Genevieve, if you stop smoking I'll buy you dinner anywhere you want. (assuming you and I end up in the same town ever) But I'm serious. Smoking is so bad for people that I make this offer to anyone I know.
Not to mention once you stop, you'll have so much extra pocket money that you can buy the next time

I'm actually a nurse in real life.. a psych nurse so I deal with the heavier addictions. Crack, alcohol, ... sex.

Wow. I'm quite surprised so many folks here smoke, or used to. I've managed to get through all of high school and most of college without ever smoking even a cigarette... though that's probably because my earliest memories of people smoking came from my dead beat uncle and his nasty car (he'd smoke all the time while driving and would NEVER roll down the windows).

Easy not to start when that's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of smoking.

I don't think people would start smoking in spain if they had to pay 6E per pack like they do in the rest of europe. I think pricing here is about half of that for the most expensive brands and used to be much cheaper.
Then, government enjoys the money they get from taxes I guess, and the tourism we get because we have cheaper alcohol and drugs that anywhere else in Europe.

The only reason I would move to Texas.

Marlboro here: $4.05 a pack

Marlboro there: $2.50 a pack

The simple price of my brand going up is what's going to force me to quit.

Smoke makes me dizzy and I hate the smell, so I never really got into it.

About the alcohol/coffee thing - Yeah, I did notice that beer tastes better now than when I was six, when my parents gave me a tiny drop of it and it tasted absolutely disgusting.

What makes beer taste better, my own personal secret I share with you, is slamming one or two shots of tequila beforehand. Therefore, your tastebuds are quit gone and you can drink beer like a pro without making that horrible face when the taste of the yeast in the beer hits ya.

Coffee just needs lots of sugar...white chocolate mocha...

and...smokers. Show some respect. I'm a smoker, and I still am kind enough to hover outside doors to public places where non-smokers are walking in and out. I'm also kind enough not to light up in a circle of my non-smoking friends, or anywhere near children AT ALL. Just because we smoke...does not mean everyone else needs to. And I really don't want to show off the habit to small children. BE A RESPONSIBLE SMOKER. Be nice!

$4.00 a pack is expensive? Most cigarettes are on average $10 here, some a few dollars more.

Yes, $4 a pack is expensive. For me. In Kansas. Being poor. $4 a pack for a pack a day...is...very expensive.

The pictures are stupid and won't even really deter first-timers anymore - plus the people who made them caught a lot of flak because they photoshopped the hell out of them to make them look worse than what they were. Most people I know just ask for the "hot blonde" one when they go in to be honest, though I've never really paid attention to the packs as I always put my smokes in my Harley Davidson cigarette case.



So just imagine how much money I'd be saving by forcing myself to not do something I like to do to spend it on something else I don't like doing quite as much? Honestly, even if I did quit, I doubt I would barely have enough money for 100 credits at the end of the month.

Oh and on the alcohol thing - harden up ya girls. Aussie males are pretty much reared on alcohol.

Yeah, seriously. Beer? Taste bad? You people are obviously drinking swill. I suggest you report to a proper bar and buy some proper beer, the kind that comes out of a tap and has a stupid name. Sucking beer out of a can obviously makes you hate the beer.

ETA: Beer also comes in bottles, by the way. Aluminium bad, glass good. Oh and any popular, cheap brand of beer (I'm looking at you, Budweiser) is crap. And if you can't deal with black coffee, you need a semi truck of harden up. Either that, or you're drinking cruddy "instant" coffee, which is an affront to humanity.

ETAA: My mates and I have a saying about beer. We're considering putting it in a t-shirt: "The best beer in the world is the next one."

That'd make a great t-shirt. You would make MILLIONS.

Sam Adams is pretty good, from what i've heard (I wouldn't know, I'm not a drinker, but I better get some practice for college). I haven't had proper black coffe, but the instant black stuff makes me cry inside.

Anyways, good luck quitting smoking. You'll feel so proud of yourself if you do.

I dunno. Quitting smoking saves me roughly £150 a month. Which is like 1.5k creds, isn't it?

O.o


Oh right. Pounds are almost worth $2. I think that's approximately 1000 credits.

Way to selectively quote. What do you enjoy more - smoking or Lusternia? For most smokers, it would be smoking. Therefore "motivational" speeches such as "just look at how much money you will save by not smoking" translates into "look how much money you will save if you stop doing this thing you like doing" which is retarded. Especially in this day and age where junk food, alcohol and a virtually infinite array of different drugs are available and most people use in different doses that screw with your body and shorten your lifespan.

The argument about how carcinogenic it is though makes me laugh - I have no doubt that every single person who uses that argument would have no qualms sitting in front of a fireplace with a nice roaring open wood fire and think that it was romantic, yet volume for volume that same fire is 12 times more carcinogenic than cigarettes are.

At least it sounds more serious than "You'll get wrinkles and age faster and your breath will stink wich will make people not want to kiss you" wich are the arguments they used here for teenagers (12-16) not to start to smoke.

I'm not sure I really enjoyed smoking. And I've got smoker friends who would agree with me.

I always loved the first cigarette of the day. And my post luncheon fag. And of course smoking while drinking... but apart from that, it wasn't really something I did for enjoyment, it was just something I did because I needed to. Like going to have a piss. Which can be really enjoyable if your bladder is full, but is normally just routine.

The thing is, she obviously doesn't like it. Why would she be attempting to quit otherwise? The 'save money' thing wasn't aimed at getting happy smokers from quitting. It's aimed to give her a goal to work at, to keep her focused on her task, which is to quit smoking. Different people need different motivations to keep them from lapsing back. Some will be able to quit just because they want their family to be free of second-hand smoke, others are able because of health reasons, and others still require more reasons in addition to the main ones.


Saying that just because there are other things that mess with your health, you should not try to remove one of them is just ridiculous. If you don't working towards keeping yourself healthy, are you going to wait for society or culture or government to remove those harmful substances to do it for you? You acknowledge that cigarettes harm your health, but refuse to stop smoking them because there are others sources that harm you in addition to smoking?


Don't chimneys direct smoke out of the room so that you won't breathe it in? Are there not chimneys for fireplaces? On the other hand, when you smoke, you breathe in the smoke directly. Do you breathe in the entire 'volume for volume...12 times more' smoke?
To further add to that, cigarettes aren't rolls of paper, unlike our 'roaring open wood fire' which consists of...wood. Cigarettes contain many many chemicals, including insecticides, toilet cleaners, nail polish removers, arsenic and cyanide. Even if they are a minor component of cigarettes, when you smoke frequently, it stacks.

Way to derail Gen's topic, which was, last I checked, her looking for support in her endeavor to quit.

I hope you're staying strong, Gen!

Difference between cigarettes and alcohol or greasy food is that the latter are, for the most part, choices you make. You choose to buy the next round of beer, you choose to eat that fetuccinne (Unless you're an addict), but every single regular smoker is in effect an addict, and isn't making a real choice when they smoke the next cigarette.