<p>In law school, one of our friends was a smoker & we had to limit our time around him because unfortunately we were very sensitive to the strong odor of tobacco and smoke that he emitted wherever he went. We could never go to his dorm room or even be near him. Similarly, when we had a neighbor who smoked, we had to stop offering him rides because it would make us & our kids cough horribly if he were in the car, even if the windows were wide open and the kids hung their heads out of them! It was a huge challenge for all of us!</p>
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<p>Hey, give it a little time and you’ll realize it’s plenty stupid. Right now you’re are young and cool - and of course you’ll be young and cool forever, right? (wrong). I’ve never met a smoker past the age of about 30 who didn’t seriously regret having ever started.</p>
<p>Both my sons started smoking in senior year of h.s. S1 quit before starting college. S2 smoked off and on through freshman year (his roommate smoked too) but gave it up before soph. year. It was an expensive habit he couldn’t afford.</p>
<p>I read them both the riot act since heart disease runs rampant in my family…don’t know that it made a difference.</p>
<p>@mom 3939</p>
<p>"My D works out regularly for both health and appearance. She eats yogurt, wheat bread, salad, chicken, etc very healthy choices. She gets “grossed out” when my husband is grilling steak and says the red meat is bad for you. That is one of the reasons why I cannot understand how she can rationalize this. I know she smokes pot some, but that is different to me. "</p>
<p>Nicotine is a PNS stimulant (works via dopamine) that also happens to be a very effective anorectic. The most likely scenario here as that your D took up smoking primarily because it is very effective at reducing your hunger. (Which is why a lot of women smoke)</p>
<p>Yeah, you guys can pretend that I’m young and my opinion doesn’t matter. We’ll ignore the fact that you have no idea how old I am, nor has anyone attempted to refute my position: sure, smoking is bad for you, but it’s fun. Should nobody do fun things that are bad for them? And where do we draw the line at what’s too bad to do to yourself?</p>
<p>As a cardiologist in practice for 19 years I see on a daily basis the ravages of smoking. </p>
<p>To the students who are so obviously in denial and trying to justify this habit on this forum let me say there is no such thing as social or party smoking. Cigarettes are more addicting than cocaine (I have patients who have used both tell me this) You will become addicted if you aren’t already. I have seen kids who smoke in their twenties with heart attacks. Smoking eliminates the cardioprotective effect of estrogen in young ladies. Women who smoke have a far worse chance of dying from their heart attacks than men. Do you want to look older than you are from wrinkles and tough skin? Do you want to smell disgusting so people can’t be in the same room with you? Do you want to have amputations? Wake up every day coughing junk up? Be too short of breath to exercise? Every day of my working life I see this. Most of my smokers are so addicted that the very real threat of death from another heart attack isn’t enough to get them to quit. Every one of them would tell you not to start or to quit if you have started even a single cigarette a day. </p>
<p>To the parents-you are right to be scared. I am afraid for you just reading these posts. Your student has got to want to quit. If they aren’t motivated it won’t happen. Think about what motivates your child -is it peer pressure? Then find the nonsmoking friends, teachers, family members they trust and have them talk to them. Maybe visiting a VA, hospice, vascular surgeon, pulmonologist and seeing their future will work. Being out of the environment in which they are smoking will help too.</p>
<p>Best wishes-it is worth the struggle.</p>
<p>Yes, a lot of them smoke. A mom I know was just telling me not long ago how she knows her D does not because she has asthma and allergies, but I have personally seen the young woman smoke . Don’t ask me what their rationale is. I guess if they are with a group of kids who are smoking, it’s like a yawn-l-very catching. Provides some comfort of sorts and then of course nicotine is addictive so once you are doing it with any regularity,it starts feeling good and you crave it. One of my childhood friends quit when she became a mom, told me she missed it for the next 25 years, and is now back at it even as she sees her parents friends on oxygen. A number of DH’s cousins smoke and their father is totally oxygen dependent at this time and two close relatives died after spending years with the canisters being constant companions. If that doesn’t do it, to bring home the dangers, what will? Heck some of them sneak smokes even as they are on oxygen. The stuff is like crack. </p>
<p>I don’t permit any kind of smoking in my house and if they smell like cigarettes, the clothes are not even permitted in here, or in my car. The stench bothers me that much. But I know my older ones do smoke on occasion. Not enough for me to always detect it because I am dead serious about not letting any of that smell in my house, but I have seen the signs. Why they are so stupid I don’t know.</p>
<p>The sad part about all of this is that the cigarettes may be not be the only things they are using. In fact, it’s likely that it is not. If you go to any drug rehab facility, you will see large clusters of desperate cigarette smokers at breaks around the place. The connection is strong and direct. One counselor who has been working at our local center tells me she has yet to meet one single young druggie who doesn’t also smoke.</p>
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<p>No, not if it’s as bad for them as smoking is. What part of “bad for them” do you not understand? </p>
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<p>How about if it meets any two of these criteria:</p>
<ol>
<li> It’s highly additictive and extremely difficult to stop once you start.</li>
<li> It causes several deadly forms of cancer</li>
<li> It promotes heart disease</li>
<li> It promotes lung disease</li>
<li> It prematurely wrinkles the skin and makes you look old before your time</li>
<li> It invades the space and harms the health of innocent people around you</li>
<li> It fouls the air and smells terrible and makes you stink too</li>
</ol>
<p>Smoking does ALL these things. That’s way more than enough to be on the wrong side of any “but it’s fun” line you care to draw.</p>
<p>I’ve never gotten how anything that stinks so badly could be “fun.”</p>
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<p>I’ve always wondered why they made Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in Sex And The City a smoker – here she was, all chic, the latest outfits, Louboutins and Blahniks, and so forth, and then they stuck a cigarette in her mouth. It just didn’t fit at all to me.</p>
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Completely specious. I smoked moderately for years and went cold turkey. Maybe that’s anecdotal, but it’s enough to disprove your gross generalization.</p>
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Have you ever wondered whether it’s not other people who are stupid, but you?</p>
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What part of my saying that I understand it’s bad for you do you not understand? It is bad for you. I don’t think that justifies not doing it.</p>
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An arbitrary list designed to demonize smoking.</p>
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And people drink because vodka tastes good. Give me a break.</p>
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I happen to still find smoking attractive… despite decades of anti-smoking propaganda.</p>
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<p>Intentionally inhaling noxious fumes is hardly what I would consider fun.</p>
<p>aegrisomnia. I honestly have no idea how you’ve managed to adopt such a warped view of smoking, but in no way, shape, or form is smoking ever good for you. Period. So I suggest you stop trying to rationalize and justify your obvious need for nicotine. Regarding alcohol, drinking in moderation, such as one glass of wine for a female and two glasses for a male has actually been demonstrated to be good for a person health wise. There is no such thing as smoking in moderation. The good thing about the last 20 years is that smoking has become more and more socially taboo.</p>
<p>Some of you parents are insane. Did you not go to high school/college?</p>
<p>Anyways, I also “party-smoke”. It’s not because I wanna look “cool” (to some degree, it might be), but my head feels so much lighter when I smoke after drinking (or dancing in some instances). Nothing is wrong this smoking 5-6 cigarettes a month.</p>
<p>Like stated above, most of these kinda people will quit smoking after college. So chill…</p>
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Let’s not dispute tastes, then.</p>
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There are some minor benefits of smoking, but I agree the negative physical side effects vastly outweigh the positives. If you’re smoking to improve your health, you probably need to reevaluate your life choices.</p>
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I am not addicted to nicotine. I rarely ever smoke anymore. When I do smoke, it’s because I run into an old friend who’s smoking, and I don’t want to be rude. Either that, or my significant other is out of town and I want something to pass the time, the way I used to when I was young. I don’t need to justify my actions to you, and you don’t need to justify your dubious life choices to me. The only difference is we’re talking about one of mine.</p>
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There are some minimal benefits of smoking, but again, I don’t disagree that it’s more than likely that the negatives vastly outweigh the positives. Smoking is not a healthy activity. It’s not good for you. But there’s nothing wrong with someone understanding the risks and downsides and choosing to do it anyway, and it certainly doesn’t mean the person is an idiot. I tend to think that choosing to smoke, despite the negatives, is nobler than smoking without knowing them.</p>
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You’d be surprised how many kids feel the same way. People are very quick to tell others how to live their lives, so long as they feel justified about it.</p>
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You can smoke a lot more than 5-6 cigarettes a month without it being excessive. I wouldn’t even consider a pack a week to be excessive… but then again, it probably varies from individual to individual.</p>
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I don’t think this discussion should be couched in terms of kids growing out of it. It’s not, per se, something that only a young, or naive, or immature person would do.</p>
<p>Hey, as a person you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t infringe upon my own personal liberties. The problem with smoking is that you cause problems for other people. Not only is second hand smoke also unhealthy, but smoking/smokers bring their cigarette smell into any room they actually enter and the smell just permeates everywhere. I can’t stand it tbh. It really is a disgusting smell.</p>
<p>Lots of perfume smells pretty disgusting. Should people not wear perfume? I tend to feel like a lot of people are really unattractive. Should they wear masks? Lots of people are very banal and plebeian. Should they be ticketed if they strike up a conversation with you on the street?</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure that smelling second hand perfume doesn’t cause cancer.</p>
<p>The problem is that each cigarette a person smokes activates the niccotine receptors in the brain and makes it crave more, making it increasingly likely the person will become addicted and need more and more of the drug. Cigarettes are an amazingly effective drug delivery device and the costs are far-reaching and cummulative on the smoker and those exposed to the fumes, particulate matter, etc. </p>
<p>One of the big problems for society is that the HEALTHCARE costs, disability costs, and lost productivity costs for cigarettes are estimated at or above $30/pack, which is MUCH more than smokers are currently paying & even if the costs are raised, the increased amounts are not being banked top pay for these costs. These health risks includes asthma both to the smoker and from 2nd hand smoke (not to mention all the harm to fetuses, infants & children) as well as stroke & heart attack rates, which are shown to dramatically plummet when indoor air quality measures banning indoor tobacco exposure are enacted.</p>