I quit smoking (for the first time) about 35 years ago. That Friday there were 5 cartons of cigarettes on my desk and many people asking me to start again.
Yeah… I don’t think they’d do that anymore. Smoking has become too unpopular politically. People act like the slightest wiff of it on the wind is your deliberate attempt to give them cancer, or act like you just shit in their mouth.
Smoking is the victim of what I call the 2% effect. Think about it, while only about 20% of Americans smoke, that is still a huge political block if they mobilized. Compare smokers to farmers or gun owners. The issue is that a tenth of the smokers are arseholes. They toss cigarette butts all over the ground, blow smoke in other people’s faces, smoke in other people’s homes/businesses/cars, etc. This creates a massive pool of…what would the opposite of goodwill be called, badwell? Anyway, a lot of dislike from the 80% of the population that doesn’t smoke.
I think it is the littering that really seals it though. Think about the folks who generally pick up litter. Outside of the “community service instead of jail time” folks, you are generally looking at folks who are going to be politically active. Most politicians and political staffers have done park cleanup duty as part of the volunteer work needed to show that they are the sort of “good citizens” who we should trust with our government (laugh if you want).
I’ve done a lot of litter pickup for community groups, and cigarette butts are gross to pick up. They are also a HUGE portion of the litter you have to deal with. I remember a college campus cleanup where we had more cigarette butts by WEIGHT than all other litter combined-including the old tire we found in a ditch.
The folks who write the laws remember picking up those butts…
Smoking became that unpopular when it was proven that secondhand smoke causes cancer as well. Especially in children. And while I take no pleasure in smokers having to go outside to smoke, I have little sympathy for them when they whine about it. I spent the first fifteen years of my life standing outside in the rain and snow because I am allergic to cigarette smoke. (I learned when I moved to Canada that it is only US cigarettes, so it was probably the perfumes they add to American cigarettes that give me the Cluster Headaches…)
That is my best friend right there. Ever since he quit drinking (or well, quit and quit, he still drinks, but now in moderation), coffee is the only thing keeping this world still alive!
It all depends on how you look at it, doesn’t it?
I feel the same way on most mornings.
comparable to a line i heard about smoking. “smoking may be hazardous to my health, but me not smoking is hazardous to everyone elses health”
I quit smoking (for the first time) about 35 years ago. That Friday there were 5 cartons of cigarettes on my desk and many people asking me to start again.
I wouldn’t dare try to quit coffee.
Yeah… I don’t think they’d do that anymore. Smoking has become too unpopular politically. People act like the slightest wiff of it on the wind is your deliberate attempt to give them cancer, or act like you just shit in their mouth.
Smoking is the victim of what I call the 2% effect. Think about it, while only about 20% of Americans smoke, that is still a huge political block if they mobilized. Compare smokers to farmers or gun owners. The issue is that a tenth of the smokers are arseholes. They toss cigarette butts all over the ground, blow smoke in other people’s faces, smoke in other people’s homes/businesses/cars, etc. This creates a massive pool of…what would the opposite of goodwill be called, badwell? Anyway, a lot of dislike from the 80% of the population that doesn’t smoke.
I think it is the littering that really seals it though. Think about the folks who generally pick up litter. Outside of the “community service instead of jail time” folks, you are generally looking at folks who are going to be politically active. Most politicians and political staffers have done park cleanup duty as part of the volunteer work needed to show that they are the sort of “good citizens” who we should trust with our government (laugh if you want).
I’ve done a lot of litter pickup for community groups, and cigarette butts are gross to pick up. They are also a HUGE portion of the litter you have to deal with. I remember a college campus cleanup where we had more cigarette butts by WEIGHT than all other litter combined-including the old tire we found in a ditch.
The folks who write the laws remember picking up those butts…
Smoking became that unpopular when it was proven that secondhand smoke causes cancer as well. Especially in children. And while I take no pleasure in smokers having to go outside to smoke, I have little sympathy for them when they whine about it. I spent the first fifteen years of my life standing outside in the rain and snow because I am allergic to cigarette smoke. (I learned when I moved to Canada that it is only US cigarettes, so it was probably the perfumes they add to American cigarettes that give me the Cluster Headaches…)
Must have those chemicals! They keep me sane!!!
That is my best friend right there. Ever since he quit drinking (or well, quit and quit, he still drinks, but now in moderation), coffee is the only thing keeping this world still alive!