re: Your opinion on smoking?

quote:

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the world was a cooler place when people smoked.

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The problem with smoking (cigarettes) is that it usually becomes a habitual, daily, repetitive thing.

If someone says they smoke, or if someone SEES them smoke, most folks assume they smoke a number of cigarettes daily; in their car, at home, outside during a work-day smoke-break. A pack a day or so, because in reality FOR MOST, that's what it is. And to that level, it IS a stinky, nasty, expensive, dare I say it, TRASHY thing.

But here's a distinction. Smoking cigars is not the same. Other than historic folks like King Edward, Sigmund Freud or Churchill, cigar smokers aren't chain-smoking cigars on a daily basis. They are generally reserved for social occasions-- after a nice dinner, outside at an event, in a cigar bar, yada yada. It's a totally different expectation.

The same is true of drinking. There is little to no social stigma about drinking-- unless you do it every day, all day long, at all kinds of locations-- work, home, in the car. You do that, you are an ALCOHOLIC.

You have a couple of glasses of wine on a dinner date, a few beers while watching a game at home or at the bar, some cocktails at a party-- that's all cool. It's "social drinking".

But do the same occasional indulgence with a cigarette-- have one every so often (if you are allowed to) and everyone clutches their pearls, calls you a "smoker" and "trashy". It's like calling someone who has a drink on the weekend a wino or a drunkard.