Smoking

i also personally am against smoking. i won't start when i'm legal. and the age limit is 21 here, i think...and i think they should be stronger
i always see smokers when going to stores and stuff. like i would always see some1 in front of the convenience stores smoking, and there are no smoking signs up...>.>

 

I'm not completely sure of the laws in Australia, but I think the deal is that you are legally allowed to smoke when you are 16, but you are only allowed to buy cigarettes when you are 18

Personally I hate smoking, and actually gave up liking someone cos i found out he is a smoker. I know it's dumb, but I simply can't stand it. I dont get what the advantages of being a smoker is? It's expensive, addictive and increidbly detrimental to your health...is there something Im missing?

Anyway, you may have noticed that Im anti-smoking, however there are some acceptions; for instance, in a movie, if the character is such that it definately calls for the actor to smoke (for instance if the character is a chain smoking serial killer, or a 50 yr old waitress at a diner who looks forward to that one cigarette she has on he break) then i can see the use in that...but promoting it like above in such an unnecessary fashion, i dont like so much

Now I know that there are many differing opinions out there, so feel more than free to disagree with me

 

I tried smoking once, its horrible! lol.....maybe its cause i had trouble taking a drag or something o.0....anyhoo, i wouldnt get into it myself, too much money

 

Since my dad smokes i don't

 

Very 'un-cool' to smoke. Don't!

You need to be self assured enough to know that just because a hot guy is seen smoking in a pic, it doesn't mean you should start smoking. Just like you can't be expected to maintain the 'perfect' body either - it just isn't realistic and you can't beat yourself up is you don't have it yourself!

 

I'll smoke cigars every now and then, but that's about it. To be honest, smoking's never bothered me. The way I see it, people know the risks associated with it, and it's their choice.

 

I am fairly anti-smoking, mainly because it killed my dad when he was just 64. Yes, it was the smoking - he had smoked 40 a day since he was about 14 and had the classic smoker's lung cancer.

So he worked all his life and was looking forward to his retirement. He and mum had things they wanted to do and places they wanted to visit. He retired early when he was 63, and was diagnosed with the lung cancer only a few months later. He spent 10 months in and out of hospital for treatment that did not work, then died at the hospice from a heart attack while coughing up vast amounts of blood.

Smoking is not cool, is bad for your health, and is a waste of a lot of money. It is also incredibly addictive. The best thing is not to start, and if you have started try to quit.

 

I'm up there with the anti smokers. My dad dropped down dead of a heart attack at the age of 52 after smoking 60 a day for 30 years. I never even got to know the man behind my childish image of 'daddy'! :tears:

As for what Rette says : I can't agree, what about the people around you, what about the people who have to watch you die, or never get a chance to know the real you.

For Paul's and my dad it is true that they probably started before everyone knew how serious smoking is but there is no excuse today!

 

i hate smoking and smokers i generally do get on with em but if they ever light up then i disapear and id never goout with one cus i cudnt be doin with the smell and health problems.

 

Personally i use to smoke just because but then i stopped because i realized it was not healthy for me and really not attractive i also have people in my family who has had problems from smoking

 

smoking limit in the U.S is 18. maybe some states and counties have imposed it higher. idk.

 

It's 18 here in the UK now, I believe. It has been 16 for ages and I know the age that you can buy cigarettes here was raised to 18 recently but I don't know how that affects the age for smoking them. Smoking is also banned in enclosed public places and workplaces, which is quite far-reaching legislation in practice.

 

Whenever I see that excuse for portraying someone smoking I go NUTS! I mean that is like complete smoking industry fabrication, this notion that smoking is ever "integral" to a character! Even if it's limited to antagonists, it's still ridiculous--it's what fuels that whole "I'm a bad boy because I smoke and that makes me cool" thing that's began this thread.

There is absolutely NO reason why characters in fiction have to be portrayed as smokers--it's just lazy shorthand on the part of subpar writers. About the only reason I could see for portraying it on-screen would be in biography and everyone knows even the best biographies are partially fictionalised so unless the person died from smoking-related causes, I say don't show them smoking.

It's really simple: if you normalise something, people think it's fine to do it. It breaks down their inhibition. No, I don't think there's some simple direct relationship like a person sees someone smoking and then immediately feels the need to smoke themselves but if you think the images we see a zillion times a day don't influence us and our worldview, then you're missing how humans work.

As for smoking being cool again, I think there has definitely been a concerted effort by the tobacco industry to re-insert smoking into TV and especially movies because I watch a lot of both of those and after being nearly 100% absent from TV and movies for most of the 90s, it's been really disturbing to see it being snuck back in in the last 4 or 5 years. Pictures like the ones posted are, to me, "smoking" guns. That's just so... frustrating that they'd get made. Yick.

My mum died of cancer just last year and it was really, really devastating. She was only 60 and she should have had another 20 years. It wasn't lung cancer but I'm pretty sure breathing a whole slew of toxic chemicals for nearly 40 years did not improve her health or her chances of staying cancer-free. The sad thing is that after decades of trying to quit, she actually had about 1.5 years beforehand... but that wasn't, sadly, soon enough.

So while I know it would be unrealistic, in some cases unfair, and still wouldn't completely fix the problem, a very big part of me would like smoking completely and utterly banned, the vast assets of the tobacco industry seized and put towards programmes for all smokers to break their addiction, and then the remainder of the companies, and all of the crop, worldwide, burned to bloody ashes.

None of that would bring my mum back... but it might save someone from going through what I did last year, and that would be something, at least.

 

Me too for Anti smokers.Smoking is very disgusting and smoking bothers me.I am very allergic to cigarette smoke and this happened to me when I was 7 years old.My parents noticed I was coughing a lot when I was 7 years old,I was near a guy that was smoking and took me to the doctor.I was reffered to an allergist whom I see to this day and I was found to be allergic to cigarrette smoke.I start coughing when I get near someone that smokes and a trip to my allergist for a check up after that.

 

This is funny.


Last night on my way home from a frat party (actually 3... we walked to the different ones)

On the way there and back there were 6 people in the car... 4 were smokers lol It was funny

I was sitting ht ein middle in the back... hottie Asian girl dressed as an Asian Pin Up girl sits to my left... a pretty hot guy to my right and a hot asian (her sister) dressed as an indian (kinda short skirt) laying across us and Sionna sitting in the front passenger (my friend driving she is sober and so am I) haha It was funny The girls were hott! jeeze they were. lol (and plastered)

Anyhoo Britt doesn't smoke and I don't but everyone else was and so I got my fair share... surprisingly... didn't bug me... usually if all I have to breath is smoke then no bueno but It wasn't bad... meh


Just decided to talk about the fun ride I had both ways last night sense it somehow involved smoking lol

 

Meh, smoking doesnt make you cool or give you a "bad ass" look imho.. I'm not against smokers, if you like it... do it.

 

il do it then ^_^

 

Well I don't like it or dislike it. It isn't the smartest thing, but it something I see as that big of a deal. If you don't like smoking than don't, if you do then go for it. By now everyone knows what it'll do to your health.
But it's gross kissing a chick with smokers breath. And it doesn't make you cool.

 

Well, I guess we are gunna disagree on this point, but I will add that:

Yes, you are probably right that showing a person smoking is not absolutely necessary unless the person dies from smoking related diseases, but I still reckon it can be used for characterisation. I stick by my examples above. A few others that I can think of (that im sure you will refute, but oh well) Chandler's smoking is used as a comedic plot point in Friends, as well as the episode where Rachel's colleagues and boss are smokers and she attempts to make them quit, as well as in Romeo + Juliet, where the smoking is used to make one of the characters (I think it was Tibult, but I havent watched it for a while) to look more devilish, as well as to further the point of making the Capulets look like a type of Mafia

Also, on this point, if we are going to remove smoking or at least attempt to make it less shown in movies/TV, why shouldn't we remove drug taking, violence, dangerous driving or swearing? I know smoking is the only addicting one, apart from drug taking, but if we are going to censor movies in this manner, where would it stop? Yes, I am taking it to extremes, but i think legally stopping smoking from being in movies would probably give conservative groups the fuel to get rid of drug taking, violence etc

In saying this, I'm not saying that every movie should have a token smoking character, but I think it would be folly (hehe i love this word) to systematically cut out smoking from every movie made from now on.