Oklahoma in third place

[carltonplace]

The question of why those with lower education and lower income would smoke more has been raised.  As someone who until recently was a service industry kid I think I can grant some insight.   I think the conection is not at the education level (a famous german philosopher once said "where there is no smoking, there is no thinking");  instead its in the service industry (or other menial job) culture that comes hand in hand with poverty.  Have you tried working a low paying crappy serice gig?  It's stressful as it is completly unrewarding.  Oftentimes the only people who get a break are those who smoke.   If you ask one of the guys smoking out back of a restaurant (making 8/hour) why he doesn't quit he will tell you a few reasons 1.  He is too busy with work to have the where-with-all to deal with the nicotine fits during a shift.  2. a cigarette (and a beer or ten) is the reward at the end of a long night. Classic pavlovian condictioning 3. If I do get a lull in service, I don't want to spend that time cleaning.  I want to relax for a minute.  If I just went and sat down somewhere, chef would bite my head off.  Smoking on the other hand is justification to step outside and not work for 5 min.  The same thing applies at the coffeeshop gigs i've had.  Some of this can be mapped onto phone service gigs.  I guess my point is that in lower paying (read service industry) jobs there is no sense of advancement or a goal or a future.  You are in a holding pattern.  If one didn't feel that one had a future (and felt that there was no way out)  why bother thrying to save money on cigs or worry about your health?  You're going to work yourelf to death before your 65 anyway.  what's the point?  It's service industry nihilism.  (full discolsure: I quit smoking the month before I left my last service gig at whole foods.)

Been there on the service industry...I can see your point

[Conan71]

The question of why those with lower education and lower income would smoke more has been raised.  As someone who until recently was a service industry kid I think I can grant some insight.   I think the conection is not at the education level (a famous german philosopher once said "where there is no smoking, there is no thinking");  instead its in the service industry (or other menial job) culture that comes hand in hand with poverty.  Have you tried working a low paying crappy serice gig?  It's stressful as it is completly unrewarding.  Oftentimes the only people who get a break are those who smoke.   If you ask one of the guys smoking out back of a restaurant (making 8/hour) why he doesn't quit he will tell you a few reasons 1.  He is too busy with work to have the where-with-all to deal with the nicotine fits during a shift.  2. a cigarette (and a beer or ten) is the reward at the end of a long night. Classic pavlovian condictioning 3. If I do get a lull in service, I don't want to spend that time cleaning.  I want to relax for a minute.  If I just went and sat down somewhere, chef would bite my head off.  Smoking on the other hand is justification to step outside and not work for 5 min.  The same thing applies at the coffeeshop gigs i've had.  Some of this can be mapped onto phone service gigs.  I guess my point is that in lower paying (read service industry) jobs there is no sense of advancement or a goal or a future.  You are in a holding pattern.  If one didn't feel that one had a future (and felt that there was no way out)  why bother thrying to save money on cigs or worry about your health?  You're going to work yourelf to death before your 65 anyway.  what's the point?  It's service industry nihilism.  (full discolsure: I quit smoking the month before I left my last service gig at whole foods.)

Interesting take and I saw myself in that from when I had a service industry job.

Funny part is, I'm not sure tobacco ever really helped with the stress near as much as a long bike ride does.  I used to smoke pretty much just out of blind habit when I smoked later in life.  There were certain times of day or certain tasks which coincided well with a cig.

[Teatownclown]

[DolfanBob]

Just for the record.  I quit in 1986.   

HA ! I beat you by one year. 1985 and I quit because 85 cents was just to high.

[Townsend]

HA ! I beat you by one year. 1985 and I quit because 85 cents was just to high.

I took up your slack.

I'll be a 3 year non-smoker in February.

[TheArtist]

That's when the tobacco lobbyists get their legislator minions to yell "big government", "controlling our choices", "raising taxes".

I wonder if we could convince these tobacco lobbyists to holler "big government, controlling our choices" etc. and have something done about those liquor laws?  

Btw, I think we should ban food being sold in grocery stores for surely they can see what terrible things its doing to Oklahomans (obesity, diabeties, heart disease, etc. not to mention food addictions and things such as bolemia and anorexia).  About 10 TIMES more Oklahomans are killed each year by bad food habits and addictions than by bad "drinking" habits and addictions.  

Perhaps rather than making laws to ban this or that, many of our problems seem to stem from the same basic underlying things.  We have thousands of people plucking the leaves off the branches of evil, and so few hacking away at its roots.  "Look!, I spent all this time, money and effort and plucked a leaf!" meanwhile the root grows that much deeper and another leaf pops up somewhere else.

And how is it that so many Christians seem to be at the forefront of these new laws?   I was always taught that.... in Heaven, the laws are "written on the hearts and minds of men" not in scrolls or in books, and that Christ teaches us to pray... "on earth as it is in Heaven".   Thus a Christians direction would be to work to, create an earth where people do the right things because they truly think and feel they are the right things to do, not spend time and effort trying to get ever more laws written into books.  The goals should be to reach out and figure out ways to create a world where fewer and fewer laws are needed, not more. My opinion anyway.

[custosnox]

I couldn't help but notice that there were a number of you who are ex smokers.  I was just wondering how long it has been since you quit, and if you still have cravings. I know that it's been 2 1/2 years since I quit and I still crave em when something brings em to mind, like this thread.

[Conan71]

I don't miss them.  It will be 7 years Feb. 13 for me.  I quit smokeless tobacco Jan 31, 2007.

[Townsend]

I couldn't help but notice that there were a number of you who are ex smokers.  I was just wondering how long it has been since you quit, and if you still have cravings. I know that it's been 2 1/2 years since I quit and I still crave em when something brings em to mind, like this thread.

2.75 years.  No cravings.  I think I was done with smoking long before I quit.

[TURobY]

I was "quit" for 2 years before picking them back up again last year. I'm finally quitting again (this is my 3rd week of being "quit"), but even after 2 years, I remember getting pretty bad cravings when I drank alcohol or was around a bunch of my friends who still smoked.

[Hoss]

I don't miss them.  It will be 7 years Feb. 13 for me.  I quit smokeless tobacco Jan 31, 2007.

That's about 3 weeks after I completely quit smoking.  I tried the Skoal Bandits (because I couldn't stand the texture of full on smokeless tobacco, so getting my nictoine via tiny coffee filter seemed cleaner) but that lasted about 2 weeks.

My reasoning for the date is that I wanted to quit before my 40th birthday (which was 5-4-2007).  I was successful and haven't fallen off the wagon yet.

[Hoss]

I was "quit" for 2 years before picking them back up again last year. I'm finally quitting again (this is my 3rd week of being "quit"), but even after 2 years, I remember getting pretty bad cravings when I drank alcohol or was around a bunch of my friends who still smoked.

That was always the toughest for me.  For instance, last week, I went out to a little bar at 12th/Memorial with some old friends of mine.  Almost all smoke, but not like they used to.  Then I started having tequila shots and some nasty 3.2 beer.  I got my first full-on cancerstick craving in some time.  I didn't succumb though.  It usually lasts about 60 seconds now.  When I first quit that craving would last 15 minutes.

[joiei]

I was "quit" for 2 years before picking them back up again last year. I'm finally quitting again (this is my 3rd week of being "quit"), but even after 2 years, I remember getting pretty bad cravings when I drank alcohol or was around a bunch of my friends who still smoked.

Good luck,  the cravings do go away.   My last cigarette was in the parking lot of Amsouth Bank in Destin, Fl on July 29, 1991.   I still get cravings once in a while.  They do go away.   Nicotine is a cunning and powerful drug.   

[Conan71]

Good luck,  the cravings do go away.   My last cigarette was in the parking lot of Amsouth Bank in Destin, Fl on July 29, 1991.   I still get cravings once in a while.  They do go away.   Nicotine is a cunning and powerful drug.   

Interesting how many people remember the last drag they took on a cigarette.  I do as well.  Mr. Lucky's on 41st St. listening to a band play.  I had a horrible flue or RSV coming on.  The next day I literally thought or hoped I might die soon.

Oh, and I quit smokeless tobacco Dec. 31, 07.  I caught that error on a post Hoss quoted me on.

[Hoss]

Interesting how many people remember the last drag they took on a cigarette.  I do as well.  Mr. Lucky's on 41st St. listening to a band play.  I had a horrible flue or RSV coming on.  The next day I literally thought or hoped I might die soon.

Oh, and I quit smokeless tobacco Dec. 31, 07.  I caught that error on a post Hoss quoted me on.

It was kind of symbolic for me.  I was at work on a break with two cigs left in my pack.  I smoked one, and broke the last one in half and threw it away.  That was January 7 2007.  I tried smokeless in May, and quit around Memorial Day.  If you can really call it quit.  I wound up giving the can to a friend of mine after using it twice.

EDIT;  Actually it was the 17th.  The 7th was a Sunday and I don't work on Sunday.