Community Chat

[NoelSeven]

On 1/13/2014 esmeraldagooch said:

NoelSeven, I think this has something to do with Personal Freedoms.

You have the right to do may things, whether others agree with you or not. Over the last few years the right to smoke and have others be sickened or killed by second hand smoke has limited that right. I am a reformed smoker, free for the last 39 years, that said, I don't care if others do if I don't have to smell it. It gives me a asthma attack.

I will say though, I have to wonder why the new push to legalize marijuana seems to be acceptable to many when second hand smoke which may make another person sick or high with out their permission seems fine.

Any responses welcomed.

IMO personal freedom is a factor when talking about whether someone has the right to do what they want with their own body. Second hand smoke involves others and that's a problem.

The question of why someone chooses to smoke in this day and age is a different issue.

[Anniecamp]

What bothers me even more is legalizing pot, alcohol being promoted more than ever, and drunk drivers killing people more than ever. Have never seen anyone smoke a cig, pipe, or cigar, get in the car and kill someone. Ever known anyone who smokes pot "socially"? They are very dull brained. Yet it is promoted for becoming legal.

[mistriTsquirrel]

On 1/13/2014 NoelSeven said:

For anyone interested, Live Science has a good summary on addiction (including gambling and sugar) and the difference between those and drug addiction.

http://www.livescience.com/40749-addiction-drugs-sugar.html

The article doesn't exactly make a good case for sugar not being addictive. It basically states that a few people are addicted to sugar--but we shouldn't call them addicted, we should call them something else--and that those "few" people are the reason for the obesity epidemic in this country.

[Animal Lover]

On 1/13/2014 rarejan said:

On 1/13/2014 Animal Lover said:

A lot of poor people smoke. Maybe it pacifies them in some way or fills a void.

This is a pretty broad generalization. Smoking runs across all economic categories. I find the statement that it pacifies them in some way puzzling. Smoking does not pacify anyone, regardless of their income level. It also does not necessarily fill a void.

Ever see a homeless person shivering in the cold? Begging outside in the snow? They usually have a cigarette in their hand or they'll take one if you offer. Just an observation. I also have worked with the poor and I've noticed most of them are smokers. They don't have much money but they do buy cigs.

[Lotus]

Why do people smoke?

Beats the krap out of me.

Glad I never started. It always grossed me out.

[gazelle77]

On 1/13/2014 Anniecamp said:

What bothers me even more is legalizing pot, alcohol being promoted more than ever, and drunk drivers killing people more than ever. Have never seen anyone smoke a cig, pipe, or cigar, get in the car and kill someone. Ever known anyone who smokes pot "socially"? They are very dull brained. Yet it is promoted for becoming legal.

Annie I just do not understand why a state would allow pot to be legal other than the state wants to make money off of it... like booze... neither is good for you but $$$ is the reason states want in on the action. Here in Washington there now will be people drinking and smoking pot while driving. It is going to only get worse.

[Qwackertoo]

My kids know I smoked in my youth. Quit before they were born. They think it is AWFUL. I have told them that IF I ever caught them . . . I'd do like a boy down the street from me when I was a kid . . . his Dad made him EAT a pack of cigarettes . . . minus the filters. When we were first starting smoking and sneaking smokes we'd take crackers to eat and cover the smell of our breath . . . Surely my Mother noticed . . . even though my Father smoked cuz our clothes surely stunk.

[LyndaGee]

In that movie "The King's Speech," a doctor actually told him smoking would relax him. Maybe a lot of people believed that way-back-when, before all the research about the harm caused by smoking.

[NoelSeven]

On 1/13/2014 mistriTsquirrel said:

On 1/13/2014 NoelSeven said:

For anyone interested, <em>Live Science</em> has a good summary on addiction (including gambling and sugar) and the difference between those and drug addiction.

http://www.livescience.com/40749-addiction-drugs-sugar.html

The article doesn't exactly make a good case for sugar not being addictive. It basically states that a few people are addicted to sugar--but we shouldn't call them addicted, we should call them something else--and that those "few" people are the reason for the obesity epidemic in this country.

It makes a better case than that, explaining that activating a pleasure region in the brain is not the same thing as a drug addiction.

And, "But just because junk foods and drugs may activate the same area of the brain does not mean they are addicting, experts say."

"Anything that stimulates the reward pathway is going to be interpreted as something that’s necessary for life and needs to be repeated," Lander said. But many things that are not, in fact, necessary for life can stimulate this reward circuitry, including drugs, sugar, fatty foods, and even behaviors such as gambling and exercise..."

"Although many people like sweets, and would likely choose chocolate cake over fruit for dessert, this does not mean they're addicted to sugar, Frascella said."

[Marybella]

terrier, my mother had her jawbone removed due to cancer from smoking, also. This was back in 1965. She died three years later, never having had it replaced. Very sad situation for a fifty-year old good-looking woman.