On being teetotal

[hobbes]

it was trending down from a very high level. It's arguable it was down to the tax escalator on them but better education can't be separated from that admittedly.
Incidentally I've just checked the price of 20 Marlborough gold (nee Lights.)
In Tesco they're ?12:25/pack. That's a little over $21 Canadian.
Holy shit.

[DCI Harry Batt]

GPs no longer recommending smoking to their patients made a difference, I'm pretty sure. As did the tax escalator.

[Nefertiti2]

I realize that it will look like I'm parsing language again, but yes, I agree that most people who (for example) smoke, drink, eat red meat, or consume too much sugar know that what they are doing is 'sub optimal'.

My argument is simply that most people who 'know' that have no idea what the breadth of sub-optimal actually means....and, honestly, how would they?

People know that red meat is 'bad' for you, but do they understand colorectal cancer? People who eat too many sweets...do they have any real grasp of what being a diabetic entails? Do smokers know what end-stage lung cancer or emphysema looks like?

My point being, if they had clearer, less euphemistic descriptions of risk factors, it's highly likely they'd make different choices.

Agreed that we need "Clear.... descriptions of risk factors" Saying something "Causes 7 types of cancer" is not a clear description of risk factor. Saying what the percentage increase is, (and what that brings the overall risk to) would be clear.

including variables for age, gender, location and other risk factors would be even clearer.

[San Bernardhinault]

Even the percentage increase is basically useless info without a baseline.

"You're 10 times more likely to drown in your soup if you've been drinking" might be a true statement. But maybe 1 person on the planet every year drowns in their soup drunk, and one every ten years does it sober.*

It shouldn't stop you drinking (or eating soup).

* made up stat for illustrative purposes

[hobbes]

To be fair to WOM though, it's absolutely not his job to do the research for anyone else.

[WOM]

Has that ever worked? I mean ever? The war on drugs would suggest otherwise.

Reason doesn't really come into it. And I think you're fooling yourself if you think your well meaning teesplaning* is likely to make any difference. People know. They just choose to ignore it, or they choose accept the risk.

Yes, you're right of course. Reason is rarely as powerful as I'd like to think it is. Emotion / want / need are far more motivational. And to your point about riding a motorcycle, if I was as risk-averse as I am in other areas, of course I'd never do it.

[WOM]

it was trending down from a very high level. It's arguable it was down to the tax escalator on them but better education can't be separated from that admittedly.
Incidentally I've just checked the price of 20 Marlborough gold (nee Lights.)
In Tesco they're ?12:25/pack. That's a little over $21 Canadian.
Holy shit.

Yeah, I watched a guy buy smokes about 6 months ago and I couldn't get my head around what the cashier was telling him. I think it was around $13 a pack or something.

[DCI Harry Batt]

79p, my first pack of 20 Rothmans.

[hobbes]

Rothmans?! Jesus man. They are the worst. The only blowers I absolutely could not smoke.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Yeah, lots of people hated them.

My regular smokes were, at various times:

John Player Blue JPS
Bensons
Consulate
Rothmans
Sovereign
Kent
Dunhill (with Dunhill International for parties and big nights out)
Silk Cut
Marlboro
Marlboro Lights

Can't think of any others

[Sporting]

I used to smoke Old Holborn with liquorice papers (now banned?)

[elguapo4]

All my friends smoked Major, they were basically a bin fire wrapped in paper, never smoked myself thankfully.

[hobbes]

Started on Marlboro reds. Dowshifted to Lights and if I couldn't get those I'd got for Camel Lights, especially duty free.
Soft pack over hard pack if I could get them because they were cooler.
I was such a chump.

[hobbes]

In fact I'm still a chump because despite not having had a cigarette for probably 11 years, thinking about a tapping the paper bar on soft pack of lights to make one pop out and then sparking it with my zippo makes me sort of hanker after one.
I mean, not really but there is a nostalgia.

[Sporting]

A friend of mine started smoking at the age of 37, which I fancy is rather unusual.

[Various Artist]

Blimey, there was me thinking I was long past the risky peer-pressure age for it and all.

[Gangster Octopus]

G'wan, have one, you know you want to...

[WOM]

I've always thought it would make him look a little more cool. Older. More sophisticated.

[Logan Mountstuart]

I'll admit that I have cowered away from this thread. I'll l try to catch up. I want to read it, but reading stuff you don't want to hear is so tiring. I am a good man with many problems, I'm afraid.

[Antepli Ejderha]

In fact I'm still a chump because despite not having had a cigarette for probably 11 years, thinking about a tapping the paper bar on soft pack of lights to make one pop out and then sparking it with my zippo makes me sort of hanker after one.
I mean, not really but there is a nostalgia.

I've not smoked for 15 years or so and I really understand this.

[WOM]

I am a good man with many problems, I'm afraid.

You've said as much in the past. You'll find no judgement here.

[ursus arctos]

I had never heard of liquorice flavoured cigarette papers, but they do indeed appear to have fallen foul of a general EU ban on flavoured tobacco products that came into effect in 2020.

The 2014 European Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU, in relation to the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products prohibited the placing on the market of cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco with characterising flavours as of 20 May 2016.

Following a four year transitional period for flavours with more than a 3% market share, allowing consumers adequate time to switch to other products, no flavoured cigarettes and roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco will be allowed in the EU as of 20 May 2020. The measure applies to flavours such as menthol, vanilla or candy that mask the taste and smell of tobacco. The 27 EU Member States shall also prohibit the placing on the market of cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco containing flavourings in any of their components such as filters, papers, packages, capsules or any technical features allowing modification of the smell or taste of these products or of their smoke intensity. The prohibition may be further extended to other categories of tobacco products under specific conditions defined in the legislation.

RYO was never anywhere near as popular in the US as it was in Europe. Rolling papers were pretty much exclusively associated with non-tobacco substances in my time.

[Sporting]

RYO was never anywhere near as popular in the US as it was in Europe. Rolling papers were pretty much exclusively associated with non-tobacco substances in my time.

Yes: the first time I went to the USA I took some rolling tobacco and skins with me and quite a few people I met thought I was rolling a mini joint,

(Particularly thosein a house in Santa Barbara, California, with some lads I'd met on the bus from San Francisco. The coach driver warned some of the passengers on this trip to stop smoking marijuana or they'd be thrown off. They spent all their time taking drugs of various kinds and never seemed to eat or drink. One morning I asked if there was any coffee in the house and the response was as if I'd asked for something completely unobtainable. But they were nice kids. One of them found an injured bird and tried to nurse it back to life, but sadly had to admit defeat. Another older man asked me about hunting possibilities in Wales. I was also asked about whether we had electricity in the country.)

[Sporting]

Old yet pertinent:

[hobbes]

Marlboro lights are now £14.10 a pack in Tesco.
Silk Cut are £16.35.
I don't know which appals me more, the price or the fact that fucking silk cuts are two quid more than Marlboro.