I just saw a fascinating gif map on Reddit showing the change of cigarette purchases from the 1970s to 2012. Given the decision by CVS to stop selling tobacco products, this is an interesting perspective on the social trend.
I thought that you might be interested so here is the link: Map
It is a hopeful sign though there is an interesting backslide recently. I continue to be surprised and disappointed in seeing young people smoke. My family in Chicago has a number of smokers, including among my nephews and nieces. It is particularly surprising given the extremely high price of packs today. That of course is the value of an addictive product.
The trend nationally is more promising than the results in my family. Traditional tobacco sales are down roughly 30 percent but E-cig sales are climbing by an impressive 25 percent annually.
GaryT, Vap cigs are pretty big in SoCal. I go to a coffee shop where a few regulars use them. Some folks have a strap, wearing it around their neck like a whistle. One guy allows himself one pack of Marlboro a week. Otherwise it’s vap. Do you get any crap from the Carey Nation types?
ChipS, Live Free or Die.
The NH booze commission is the only govt-run monopoly I know of that charges low prices. Cheap booze, cheap cigs, cheap gas–it’s more than a state; it’s a lifestyle!
Never pictured you in a Trans Am. Ma. State Cops used to sit @ the NH border and nab people for buying too many bottles of booze @ NH State Liquor Stores. NH had the cheapest booze in the northeast back when I was a kid. Great use of police resources!! Taxachusetts.
True. I used to sell White Mountain dew out of the trunk of my Trans Am.
Liberaltarian, This ChipS guy has outstanding warrants in all those New England States.
@Liberaltarian, pay no attention to that blowhard Spinelli; MA, VT, and ME are also full of rednecks. The simple explanation for the huge cigarette sales in NH is that the tax on ’em is
$1.73 less per pack than in MA. A quick trip across the border to pick up a few cartons more than pays for itself.
Oh, and…Hey, Nick!
Young girls should be told that there are a lot of men and boys out there who will reject them as love partners if they smoke. So, their herd to choose from will be dumber than the smart males who don’t smoke and don’t like kissing an ashtray. Smoking is ugly and dirty.
“One thing I’d love to know how to do is how to convince younger people to quit the smoking?”
At 42, watching Keith Hernandez in his “Just For Men” commercials say, “No play for Mr. Grey” — I mean, the man is just talking plain sense there. I jest a bit, but naturally health education does exist and it does include the general negative health impact cigarettes have. For more immediate impact on the ‘tastes and preferences’ of teens, I’d connect the behavior, like grey hair, to a lack of sex. Show Suzy wanting to kiss Tommy, but then pulling away because he has cigarette breath.
Aridog, My wife LOVED smoking. But, she quit before having a child and stayed strong afterward. But, she still loves to watch people smoke. When we watch a movie or TV show we always pick out the people who are real smokers as opposed to just smoking for the role. Me, I smoked from age 17 to 36. I only tried quitting once. I quit cold turkey. And, I have never had one since. We’re all hardwired differently.
Aridog, Our culture has such a problem w/ death. I spent the summer of 1969 working in an old folks home as a janitor. Being raised in the Italian culture I have a deep respect for the elderly and got to be friends w/ many. One was an old firefighter named Mike. He was alcoholic and terminal. I went to one of the RN’s who was cool. I asked he if I could bring Mike a bottle of Budweiser, his preferred drink. I always had a cooler in my car..what can I say. This wise old nurse smiled, said “That’s a nice thought” and gave it an unofficial OK. For about 4 weeks I clandestinely brought Mike a cold beer, put it in a big Styrofoam coffee cup[got my man a 16 oz.]. That brought him so much joy. Why couldn’t that nurse give me official approval? Why did I have to sneak it? Because we have a real problem w/ death, that’s why.
Paul … I completely understand your Mother’s attitude once she learned she was terminal. The very same idea rolls around in the back of my mind should that day come. Heck, I even considered it yesterday when another lesion was discovered and momentarily my juvenile logic said, what the heck, if these things are going to keep showing up anyway, why not smoke? The reason I won’t is two fold, first it would be selfish act and discourage my better half who has been very supportive (she quit 20+ years ago), and second, the lesion in place now is not a terminal condition…e.g., why should I tempt fate and hack off the Tumor Board. But, yeah, push comes to shove down the road, I’ll be thinking about it…because I really liked smoking as a momentary step away from hassles, etc.
re: Gary T, September 8, 2014 at 1:13 pm
“JBH:
Smoke is not a vapor. It is solid particulate matter suspended in the air.
A vapor is a liquid that is dispersed in the air, either in fine condensate mist or in actual solution in the air.”
In mentioning a dictionary I have in which the first definition of “vapor” includes smoke being a vapor, I left out naming the dictionary, the better to see if someone could find a supposedly-reputable dictionary with a contrary definition.
The dictionary I used is The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston • New York, © 1987, 1993.
The first definition given in that dictionary, on page 1492, is, “1. Barely visible or cloudy diffused matter, such as mist or smoke, suspended in the air.”
From the Wikipedia article titled, “Vapor,” as I found it a few moments ago, “Since it is in the gas phase, the amount of vapor present is quantified by the partial pressure of the gas.”
Okay, if vapor is always in the gas phase (which implies that a vapor can never exist at the triple point?), then the drugs of a so-called electronic cigarette are not in a vapor state, and are in an aerosol state.
What if inconsistency is the symbolic hobgoblin of coercion?
Sincerity of belief is not a measure of accuracy of belief…???
The law of rationally intelligible thought sometimes named, “the law of identity,” which holds that something that is has to be what it is (and not identically what it is not, in accord with “the law of non-contradiction, aka, the law of contradiction which I find may usefully be stated as, “something that is cannot identically be what it is not”).
Methinks that there may be a useful name for believing that something that is is identically what it is not; for me, one form of that name is, “psychosis.”
So. What do we do in order to impress kids not to smoke? They think they are being adult like. They think it is cool. They think they might be attractive to the opposite sex. They think its ok cause daddy does it. They think that Humphrey Bogart is cool. They watch the movie The Green Berets when John Wayne halts the troops in the jungle in Nam and advises the grunts to Smoke em if ya gottem. The Cong were out there following the smell and killed many of our troops that way. The smoking is wiping out the survivors who are still around.
traveling limey
The word is out. Smoking is down. Many are still hooked but they more often than not try a little harder, smoke less or find a less damaging form like ecigs or additive free. All in all, smoking tobacco is not as harmful as psych drugs. For myself, a nonsmoker, I love the improved air in restaurants and other buildings but would not ban outside smoking.
This is an opinion and not a fact limey that you state with the redundancy of an advertisement. There are times when “Psych” drugs save lives. It is ridiculous to compare the addictive form of nicotine to a “Psych” drug. Others on here ignore it or maybe they even agree with you. I don’t know. But you are wrong. Lord only knows who has been filling your head with this information because it certainly isn’t through life experiences
When. People abuse pain medication, that is different. When they abuse tranquilizers, that is also different but those are not really “Psych” drugs which are used to adjust the brain’s chemistry that we really know very little about. But it does help.
One thing I’d love to know how to do is how to convince younger people to quit the smoking? One reason I fail to know how to do that is because I truly loved to smoke. I can recall only one other time I ceased temporarily and that was long ago, at night, when a glowing cigarette made your head a fine target. Whole bunches of us loved sunrise for reasons other than sunshine.
Nick, I’ve been a very lucky man my entire life, and I include now in that, even with the challenges of late. Man oh man it could have been so much worse. And I am always grateful for good wishes, so thanks. I know you know what is involved.
Aridog, I have followed the ups and downs in your medical journey the last couple years. I’m sorry to hear of this new challenge. But, that’s what it is, a challenge. And, you have met challenges your entire life w/ truth and a positive attitude. I know you bristled when you and others were called liars yesterday, that being something you are not, or even been. You know my line of work. Liars are often the ones who call others that, a Shakespearean characteristic. Just focus on the positive My prayers are for you and your medical team. God bless.
Once you acquire cancer, you realize that smoking heavily for 55+ years was silly. However, you also admit you enjoyed every cigarette you ever had and wish you could still smoke to this very day. I quit 28 March 2012, the day the Hospital Tumor Board approved my treatment procedures. Simple reason: they are going to try to keep me alive, so I cooperate. Better late than never. To this day I wish I could still smoke…the story that you soon lose the urge is nonsense if you smoked for 55+ years. Wednesday, this week, another Tumor Board will determine what procedures are necessary now, since another lesion has appeared near where the eradicated one was previously. I’d love to try the e-cigs, but I suspect the oncologists would be dismayed. I do not want them dismayed. No matter how much I really really want a Camel, I won’t do it…not even a vapor Camel. Damnit.
Aridog – not sure it will make you feel any better but my mother gave up smoking when they found she had throat cancer. When she found she had terminal cancer (a second bout of cancer) the first thing she wanted was a cigarette. 🙂
So what is the difference between ecig vapor and smoke from burning cigarettes? While I don’t down vapor could apply to both, these ecigs are water/liquid vapor with tobacco juice versus smoke. So haven’t Which? or Consumer’s Report checked it out unbiasedly?
The word is out. Smoking is down. Many are still hooked but they more often than not try a little harder, smoke less or find a less damaging form like ecigs or additive free. All in all, smoking tobacco is not as harmful as psych drugs. For myself, a nonsmoker, I love the improved air in restaurants and other buildings but would not ban outside smoking.