smokers/ex-smokers?

Non-Phish General
#21

I moved in with Eddie and Marvin my second quarter at school in Sept 1966. They both smoked and I didn’t. What was worse, Eddie’s Aunt Ruth worked for some marketing firm in the city, and she sent him boxes filled with these 4 cig trial packs of Old Gold. I mean boxes full too.

Before the end of that year, I was smoking the equivalent of a pack a day.

By 1988, I was up to about a pack and a half when the government began banning smoking in the workplace and the support contractors followed suit right after. So our company sponsored a stop-smoking seminar for its employees, but I was on travel so I couldn’t attend.

When I got back, I went to the VP who organized the seminar, and jokingly complained that I missed that “benefit” because of work commitments, which wasn’t fair because I was interested in attending it. So to get me off his back, he offered me 60 bucks to quit smoking. I took him up on it, and haven’t smoked since.

Wasn’t as hard as I feared it would be. I just stopped. Carried life savers for a while when I got antsy, but otherwise it was no big deal.

#22

^ Still got that $60 bucks?

;D

#23

^Yeah, and I’ll offer it to CharlieJack if he quits for at least six months, the same deal that was offered to me.

#24

During a break in a night class I had in college I was talking with this girl who said she quit for 2 years and then started again. I found that to be incredible.

#25

My mom quit for about 17 years (from before I was born until she divorced my dad), and started up again. She then managed to quit for another year or so by taking Zyban, but started up again when she moved out to BC. Hard to believe that you can quit something that is so seemingly imposssible to quit and somehow start doing it again.

I’ve really got to quit, but it’s not the whole health thing, since I only smoke a couple packs per week on average, but it is just too damn expensive. We pay upwards of 10-11 dollars per pack in Canada.

I just worked that out, that’s at least $1000 per year I could be saving if I didn’t smoke.

#26

It’s amazing that I’m foolish enough to even have one at all, ever, after the agony of quitting in 1996. But I’ve done it, lots of times too. It’s been a couple weeks since I bummed one. I had finished a gig and the waitress was all, “have one of my smokes”, and the smart thing to say (which of course was “lady smoke it yourself you frickin’ lady!”) escaped me.

I had a minor sore throat & difficulty singing for the rest of the weekend too.

I always find it sad when I hear a cigarette smoker say he used to smoke weed. It’s like … dude … you quit the wrong one.

#27

That would be me.

#28

That’s so sad Neil.

#29

Neil is a sad young man, but that’s why I love him.

I once thought about how much money I’d save if I gave up drinking for the rest of my life, and I literally had to sit down.

#30

Welp I’ve given up cigarettes and weed… around the same time 6 years ago. Not a toke or puff since. I’m a finished. I had quit cigarettes several years before and was like the hose bumming them on occasion but then I finally stopped that.

I really don’t have any advice to impart concerning this subject. The only thing I can say is we need to take responsibility for ourselves and there is no shame in asking for and receiving help.

#31

Yeah that is insane how expensive cigarettes are in Canada. INSANE!!

::hops in car, drives to Indiana and New Hampshire with cigarette pack full of joints::

#32

They just tacked on a cigarette tax here.

I used to get smokes for about $3.50-$3.75, now I am paying $4.50-$4.75.

When I first started experimenting with smoking (17 or so), you could get smokes with two crisp $1 bills.

#33

I guess American Spirits are around 5 bucks a pack, but its not really a big deal for me since I buy a pack about once every two weeks.

#34

I smoked cloves non-stop during a week-long visit to Yellowstone in the summer of 2001.

Meh.

#35

I smoked cloves as a substitute for a while.

I mean, like, I wasn’t substituting, man. The cloves were.

Yeah, those things made me sicker than tobacco ever did! Gross.

#36

i’ve got some backy, (drum), roll my own, controls how many have a lot more when I can’t just reach into a pack and pull one out

i’d say i prob avg. 2 cigs a day

#37

well, except for the six cigs i’ve smoked since noon, i’m well on my way to quitsville!

i think it’s more of a boredom/oral fixation thing for me. easily bored. orally fixated. yeah, that’s me. i guess i’ll just have to start chewing on logs.

#38

I’ve always wanted to buy some pouch tobacco and roll my own cigarettes. I am just way too lazy.

#39

i’d take this offer, but i heard addicts are notorious liars. six months from now i’d be like “yeah, haven’t had one for six months fone. $60 please?” then maybe i’d meet you one day, and you’d be like “jeremy, you smell like smoke.” and i’d blame it on Hampea. but you wouldn’t believe me, so i’d show you this photograph i took of him

and then you’d believe me and say you were so terribly sorry. but then i’d feel guilty and have to tell you that i paid Hampea the $60 to be my alias so i could continue smoking and then i’d start weeping because i inadvertently killed my best friend Hampea by getting him addicted to ultra lights and he got Ham Cancer and passed away and i ate him in a sandwich with jalepenos and pooped fire. and then i’d quit the OKP and rejoin it less than a day later.

so yeah, good challenge! you’re on!

#40

Rolling your own is the way to go.

You can smoke for a month on about 20 bucks.

…

And doesn’t Canada have those cute inch-long cigarettes, Devin? I seem to remember a lot of those around last time I went up North.