Smoking

[Blackheart]

Yar, But I dinna know or say enyting bout da midwest.

[LuthienTinuviel]

I DO NOT THINK THAT TAZES ON CIGERETTES SHOULD GO UP! that way when all of my friends run out of cash, they will come to me. grr.
oh well, im sure i can say no.. somehow
argh.
im just glad i got a brain like BoP, (did i just say that?!)
i stopped after a year, wasn't addicted though. now im fine. *twitch.
utah is nice though, no smoking in public places.

[Sween]

you cannot drink in utar either thats a long way down my list of places to visit. If they want to make extra money and solve the farming crisi in britian they should legalise canabis i mean its all good.

[LuthienTinuviel]

i thihk that a big part of the reason that underage kids smoke, is the whole "it's illegal" factor. i know that half of them wouldn't do it if it wasn't illegal.

edit: to add more to this, last year we had an exchange student from amsterdam in our class. does everyone know what's legal in amsterdam? well if you don't, smoking pot is legal ther. she said that no one really does it. i think that this proves the theory that teens that aren't like the kids here, are stupid and only doing this because it's illegal.

[Blackheart]

A large part of the problem is perception. Which is why education is a better solution than draconian measures.

Utah has a ban on public smoking and alcohol because of the prevailing religious sect. I doubt it has much of anything to do with concerns about second hand smoke or spilled beer.

[Nibs]

Originally posted by Blackheart
Utah has a ban on public smoking and alcohol because of the prevailing religious sect.

Seems to work very well, too... at least in the area I was at for eight months...

In-between that time, we went down to Las Vegas for a weekend... I was shocked that people there smoked...

Oh, and the unsolicited pornography-distributors kinda got to me, too. Especially because they all appeared to be immigrants.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Nibs


Seems to work very well, too... at least in the area I was at for eight months...

In-between that time, we went down to Las Vegas for a weekend... I was shocked that people there smoked...

Oh, and the unsolicited pornography-distributors kinda got to me, too. Especially because they all appeared to be immigrants.

Excuse me - but did you expect something different from Las Vegas? You should go to New Orleans too. If you were at all offended by LV though - then don't even attempt to go to Amsterdam.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by LuthienTinuviel
edit: to add more to this, last year we had an exchange student from amsterdam in our class. does everyone know what's legal in amsterdam? well if you don't, smoking pot is legal ther. she said that no one really does it. i think that this proves the theory that teens that aren't like the kids here, are stupid and only doing this because it's illegal.

I hadn't seen your edit. My father had been to Admsterdam. Granted it was a few years ago, but he said the city was dirty (not clean). But to add to your being able to get pot there - you can also window shop for prostitutes and they have drive through service too.

With window shopping - the woman lays on the bed (seductively, I imagine) so people can see her through the "store" front window as they walk by on the street. Then when a customer walks in they close the blinds. When they're done - they reopen them and wait for the next guy.

Drive through service - they have a parking lot basically with walls seperating the parking spaces. You just pull in and you have car service. (This I had seen on some show on The learning Channel or one of those channels). I think you have to supply the prostitute - I can't remember. It may be like the old 50's burger joints where they come to you though.

[Nibs]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Excuse me - but did you expect something different from Las Vegas?

Not offended. Just shocked. And to illustrate the difference between my being used to no public drinking/smoking to "here's some prnography!" Quite a shock, that's all.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Nibs


Not offended. Just shocked. And to illustrate the difference between my being used to no public drinking/smoking to "here's some prnography!" Quite a shock, that's all.

I've never been to LV - but I have been to New Orleans. I guess I was surprised the same way you were. I didn't even go during Mardi Gras. I went in October. They have the doors to the strip clubs wide open. My hotel was on Bourbon Street at the Inn on Bourbon or whatever - my balcony was right across the street from a strip joint. It was funny watching whole families stopping and looking in from the street. Also - everyone walks around with drinks in their hand (similar to LV) as they walk the streets. I think they close down the streets around 10:00 or 11:00 to vehicular traffic (at least Bourbon Street was). Everything was active until I guess about 3:00 - 4:00am and then the street sweepers came and cleaned up all the garbage and it was the start of a new day.

When I go back to Indiana - I always have to get re-used to the amount of smokers there. At least in Indiana it makes it easier to get a table in the non-smoking section without waiting.

[LuthienTinuviel]

imagine how julie, the little mormon girl, adjusted to living in naw'lins for the real world,

'scuse the typing, im typinh with one hand because im eating popcorn. my hand is all buttery...

i have never been to amsterdam. i am just going off of what the exchange student said. of course i believed it all, seeing as she lived there... oh well this is too hard to type anymore. i'll come back and edit this in a minute when me popcorn is gone

[Nibs]

Maybe I should have said surprised... being offended would be stupid... "how dare they smoke in my presence??!!"

Or, even better, out loud: "How dare you all smoke in my presence!!"

In addition, after listening to my grandparents discuss how cigarette prices have soared recently, I doubt I could even afford to smoke, if I ever felt like dying young. My grandparents quit many years ago, but mentioned that they used to be about a buck a pack, but are now nearly four dollars... an expensive way to kill yourself, with repeated exposure.

[LuthienTinuviel]

i ran in to this shady party store a few hours ago (for my friend not me! i have quit it all!) she gave me a five for one pack of smokes, and i returned with a quarter and her pack of course.. but still! the prices ARE outrageous. soon all my friends will be broke and i'll have to drive them places.

maybe i should start charging for gas...

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Nibs
My grandparents quit many years ago, but mentioned that they used to be about a buck a pack, but are now nearly four dollars... an expensive way to kill yourself, with repeated exposure.

Here are New Jersey's minimum prices on cigarettes - a couple are $6/pack. Minimum Wholesale and Retail Prices of Cigarettes (New Jersey) - Guide to Enforcement of New Jersey Cigarette Tax Act
I think we have currently $1.50/pack tax on cigarettes. Several States Increase Cigarette Excise Tax Rates

[jerseydevil]

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey -- a survey conducted from 1999 through 2001 by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on teen smoking around the world -- found that nearly 25 percent of young people ages 13 to 15 said they'd tried their first cigarette by age 10. The survey's results indicate that the highest rates of youth smoking are in developing countries.

UNITED STATES

The United States' Global Youth Tobacco Survey was conducted in 2000 among students in grades 6-12.

Prevalence
50% of students had smoked cigarettes
23% currently use tobacco products
18% currently smoke cigarettes
15% currently use other tobacco products

Access and availability for current smokers
10% buy cigarettes in a store
61% who bought cigarettes in a store were not refused purchase because of their age

Cessation for current smokers
56% want to stop smoking
58% tried to stop smoking during past year

Media and advertising
87% saw anti-smoking media messages, in past 30 days
88% saw pro-cigarette ads in newspapers or magazines, in past 30 days
22% have an object branded with a cigarette logo

School in past year
49% had discussed in class reasons why people their age smoke

SOURCE: Global Youth Tobacco Survey

World survey: 1 in 7 youths smoke

In the article it says that the US has a slightky above average rate of teen smoking.

In the United States, the report found nearly 18 percent of students ages 13 to 15 smoke, slightly above the worldwide average, and only 56 percent said they want to stop smoking.

The report did investigate how many young people are exposed to second-hand smoke regularly. Worldwide, 49 percent said someone in their household smokes. In the United States, 42 percent of the young people included in the survey said they're exposed to second-hand smoke at home.

And in public areas, the report said, 60 percent of young people worldwide are exposed to second-hand smoke regularly. In the United States, that figure is 70 percent.

[BeardofPants]

Yeah, they've hiked the prices up over here as well. $10 NZ for a packet of the cheap ones. Which is a lot when you think about it. That money could go to gas, or food.

Come to think of it, when I was shopping once, I saw a woman at the check out get declined. She was trying to buy a pack of meat, some milk and some cigarettes. She was surrounded with three (hungry) children. Guess what she returned? Yep, that's right. The milk and the meat were the first to go. She bought the cigarettes.

I don't really think that hiking the prices helps that much.....

[Lizra]

I was looking at a December 1955 "Holiday" magazine this afternoon, (yes, I collect vintage magazines too ) A beautiful full page ad for "Paliaments" (cigarettes) caught my eye. A swank couple sitting beside a gorgeous christmas tree, decorated in blue and silver tinsel with star shaped ornaments made out of cigarettes. This poem was below:

In the night before christmas, the head of the house
Trimmed a Parliament tree, as a hint to his spouse.
Then he called her right in-and his meaning was clear
A Parliament gift would be perfect this year!
With so many smart smokers the same thing is true
They're hinting to Santa for Parliaments, too.
Well now, How can you blame them-the flavor's a dream
The smart case is crush-proof; tobacco, supreme;
And the filters all recessed away from the tips
So that only the flavor touches your lips


YOU'RE SMART TO SMOKE PARLIAMENTS

Scary!

[osszie]

SMOKING (def.) The only legal (and in some parts socially accepted) form of suicide.

Dictionary of Oz

(where's me lighter.......... )

[mirrille]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Come to think of it, when I was shopping once, I saw a woman at the check out get declined. She was trying to buy a pack of meat, some milk and some cigarettes. She was surrounded with three (hungry) children. Guess what she returned? Yep, that's right. The milk and the meat were the first to go. She bought the cigarettes

That is so unbelievably wrong... I wonder if people like that even ever feel a twinge of guilt.

[Blackheart]

People will do whatever they want to. If they want to smoke, they will smoke.

Tax it enough, and they will begin to smuggle Tobacco, like any other illicit substance.

In fact, it's already become big money to smuggle ciggarettes between states with lower taxes to states with higher taxes.

I overheard someone YESTERDAY, talking about taking a tractor trailor load to New Jersey, of all places, and netting a 200% profit on each pack. He came back a rich man.

Another example of government creating criminal untaxed profit at the expense of nominally law abiding citizens, is wht I say.