Nicotine addiction (not about the ban!!)

[MargaretR]

I have smoked for 50 years and that makes it harder to give up. I have been smoke free a few times in my lifetime but always lapsed in less than a year. I recently admitted a 35 a day habit to my doc.

The public smoking ban will help people who are less addicted to give it up, and will lesson the number of people who become addicted in the 1st place - a good thing!!!

But what can we poor addicts do to lessen the impact of our addiction?
The factors which cause us problems -
1 - the cost
2 - the cough

My websearching has revealed to me that those crafty 'pushers' the tobacco companies have increased the likelihood of serious addiction by adding chemical addictive poisons to the already poisonous tobacco - the swines!
So I decided, as a start, to smoke only tobacco that is the unadulterated original tobacco leaf that will provide only 3 harmful sustances - nicotine, tar and CO2, instead of all the extra junk like formaldehye and acetate etc etc etc (the list of the stuff they add would cause this thread to be too long, and our lives too short)

1 - the Cost
Two weeks ago I got a rolling machine, filter tips, papers and 'hand rolling' tobacco. I soon added a cigarette holder and cigarette case as extra 'ladylike' requirements. The case means that I can make a days supply in about 15 minutes and dont ever need to roll one in public, the cigarette holder prevents the paper from getting soggy and stops the tip falling out.
This has cut down the cost of my bad habit. The tax on hand rolling tobacco is much less than on ready mades, and if you can import your tobacco you save much more.

2 -The Cough
Within days I was smoking fewer (down from 35 to 20), and they tasted better, and was coughing less on waking. My sense of smell is also better. Those additives must be really nasty stuff because I can feel the craving for THEM! - but I am still having a nicotine 'fix' so dont feel 'deprived'
I started this mainly because of cost and the fact that I rarely get a chance to smoke away from home - so who is to see that I am smoking 'on the cheap'
The improvement in my taste smell and the cough reduction convinces me that the most harmful chemicals in cigarettes are the additives.
I know that I still have an addiction to nicotine which I may likely tackle after my body has stopped craving the additives.
I feel I have taken one small step towards 'the cure'

I want to know if any of you have had similar benefits from the change to hand made

[beechy]

firstly well done margaret for getting down to 20 a day from 35
this in itself well help your senses and cough
plus also will help you purse in the long run
my wife sue also smokes roll ups and swears by them now
she wont give up totally (says its not advisable)
but she is at least down to one packet a week
a cost fo five pounds a week and not a day
she still cant run the four minute mile but can at least cough better

[steeljack]

Margaret , we have known since the late 50s, early 60s that smoking is bad for you (it kills you) but what have successive Govts. done about it ?... the folks who we elect and are supposed to protect us ...nothing.....talk about abdication of public responsibility......no the sleazeballs have allowed, even promoted the sale of this product wholesale , with absolutly no conscience, after all it raises millions in tax revenue, the cynical swines have had the attitude okay , smoke , pay lots of tax and die early , it saves money in old age pensions that will never have to be paid .....keep the plebes working into their late 50s, early 60s then they will pass on , and every penny they have paid over the years for their retirements is ours to spend elsewhere on other pet projects.
Succesive Western/Northern European Govts. are in my view worse than any Columbian/Peruvian cocaine barons, since they have allowed this under the cloak of respectability, and have validated it as a legitimate revenue raising method .
The stuff should have been banned as a public poison when the first reports came out , and I speak as a smoker of over 40 years
ok rant over

[mobertol]

I always swore I would never marry a smoker -but then of course, i did! He started at 15 with his parents approval (both smokers) and finally gave up 7 years ago with great difficulty. Only recently it has been admitted that nicotine acts on the brain in the same way heroin does which is what makes it so hard to stop...My husband changed jobs 2 years ago and his new boss chewed tobacco and unfortunately over the last year my husband has started on that - you don't get the smoke but it's a pretty nasty habit all the same, I almost prefer cigarettes to this other stuff, but then he is 40 and old enough to know better. My main problem is that recently we've found out that our 15 yr old son has been smoking ( he's very professional at role-ups already as they are cheaper!). He knows all the bad side-effects and that we won't allow him to smoke at home but he is not in our sight all the time. He is supposed to have given up once -(he didn't do it for a month when we went to visit my mum and dad in Tenerife this July), once back home he's admitted to starting again with his mates here. I caught him out as I found some tobacco strands on his bedroom windowsill! He denied having started again until he was blue in the face but admitted it to his dad. He knows i feel very strongly about it and i have tried to reason with him, he saw his italian grandfather die of Lung cancer 6 yrs ago but he was perhaps too young to remember...I hoped that seeing him so ill would have been the ultimate deterrent....
He says he will try to stop , apart from keeping him short of money it's difficult to help without nagging - he's back to school next week which will be the big test. Apart from that I am at a loss as to what to do...any suggestions?
He says it's only 2-3 a day.

[MargaretR]

My parents were against my smoking even though my dad smoked a pipe. I respected the rule that I could not smoke cigarettes at home.

At 18 I married a heavy smoker and went downhill to serious addiction.

My son began to smoke cigarettes at 16. I did not nag or discourage him. I knew that he wasn't able to afford to spend much on them. At 18 he gave up because he had fallen for (and later married) a girl who is an avid non smoker.
The power of love - hope that it will happen that way too with your son (fingers crossed)

[cashman]

well done for making the effort, hand made though personally i find stronger thats why i smoked em, i actually stopped last friday morning, only cos i felt like crap n they tasted horrible,knowing me n being honest will probably start again when i'm 100% but will certainly try not too. keep at it n good luck.

[mobertol]

Thanks for your kind wishes Margaret -fingers crossed, that he will manage to stop soon and good luck on your own crusade to cut down your smoking! Hopefully, having already felt some benefits will help your resolve - but it's hard to be good all the time...a bit like that diet i'm always supposed to be starting!

Good luck to Cashman too....

[ANNE]

I have t smoke roll ups sometimes because fags are so expensive, but I dont like rolling tobacco coz even with a tip in it tastes to strong for my liking.

[junetta]

I tried rollies at one time but could never get on with them. Even with a machine thing, they never turned out right. Cigarettes are so cheap here, ten euros for two hundred, I know I'll never give them up.

Brian still sticks to his roll-ups though. He hates the chemicals in the ready made variety and finds that he smokes a lot less as he's too lazy to make one at times. He does tend to leave them in the ashtray too, which helps as they go out instead of burning away.

[Ianto.W.]

I'd sonner be addicted to nicotine than the crap my body is addicted to if smoking helps you to die faster and more likely, smoke a 1,000 a day the alternative is painfully slow.