Less Nicotine

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in Less Nicotine:

I couldn’t for the life of me understand why people smoke them. Just for the bad breath and smelly clothes?

The dozen or so times I tried to smoke a cigar, I felt like the Union Pacific Railroad had traveled over my tongue.

But, there's the good part - the bad breath and smelly clothes.

In my youth, I played with a pipe. I found it far superior to cigars.

[Copper]

Sell that tobacco.

The users pay a fortune in taxes and then they die young before they can collect social security.

The feds should be pushing tobacco, hard.

I smoked a quarter million cigarettes, maybe a couple hundred cigars and piles of chaw, the good stuff Beechnut, Red Man and Apple Jack.

I loved every bit of it. But not any lately.

[George K]

@Copper said in Less Nicotine:

I smoked a quarter million cigarettes,

12,500 packs?

[Doctor Phibes]

@LuFins-Dad said in Less Nicotine:

Isn’t this a war that’s already over? If anybody wants to be foolish enough to smoke, let them?

Typically, people start smoking when they're too young to make any kind of decent decisions, I know I did. Somebody could probably jump in here with a comparison regarding teenage gender-reassignment surgery.

If they're less addictive, I could see some benefit to the nicotine reduction. It was a complete bastard of an addiction to get over. I still miss it occasionally, 25 years later.

[Copper]

@George-K said in Less Nicotine:

12,500 packs?

To be honest I didn't count each one.

It was a pack a day (more when hanging in the bar) for 32+ years.

385 (rough guess) packs per year X 32 = 12,320 packs
12,320 X 20 = 246,400.

I might pick it up again in 10 or 15 years, maybe I can get all the way to a quarter million.

[jon-nyc]

I once calculated 35 pack years for myself. Not like the medical profession does, assuming constant rate over time. I sat and thought about how the habit waxed and waned over time, including times that I quit for a spell.

35x365x20=255,500.

[Doctor Phibes]

@jon-nyc said in Less Nicotine:

Once I figured out (the hard way, mind you) that you don’t inhale cigars I couldn’t for the life of me understand why people smoke them. Just for the bad breath and smelly clothes?

Don't overlook the fact that if you go for the big expensive ones you also get to look like a complete twat.

[George K]

@Copper said in Less Nicotine:

I might pick it up again in 10 or 15 years, maybe I can get all the way to a quarter million.

At our age, it probably won't hurt.

Probably won't be able to afford it, though.

[Mik]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Less Nicotine:
It was a complete bastard of an addiction to get over. I still miss it occasionally, 25 years later.

AT this point if you smoked one it would be just as yummy as that first one. remember how awful it was? I quit in 76 and have tried to smoke a couple maybe ten or twelve years later. Yuck.

I do like a good cigar from time to time but haven't for several years.

[89th]

@jon-nyc said in Less Nicotine:

Once I figured out (the hard way, mind you) that you don’t inhale cigars I couldn’t for the life of me understand why people smoke them. Just for the bad breath and smelly clothes?

There are few smells better than a nearby cigar on the golf course. But 99 times out of 100 I'd rather just smell it than smoke it.