grown in Yunnan province. Out here 'in the provinces', one can find restaurants with or without smoke.

What I have found interesting about cigarettes here is that 20-pack prices range from USD$ 1 to above 25. No idea if there are large quality differences but for certain there is prestige. If you were to give a carton as gift (this is very common), it would be from the upper half of that range.

 

Oh, for my answer, in the past, tobacco yes but not cigarettes. Pipe tobacco or a quality cigar are much more satisfying.

Were much more satisfying. Sigh. I take medicine for high blood pressure and nicotine inhalation would need to be offset by more pills.

Going to high elevations has same effect on blood pressure. Interesting to study with the home-use wrist meter. This does not keep me off the mountains though because there are things to be done there.

Have not yet been to Tibet (Xizang) that famous high-elevation place. Mention it from time to time to my physician just to see the look of horror on her face. She has a low horror threshold

 

Vaping is quite common in parts of China I know. hkmb does not see it in Beijing.

 

never.

 

Yes, I've never seen it at all in Beijing or Shanghai. interesting that it's happening in Yunnan. I know the STMA has been struggling to work out how to regulate vaping.