Poll: Ye olde Cancer Sticks

[mjc0961]

The only problem I have is that at my school there is a rule saying you have to be 15 feet from a building to smoke, and since no one does that I hear they are going to build little sections for them to smoke. I find that a little unfair to be honest

Quite a few work places do that now too, they have special "huts" for the smokers to sit in and great big signs telling them where they should go to smoke.

Hey that's fair by me. If you want to smoke, go do it in a smoke hut or whatever. It's nice that you go outside to smoke, but it's someplace like public sidewalk and you're leaning against a building or fence or whatever smoking, and people have the choice between walking through your nasty smoke or walking out into the road to avoid it, the people smoking are being dicks in my eyes. Take it somewhere where it isn't going to bother countless people or put it out. (I don't know about anyone else, but as soon as the smoke and smell hits me I do start coughing involuntarily, that just seems to be my body's reaction to it. I wonder how many people rudely smoking in places where others can't avoid their smoke though I was trying to be a jerk by coughing.)

However if you already are somewhere away from other people and someone comes over next to you and starts whining (like in that story about the person at the bus stop and the old lady), then that person is just being a dick. If you see someone is smoking and there's somewhere else you can go to not be in the smoke, go the other way or whatever. Save your scorn for the smokers who are actually being dicks about their smoking.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Oh yeah, this is a good one: since July, I've been forced to stand outside in the cold to smoke. That's not bad? I get forced out of my own fucking house! I have to stand in the freezing cold of my back garden or my front porch if I want to enjoy a leisurely cigerette, all cause one of my roommates complains. I only ever used to smoke in my bedroom anyway, but apparently "the smell kept coming into my bedroom and making me sick".

I suppose I can tolerate this more than the bitchy old hag at the bus stop but it means I can't lie back with my boyfriend and just smoke. We get shoved out to stand shivering on the street...hardly intimate and/or romantic, let's be honest.

BTW I got a million of these kinda stories. people in my towns seem to hate cigarettes with a passion.

 

[badgered]

I've been smoking for 16 years.
I have NEVER encountered any non-smoker who has complained about me smoking around them.
I think until the smoking ban [in the UK, 2007] people were less concerned about smokers. In general I mean.
Obviously, people knew the dangers but because we could freely smoke pretty much anywhere public; and because the government let us, it didn't seem so bad and the consensus was, 'well, they're allowed to smoke here, so might aswell just accept the fact...'.
After the ban, peoples attitude towards smoking has changed dramatically, I've noticed anyway.

However, I'm now smoking less; especially up the pub in winter.
It's just too cold to stand outside and smoke.

But I'm a courteous smoker. I won't smoke around people who don't smoke.

 

[Linakrbcs]

I don't smoke myself, but I'm not usually too bothered about being around people who do, as long as they're not blowing the smoke in my face on purpose or some such nonsense.
I guess there are some restrictions should apply, like not smoking near children and all that jazz, but then every smoker I know is very considerate about that, and the people who posted here previously seem to be too.
The only line I'm not willing to cross is making out with somebody who smoked recently because the taste is just horrible

 

[Dystopia]

In the UK, we're banished outside to smoke, which is fair enough. What I don't appreciate are the few non-smokers who are assholes about people smoking outside. It's called a compromise, people.

Also, I KNOW it is bad for me. However it is also incredibly good for me when I'm having a stressful day at work.

 

[Wintermoot]

I dont smoke and aslong as nobody extinguishes a cigaret in my face I,m cool with it

 

[Hashime]

I may have already posted in this thread, but I am unsure. Anyways, I don't smoke, I can never smoke as I have a wonderful lung condition called asthma. (from bovine surfactant, it was experimental when I got the treatment. I am alive so I will not complain about that)
If I breath smoke in it instantly reduces my stamina and increases my heart rate by about 10% (self testing). On campus it is interesting, because I will tell people off for smoking in areas they are not allowed to, if they are in an area they are allowed to smoke however I will leave them alone as they have the right to. I should also note that most of the smokers for lack of a more entertaining term are FOBs, based on my observations mostly from India / the middle east.

 

[DanielBrown]

I've smoked for about 7-8 years but I've never had bad experience from other people about it. Mostly I've hung out with other people that smoke, but during secondary school(I believe it's called?) my friends were non-smokers. They still followed me during recess when I had to smoke and never bitched about it.
I tend to be polite against others when I smoke as well. I try to avoid smoking in crowded areas and keep the cigarette away from people. When a kid or parent with a baby approaches me I hold it away and don't inhale until they're past me. I guess most smokers do this however, but I've mainly seen the opposite.

As for the people I don't hang out with; What I find to be the most annoying thing as a smoker is the people begging for a cigarette. In certain areas someone always stops you and want one. If they can't afford it themselves they should consider quitting instead of harassing strangers. When they offer money for it I usually give them one for free though. Shows that they at least have some courtsy.

 

[xmbts]

I feel like by now everyone knows the potential repercussions of smoking, so if you want to that's your choice. Though I wish my friends would smoke less, every time I hang out with them they go through a pack in a few hours and I have to go home reeking of various kinds of smoke.
Which my parents strongly disapprove of.

 

[farscythe]

im a smoker..i can deal with the preachers as ill just ignore them ... its the non smokers that follow me outside to chat at me that piss me off...seriously...whats the point of forcing me to smoke outside if your just gonna follow me and still stand in the smoke...

 

[Zaik]

I don't, and i don't care when people do until it gets blown in my face. Then it's on.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

My reaction to such things is either that I simply do not care or to be mildly amused.

I'm quite aware that smoking isn't a smart thing to do. If I'm in an establishment that allows it, and someone is offended by my smoking, that is a problem they need to deal with. It isn't mine.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Smoking is freaking disgusting, a genuinely repulsive habit to develop. I'm forced to hold my breath whenever I enter certain buildings around campus because of the entire gauntlet of smokers standing right outside the door, in clear violation of the signs (posted on EVERY building on campus) that state you can't smoke within twenty feet of the doors. This understandably doesn't do much to put me in a charitable state towards smokers, who I tend to view as a public nuisance.

If you don't smoke in public though I don't really care - I probably won't ever want to ride in your car or visit your home because they probably reek, and depending on how well you cover up the ashtray aroma that smoking leaves on yourself I'm probably not going to want to stand too close to you either, but I'm not going to hassle you because I know that you smoke. The point is that, as a non-smoker, I just don't want your filthy habit to ever intersect with my life; if it doesn't, then I have no beef with you.