Will anybody smoke in 50 years

[RUDE BOY]

As the OP pointed out Smoking's been around an awfully long long time so I believe nothing will replace it in a mere 50 years (in the long run 50 years is just a tiny pimple on the ass of time).

@NorVape I don't see that Heavy Drinking has diminished in the least where I live, the bars and liquor stores are alive and well and the bars and clubs where you can still smoke cigarettes while you drink/dance/watch bands are the ones with the most patrons and highest cover charges.
Along with micro breweries and distilleries popping up in every county here it seems people are actually drinking more now not less.

A family friend owns a small gas station/store where most of his profit, 80% or more still comes from cigarette and beer sells and not Gas or food/snacks.

Those are my thoughts anywho.



(us vaporist types are still a tiny minority amongst the 7 billionish people in the world)

 

[kellya86]

For much of our history public executions have been family entertainment. People thought nothing of bringing the kids to watch a hanging. That's not the case now. Not the best example I know but was the first I could think of.
Just because we have something set into our history, doesn't mean it will last forever.

But no body has really made a case for why we will still be smoking, even though it's winning the pole. So fair play.

 

[mikeben]

I hope that Tobacco is banned altogether one day, and that vaped Cannabis will be as medically common as aspirin, and as socially common as cigarettes were before the eighties. Colorado made 70 million in taxes on Cannabis last year compared to only 47 in booze. GREAT sign.
As far as switching to vapor, the good machines are getting smaller, and easier to use. I think that makes a huge difference.

 

[Tommy10]

I hope that Tobacco is banned altogether one day, and that vaped Cannabis will be as medically common as aspirin, and as socially common as cigarettes were before the eighties. Colorado made 70 million in taxes on Cannabis last year compared to only 47 in booze. GREAT sign.
As far as switching to vapor, the good machines are getting smaller, and easier to use. I think that makes a huge difference.

I don't think more prohebition is the answer, free people will evolve quicker than the legislating governments. I'm sure one day combusting for nictonie will disappear (maybe not I my life time). Within 50 years I'm sure Western religion will be all but gone in this country, an entity far more powerful than big baccy!

 

[bella]

I, too, am completely unable to smoke mj without tobacco. I think @Tommy10 is one of about 15 aussies who smoke mj straight, lol. Go Tommy10 .

I also don't see any signs of people drinking less alcohol. It is almost compulsory to drink heavily in australia! I don't drink alcohol at all and people always comment on how weird it is that i don't drink and try to get me to 'just have one, to be social'.

Also, whilst those of us in western nations are getting plenty of anti-smoking messages, the tobacco companies seem to be really pushing their product in developing nations and places like russia and eastern europe. Smoking may be rare in australia (and other western nations) in 50 years time, but i think that much of the world will still be smoking



@MinnBobber: i did not realise that 'fortnight' was not used in the usa. Apologies for any confusion.

@Tommy10: totally agree with you about religion. It's weird that the religious right has so much say in a country full of agnostics and atheists .

 

[MinnBobber]

@MinnBobber: i did not realise that 'fortnight' was not used in the usa. Apologies for any confusion.

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No problem, on the contrary as I like to learn new words. In the future I'll know what fortnight means

 

[Tommy10]

I know a few non tobacco mixing Aussie smokers, and now thanks to the solo one full time vapor. I tried alcohol for other things last year, people laugh at it and find its stupid. What I find stupid is living in an age where information is at your finger tips and people wanna tell me shrooms/weed and other things will fry your brain, but alcohol is awesome.... Must be good, it's legal. Righttt?
I also think if the western world were to stop smoking in 50 years, the developing world would be veryyyyy far behind. Anyone who has been to Indonesia and South East Asia knows they fucking loveeeee a durry!

 

[bella]

@Tommy10: lol, i was thinking of indonesia as i wrote my post. It's a tobacco smokers' paradise...mj, not so much (i always take a t-break when travelling in se asia. Drug laws in that part of the world scare the hell out of me!).

Australia is banning smoking in more and more areas. Recently melbourne (my city) has been talking about banning smoking in the entire cbd area. Smoking is becoming rarer in public places and less acceptable generally.

This has happened over my lifetime. When i was a kid you could smoke in movie theatres, teachers would smoke while doing yard duty and smoking in hospitals was ok! Even as a young adult, i remember being able to smoke on planes. Over about 40yrs i have seen huge changes in the smoking habits of aussies.

Mind you, the top selling supermarket products every year are cigs and coke (the drink, not the drug, lol), so plenty of people are obviously still smoking...

The next 50 years will be interesting to observe.

(Also, i lived in outback aust for some years in the 1990s and the one (tiny) local shop in town would often run out of tobacco (supplies were only delivered every 6 weeks). When this happened, people would smoke gum leaves rolled in newspaper. Smoking can be a really hard habit to break.)



I

 

[Skyscraper]

There are some diehards buying cartons in Australia.. Lol
What if civilization goes to shit and we have no choice but to smoke with a stash of joint papers and an old gas station metal pipe (because you broke all your glass pieces)?

 

[MinnBobber]

(Also, i lived in outback aust for some years in the 1990s and the one (tiny) local shop in town would often run out of tobacco (supplies were only delivered every 6 weeks). When this happened, people would smoke gum leaves rolled in newspaper. Smoking can be a really hard habit to break.)

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Gum leaves rolled in newspaper, now that gives new meaning to "harsh smoke".
Do gum leaves come in regular and menthol?

 

[bella]

@MinnBobber, you just made me snort coffee out of my nose . So funny!
As far as i know, gum leaf cigs only come in 'harsh' and 'mega harsh'.

It' a bit of a shame about gum leaves really. They get koalas smashed out of their little furry minds but all they do for humans is give us sore throats .

@Skyscraper: i want to get a butane vape in case of natural disasters, power blackouts, fall of civilisation etc. If somebody came up with a solar powered vape i would totally buy it! The servo's (gas stations) in australia only sell meth pipes so i really need that solar vape, lol.

 

[CuckFumbustion]

I voted yes but after the tax free point I made and @NorVape 's posting, I'm almost ready to reverse my vote to No. Except for one thing.
Sadly big tobacco is still preying on the ignorance of the third world. Tobacco is still on the rise there.
Perhaps the latter part of the 50 year mark will be towards the education of the 3rd world. Tobacco (and corn) is hard on soil. While MJ is a weed and can grow over 3/4 of the globe.
Cultivation might be the best argument against tobacco. Once all other possibilities have been exhausted towards eradication.

 

[kellya86]

In 50 years there should not be a third world. Otherwise what is the point of all this charity. Like water aid. Surely the point must come where everybody has access to clean water and no more funding would be needed.
ObviouslyI'm not nieve enough to think that charity money actually gets where it's going and not in the pocket of the executives and officials taking back handers, helping the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I hate this bent corrupt world sometimes. Anyway rant over.
One more thing. How is the third world smoking when they can't afford food.?

 

[CuckFumbustion]

One more thing. How is the third world smoking when they can't afford food.?

Short answer greed, and tobacco from the 1st world is designed to be addictive. There is also no laws preventing them from selling there. Often times they pay the smaller governments for the privilege. Google third world smoking and try not to be dismayed.
Here is one article from the WHO, Huffington Post, PR Watch and The NY times.
In one paragraph. here from the NY Times (This might is going to make some FCers angry....)'A new study of schoolchildren 13 to 15 in 68 countries, conducted by the W.H.O. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that about 11 percent of the children in Latin America and the Caribbean were offered free cigarettes by a tobacco company representative in 1999 and 2000. In Russia, nearly 17 percent said they had been given free cigarettes. In Jordan, it was 25 percent.'

Essentially, Big tobacco take all the lessons they have learned from the first world and turn them into tactics against the third world, aggressively. They pour money into advertising while other groups spend money and effort trying to counteract there efforts. Money wasted on a product with no health benefits, wrecks healthy soil, is full of man made pollutants and the pieces of fiberglass from the filters are polluting our earth. Ordinary 'organic' tobacco is no where near as addictive and devastating. Hence @NorVape 's points about the weak and poor being
the last corner of BT's market. F**K combustion.

 

[NorVape]

Third world smoking is a horrible thing. It also plays on the fact that poor people have less access to solid information, as well as the fact that people who suffer often times are looking for easy distraction from a tough life. Different parts of the first world would also be in culural zones where access to healthy food and relatively unbiased media isn't readily available, but at least they might have Internet.

I don't blame my peasant grand father for enjoying his pipe before cancer took him, but for me to do the same, when I know what I know, would be another story.

 

[Tommy10]

Yes it's rather sad, some don't know how bad it is and other may understand it's unhealthy but not know exactly how bad. If you live in a western country you understand if you smoke a pack of cigarets a day for an extended period of time, you are very likely to die noticibly younger as a result. Most I know who smoke know this, and really don't like smoking, maybe on occasion but not as a habbit. Not a certainty but defiantly an increased risk. Another sad way to look at it is, the average life expectancy in our poorest countries is much lower than ours of first world western democracies. Maybe not smoking so that you can live till 86 instead of 73 just is not that high of a priority. Increase the standard of living, and the average life expectancy and people will work it out. War, famine, government oppression > smoking. As much as I ditest the nanny state here, I aknowledge it is certainly worse in other places and I appreciate the standard of living. Once your basic health and saftey are in order you can focus on things like not smoking.

 

[CuckFumbustion]

@NorVape, Solid point about the distraction from a tough life. And the marketers of 'coffin nails' exploit this by making it as accessible as Coca-cola and giving the user a false sense of belonging to a much larger culture. If they only knew what the reality of what is happening in the West. A nanny state tends to take full credit and claims victory, when it in all reality it depends on the user to make that critical decision and the influence of that user's surroundings that they grew up in. Which is kinda @Tommy10's point too. We are more influenced by what is happening on the ground then by some 'well meaning' bureaucrats would like us to believe. But that is a whole other disconnect unto itself. The fallacy of social engineering.

 

[Tommy10]

Exactly, they can say and do what they like but the evidence is clear. Even in our blessed first world, the poorer of that typically suffer through a harsher existance then those better off, including smoking more. It is an addictive habbit that one usually does for one reason or another, stress from life, environment and other things (who ever listened to their parents telling them not to drink, smoke stay out late or ride your bike without a helmet)The bureaucrats can not control this and they do not like that. Smoking will cease one day, and it will cease because of society's ever evolving ways not legislation. Will it happen in 50 years? Maybe in the first world for the vast majority, in the third world I would like to think so as well! But the pessimist in me sees 50 more tough years for a lot of place. Plenty of stress you get you smoking those ciggies.

 

[CuckFumbustion]

Smoking provides the quickest delivery system for that 'stress relief'. Quick as heroin, but easy as lighting a match. (by design)
Then it turns right around a few seconds and exacerbates that stress. And then another cigarette. Stress then smoke, stress then smoke. It is insidious circle.
When you treat the smoker as a reasonable person and explain things like the nature of nicotine withdrawal, then you give them a tool to fight combustion. That is key.
Placing distasteful images on packs only gets scoffed by people who are already aware that smoking is bad. M' okay?

I don't shame people for smoking and always mention that if they can overcome the first 2 days of craving, then to keep the faith because, it is all downhill after that.
And what cravings that do exist are only momentary. Just distract yourself long enough to forget that 2 second craving. And will power. Prepare to use your will power reserves.

If you have been smoking for years, it is a higher mountain to climb and to descend from said mountain. But you will still have those tools to quit again. That can't be taken away from you.
And you will be that much more prepared for the next time you take up the fight again. Just refer to this info-graphic here next time out.

Keep the faith and share the wealth of knowledge, Give smokers the tools they need to fight the good fight. Then that 50 year goal might be just that more attainable.

 

[NorVape]

I think were "my" bureucrats succeeded with the social ingeneering of making the populace stop smoking comes down to:

-extreme taxation
-a general smoking ban in public places

What they fail to realize is that another traditional (here) and less harmful tobacco product, SNUS, have become the go to source for nicotine.

But they cant admit that something fun is as much to thank as their half draconian messures.

Another key factor is the high level of education and income in my country. Happy, well of people with a lot to live for doesn't make for good addicts.

So the evil Big Tobacco fuckers market cigs to kids in the third world, making them feel as cool as James Dean for a little while, with a fake NBA jersey and a Marlboro, thinking THIS is the freedom of the west.

I get it. My father and mother were born in a rural, developing society. Cigs, coke and Levi's were the dream they were being sold. They were, as @cuckfombustion said, feeling like a part of a bigger culture, and the way to be down is to consume.

You cant afford Levi's? Here, have a Lucky.

 

[BOBCAT]

I don't know about 50 years from now....What I do know is im 52 years old and have been smoking cigarettes for 36 of those years.The last two years I have been spending between $500 and $600 a month on tobacco.Please don't judge me.I know its fucked up.2 1/2 weeks ago I purchased a nicotine vaporizer and have gone from 2-3 packs a day down to a pack a week.I now smoke 3 cigarettes a day.Is this relevant? I don't know that either.Just takes me back to a Cheech and Chong quote "since I lost one of my lungs I cut my smoking in half".Sorry for the ramble but I feel pretty good about what Im finally trying to do.BOB

 

[Tommy10]

Such a drastic improvement in such little time is a lot better than a lot manage to do! Keep it up, you'll kick it!

 

[CuckFumbustion]

@BOBCAT I'm not about to judge you. My Dad used to smoke 3 to 4 packs of Kool menthols a day. They are so bad for you that even their penguin mascot died of 'Kanker'.
Please check out my info-graphic here, if you decide to go cold turkey. That piece of info helped me and others I know get through the withdrawal phase.

You are already trying to break or perhaps have even already broken the ritual that comes with cigarette smoking. Good on you.

My grandfather was not a psychologist, But just before he quit smoking entirely, He would put a cigarette in his mouth, then light a match. Hold the match in front of his cigarette then extinguish the match. Sounds crazy, But that cured him of the ritual.

I used to be a nonfilter king. Tried every brand I could, so I would get bored with them. Finally smoked low tar cigs and got so sick of the ritual and those interruptible trips to the store.
Then I never looked back. That and I took up mountain biking. I didn't think I'd look to classy dragging off a cig while riding a bike. Oh yes one other tactic is to trade one addiction for a compulsion. I now get cranky, If I don't get enough exercise. Keeping yourself occupied will distract you from those 'lesser' cravings.

I have helped others quit smoking without the preaching. If they fail, I remind them that they can quit and fail and have the learning experience carry over to the next time they attempt to quit. Then they can tell there story to others.

But getting back to the thread, Instead of putting repulsive images of lung tissue on the packs, Wouldn't be simpler to put my info graphic and some web site urls with helpful information,
support groups, and perhaps the Kool penguin on a mountain bike instead of the shock and awe that most bureaucrats seem to favor? Why treat smokers like idiots?

I'll add one other thing for everybody to take a kick at. Old movies use cigarette smoke as a visual effect. Especially old black and white films. Would anybody care to comment on the impact of films and media have to the generation growing up with youtube?

 

[kellya86]

@BOBCAT , your doing well stick with it. It's so worth it.

 

[NorVape]

But getting back to the thread, Instead of putting repulsive images of lung tissue on the packs, Wouldn't be simpler to put my info graphic and some web site urls with helpful information,
support groups, and perhaps the Kool penguin on a mountain bike instead of the shock and awe that most bureaucrats seem to favor? Why treat smokers like idiots?

This! I always believe in the power of info, but governents have always prefered fear.

Over here they have a stop smoking hot line, and I think it works very well. There's also apps that help you keep track of all benefits of quitting.

Before I didn't care if people smoked, but after I quit and I realized how tremendously damaging it has been for my health, I feel obligated to ask my friends wtf they are doing, just as I would if they became other kind of addicts.

This is not about judging, but about caring. And shaming doesn't help.

Two things help

-Knowledge
-Alternatives

Edit: right on @BOBCAT , keep up the good work! And this is not a judgemental place