Opinions - why did you start smoking?

[blinkKDX]

Just want to get people's opinion on why they started smoking.

[Schwag]

Swim started smoking simply because he enjoys smoking and because he finds it nice after smoking weed. Alot of people don't understand why swim smokes just because he likes smoking. Swim can't explain it, it's just something he enjoys. For example: some people enjoy rock climbing as one of their pass-times, swim enjoys smoking as one of his. Swim realises it is bad for your health but his logic is; that you only have one life to live, so you may as well enjoy it. Even if enjoying it means cutting a few years off your life .

[Bajeda]

Social pressure, cultural environment, etc.

Swim grew up in the Middle-East where cigs are extremely cheap (people used to fill a whole suitcase with cartons, fly to the UK, sell them all, and then fly back with a profit!) and people start young. He was one of the last of his friends who would end up smoking to start.

Then Switzerland didn't help much as everyone at swim's school smoked.


Swim had been smoking spliffs (hash plus tobacco) his entire smoking lifetime too, so it wasn't a big jump. Increased alcohol consumption contributed to this immensely as well.

[Schwag]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

Swim grew up in the Middle-East where cigs are extremely cheap

Swim remembers his Lebanese friend telling him that, in Lebanon you can buy cartons of 100+ loose cigarettes for approximately 50 cents! Swim found this amazing. He wishes they where as cheap here as they are in the Middle East.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Schwag

He wishes they where as cheap here as they are in the Middle East.

Be careful what you wish for. Swim knows so many people who started smoking there who probably wouldn't if the culture didn't support it so much.

Swim has a friend with chronic bronchitis who had to have operations for cancer by 12th grade.

Not caring about age limits and cigs being practically free make you think less about smoking and its consequences sadly.

[Nagognog2]

Why? Pure, unadulterated boredom. Still do - but roll my own. Why? I'm one of those sorry people who actually enjoys the flavor of tobacco (real tobacco - not the chemical manifesto pre-packaged by the tobacco companies). I actually started with cigars - Jamaican (Cuban being outlawed in the Untied Snakes). Then a pipe.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

I'm one of those sorry people who actually enjoys the flavor of tobacco (real tobacco - not the chemical manifesto pre-packaged by the tobacco companies).

I am one of those as well. I love hand rolls with quality tobacco (I hate prepackaged stuff) and even regular cigarettes that are good (Nat Shermans are the only thing the US has really, Europe and Middle-East have a bit more to offer). The bad quality of cigarettes in the US is one of reaons I'm looking to quit, among other things.

I like cigars - had a nice cuban on New Years Eve as a matter of fact - but my grandfather died from them so it puts a little mental stich in my mind that prevents me from wanting to smoke them except on rare occaisions which is probably a good thing.

[Schwag]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

Be careful what you wish for. Swim knows so many people who started smoking there who probably wouldn't if the culture didn't support it so much.

Swim has a friend with chronic bronchitis who had to have operations for cancer by 12th grade.

Not caring about age limits and cigs being practically free make you think less about smoking and its consequences sadly.

I don't think I'd smoke any more if they where cheaper. I only smoke 3 cigarettes a day at the most now anyways, and I have been smoking for a while. Unlike most people I don't find I'm really addicted to cigarettes, I can stop smoking them for weeks and have barely any trouble (if any). I wish they where cheaper so I could just buy a few cartons and then be set for a while.

[DrMuffy]

Definatly peer presure was what started SWIdr to smoke, he used to smoke ALOT, but quit as soon as he found out that there were drugs that would actually get him really high for $5 instead of a pack. SWIdr still smokes occasionally when he is really messed up, and prefers newports over his (used to be) preferred ciggarette, camels.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

Becuase I wanted to and I liked the way they make me feel. simple as that.

[MrG]

SWIM started smoking cigs in his early twenties (yeah I know, stoopid) because he got fed up with getting head spins off his regular joint consumption.

He smoked for more than ten years and then quit a coupla years ago by reading Allen Carr's Easyway book. Still smokes the weed (he feels that a few mins of head spins is better than the cancer sticks) but finds that tobacco is just such a pointless thing now.

Although one of the funniest pro-smoking quotes I read was:

"with the exception of searching for a gas leak, I believe there isn't a single activity that a cigarette can't enhance"

[Alicia]

Originally Posted by blinkKDX

Just want to get people's opinion on why they started smoking.

Oringaly swia only smoked to acquire what she was after, she does not smoke tobacco. She has a close friend who said he still smoke even after his wind pipe was re attached to the side of his throat, which is kinda disturbing in its own right. We dont let him thou. However this sort of addiction can happen to anything really. Its just a shame it ruined him really. He still his jolly old self thou despite the shorter life duration.

Swia only smokes weed, and other things or chases, vaporizes. she even refuses to have her joints with tobacco too.

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

Then a pipe.

Can see you all nestled up by a fire place there nag, with that tobacco pipe. bless. do you tell stories too?

[Laudaphun]

SWIM bought his first pack of cigarettes when he experienced his first OC withdrawl. SWIM went to his mothers for a week to dry out after a year of oxy use, the anxiety was unbearable so SWIM walked down to the corner store and bought a pack of cigarettes. SWIM found that while lying there sleepless at night feeling like he was about to jump out of his skin, going outside and smoking a cigarette would alleviate these symptoms for a few minutes... thus another nicotine addict was born. Fast forward 8 years later, SWIM has just kicked nicotine and been tobacco free for 2 months and plans to keep it that way.

[GreatWonder]

SWIG started out of curiosity and thinking it enhanced SWIGs image. Never really got totally addicted though and often goes the whole week without. SWIG finds alcohol and smoking go together too well at the weekend though.

[LiLiTH]

Pure curiosity... SWIM started smoking very young, fortunately kicked the habit a year ago. Now she wishes for laws against smoking in public places and higher prices for cigs as in other countries

[beena]

SWIM remembers being at school and having a strong urge to try cigarettes. Very strange, almost as if SWIM was craving nicotine, yet had never tried it. Neither of SWIMS parents smoked although some of her friends did. Maybe that did influence her slightly but she never felt pressured into doing it. SWIM thinks an important factor may have been films. Seeing her favourite on-screen actors smoking and thinking they looked 'cool' probably contributed to her sudden desire to smoke. SWIM regrets it now though and sees tobacco as a gateway drug to harder substances. SWIMS tried most other drugs since and wants to give up. Seriously lacks willpower though.

[melt_000]

i started smoking to have something to do during my break at work, i mean what are you supposed to do for five minutes, and if it costs a quarter and i get a little high from it,but now i'm trying to stop, already down to like 4 a day from a pack a day during college. i kind of also wanted to see how strong this "addiction" thing is, so i had the intention of getting addicted.


i did get addicted and i did learn from it, but i think i can beat it. i only intended to smoke for like a year and it's been like a year and i'm pretty close... so probably not that much long term health damage.

there was also kind of a thing like.. to make myself tough enough to smoke a cigarette cause at first if i smoked a whole red i would throw up, that became an incentive to smoke more so i could ... smoke, i guess.


the weird thing i notice is that most of the time when i smoke, i don't really want to. i just want something to do. like if i really waited until i was craving a cigarette to smoke, i never would have smoked more than like 3 or 4 a day.. and becuase of this, most of the cigarettes i've smoked have only made me feel slightly sick and tired... it's pavlovian or something i guess

[_caesar_]

Sadly because Slash from Guns and Roses did, Marlboros too which I still smoke today.

[JumpinJackFlash]

Because it was what people around me were doing, not pier pressure as such, guess I just wanted to be different or bad in someway. One of the stupidest things i've ever done, I must say

[podge]

Swim's best friends began smoking cigarrettes and swim used to give out hell to them. Them swim and his friends started smoking cannabis with tobacco in joint's. And when the cannabis went away for a while swim had craving's to smoke tobacoo......as a result swim is now a tobacco smoker , swim regret's it but know's he aint too bad these days and swim is sure he will get around to quiting.....one day anyway.....

[Heretic.Ape.]

Stupid monkey started smoking because he heard that if you smoke a cigarette after smoking cannabis it will increase your high by 33%. Don't know where that figure came from, lol. He should have let high enough be.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Well when many people first start smoking they get a slight buzz from it,this is what lured swim in.

[Probing Tranquility]

I started smoking because I just started my first job and all the smokers got to go outside and have smoke breaks every hour or two, so I started so I could go outside and have a break from working. SWIM started smoking weed a few months before he started smoking.

[Laudaphun]

I know SWIM has already posted his reply to this question but he'd just like to proudly say that he is now at about the 6 month mark for being totally nicotine free, although it has tempted SWIM a time or two... even recently still.

Looking back, despite SWIM's initial reasoning for buying that first pack of smokes, his continuation for smoking was probably largely due to social reasons. SWIM has a hard time meeting, talking to, and basically just interacting with people. SWIM is just not very smooth around new people. SWIM always like to be able to go on a smoke break with the others at work... he found it was a terrific way to "break the ice."

[Dvgrn]

Swim smokes because he enjoys smoking. Often he can't afford cigs, and goes weeks without them, and feels no cravings.

He just likes the taste, and the burning feeling. Like others have said, Swim smokes additive free (usually organic) tobacco, and usually rolls his own (cheeper).