Do You Smoke Or Use Tobacco Products?

[W!nston]

Do You Smoke Or Use Tobacco Products?

I smoked for many years but I quit 6 years ago on the day my mother moved on to greener pastures.

I read the article below and I'm posting this thread with a poll to see how many Gay Heaven members use tobacco.

Smoking prevalence in LGBT community alarms health officials
The Columbus Dispatch | By Maria DeVito | Friday June 19, 2015 5:32 AM

More than four out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults in Ohio smoke, nearly twice the percentage for heterosexuals, according to a 2013 study​

At 18, Richard Wilson took a cue from his friends and lit his first cigarette.

But eight years later, the Short North resident decided the negative health effects outweighed his desire to light up.

“Needing a cigarette is really annoying,” said Wilson, now 27, who quit smoking after last year’s Columbus Pride Festival.

According to the 2013 Ohio Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 43.4 percent of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults in the state use tobacco products — nearly double the rate among heterosexual adults.

That’s why the Ohio Department of Health and Columbus Public Health will have booths this weekend at the Columbus Pride Festival, where they will hand out brochures about smoking cessation.

Both are following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the rates must drop.

The state Health Department will have experts on hand to answer questions about smoking cessation and health issues, said Russ Kennedy a spokesman for the department. The city is offering free testing for sexually transmitted diseases, said Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for Columbus Public Health. High stress levels can lead to tobacco use, said Mary Ellen Wewers, a professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State University.

“Particularly in the LGBT population, there may be higher levels of marginalization or discrimination in society,” Wewers said. “There’s also some stigma, and that can cause stress.”

Julia Applegate, a health program manager for Columbus Public Health, said part of the reason the smoking rate is so high is because the LGBT community was targeted by tobacco companies in the 1990s.

“In a way, it kind of made you feel good,” Applegate said. “You started to feel affirmed in your identity because a company recognized you.”

Wewers said same-sex couples don’t always have the same health-care benefits provided to heterosexual couples.

“Sometimes there isn’t access to treatment,” she said. “Most people want to quit smoking, but you know some of this involves counseling and medication.”

Smoking also seems like a way to fit in socially, some say.

“I think in the community, people are more social smokers,” said Liam Gallagher, 23, who said he smokes occasionally, but added he hasn’t had a cigarette in more than a year.

SOURCE

The poll is anonymous. No one will know how you answered.

Multiple answers allowed.

Please take a few seconds and add your input to the poll.

 

[Otage]

Oh my. Why it seems that everything I do must still be vieved from the point of me being gay? I smoke, cause as younger all my friends smoked. And to be honest, when sexy person smokes, it's very cool

 

[warp9]

The poll is anonymous. No one will know how you answered.

:rofl: Smoking here in Europe isn't that taboo as in the US. Thank God !

 

[Shelter]

Well I must admit that I'ved smoked cigarettes from my 15th to my 17th year. To that time I become acquainted with my now BF. He was a non-smoker. He never said anything about my smoking, but I know he didn't like it. But when we moved in together he asked me to stop smoking. He said to me that he don't like to kiss me because it is a feeling for him as if he would licking out an ashtray. I loved him so much - so I stopped smoking. And today I'll miss nothing.

 

[OLMPKY]

Never smoked in my life. Ever.

 

[gorgik9]

I started smoking when I was about 12-13 years old, I continued smoking for about 40 years - the last 12-15 years as a rather heavy smoker - but I totally stopped in early April 2012 when I got hospitalized because of cardiac insufficiency.

The decision to stop smoking is definitely one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

 

[Shelter]

The decision to stop smoking is definitely one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

Gorgik you are totally right! :agree: We are fighting against drugs - but tell me what is smoking or heavy drinking? Both are addictive drugs.

 

[clemh01]

After watching my father die of lung cancer, my sister die of smoking related cancer and a brother die of smoking related heart disease, no I never smoked. Nasty habit and makes your mouth taste like an ashtray. UGH.

 

[clemh01]

Plus it kills you.

 

[haiducii]

If cigarettes were bad, they wouldn't sell them everywhere

 

[dargelos]

I haven't had a cigarette for seven years but still want to defend the right of consenting adults to enjoy whatever bad habits bring them pleasure.
Nicotine in itself is not a particularly harmful drug. It's the smoldering tobacco that releases the carbon monoxide, tar, particulates and carcinogens which wreck lungs and hearts, not the nicotine.
Now we have vape sticks which are as close as we'll ever get to the safe cigarette, I'd have thought all smokers would want to change to the new safer snouts, but none so far among the answers to this poll.

 

[gb2000ie]

I haven't had a cigarette for seven years but still want to defend the right of consenting adults to enjoy whatever bad habits bring them pleasure.

Why do people have a right to slowly and expensively kill themselves on tax payer money?

If Smokers gave up their right to healthcare THEN I would have no problem with them taking ACTUAL responsibility for their actions. But of course no one suggests that. No, smokers want to be allowed kill themselves AND get healthcare - sorry, that is NOT a right - that is a ridiculous imposition to demand from society!

Even if you leave fairness and money out of it, how about passive smoke murdering millions?

Smokers are victims of evil corporations, and/or selfish pricks.

Nicotine in itself is not a particularly harmful drug. It's the smoldering tobacco that releases the carbon monoxide, tar, particulates and carcinogens which wreck lungs and hearts, not the nicotine.

Indeed - there is a VERY important distinction between tobacco and nicotine.

Now we have vape sticks which are as close as we'll ever get to the safe cigarette, I'd have thought all smokers would want to change to the new safer snouts, but none so far among the answers to this poll.

It's cheaper too - I guess humans, on average, are stupid

B.

 

[Otage]

By your logic gb2000ie every thing harmfull should be banned, like lazyness, unhealthy food etc. Many enjoyable things are harmfull, but I like many of them. There is more to life than just being safe and saving tax payers money. Let's ban everything, like we do here in Finland. We are rated top on many measures, but still the population here is very unhappy. Over regulation and control has made very unliveable nation, that frowns upon everything fun.

 

[Shelter]

By your logic gb2000ie every thing harmfull should be banned, like lazyness, unhealthy food etc. Many enjoyable things are harmfull, but I like many of them. There is more to life than just being safe and saving tax payers money. Let's ban everything, like we do here in Finland. We are rated top on many measures, but still the population here is very unhappy. Over regulation and control has made very unliveable nation, that frowns upon everything fun.

:agree::agree::agree::agree::agree:

 

[gb2000ie]

By your logic gb2000ie every thing harmfull should be banned, like lazyness, unhealthy food etc. Many enjoyable things are harmfull, but I like many of them.

I figured someone would pretend tobacco is like chips.

There is a MASSIVE difference. Most things are only bad in excess. Alcohol - low amounts, good for you. Fat - you need it.

But Tobacco is ONLY bad. It is a carcinogenic adictive drug that does nothing but kill people and extort vast amounts of money out of them.

There is more to life than just being safe and saving tax payers money. Let's ban everything, like we do here in Finland. We are rated top on many measures, but still the population here is very unhappy. Over regulation and control has made very unliveable nation, that frowns upon everything fun.

Yes, by being against adictive murderous drugs I am a total killjoy who wants to ban everything. ~X(

Tobacco really is different, it is much more like heroin than chips.

I wish we would legalise pot and ban tabacco instead - it is much much much more harmful.

B.

 

[Otage]

I actually am with you with the banning of smoking, but for other reasons. I smoke myself, but I know I'm only treating symptoms with smokes that are caused by them. But moralizing smokers is the wrong way to go. Many don't realize the nature of the nicitine trap. The in getting smoking banned, is revealing that nature to every one, not trying to force it, making smokers feel bad about them selves ect. When smoker is down, he goes for a smoke

 

[hanstop]

It is not good for health.

 

[gb2000ie]

I actually am with you with the banning of smoking, but for other reasons. I smoke myself, but I know I'm only treating symptoms with smokes that are caused by them. But moralizing smokers is the wrong way to go. Many don't realize the nature of the nicitine trap. The in getting smoking banned, is revealing that nature to every one, not trying to force it, making smokers feel bad about them selves ect. When smoker is down, he goes for a smoke

I don't think smokers should be made feel bad.

I only take issue when smokers insist they are some sort of persecuted minority and start prattling on about their rights being violated.

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

That is just half right.
Everybody, especially those who live healthy, has a great chance to die slowly and causing lots of costs for the health insurrance. Smokers just get this treatment a few years earlier.
Also smoking decreases the life expectency. This decreases mainly the time people require benefits from the state or pensions. It is a generous move that they give up that time voluntary.

I don't think that maths quite stands up, because cancer, hearth disease, and emphysema cost a lot to treat. I know that in the BBC comedy "Yes Prime Minister" Sir Humphrey makes exactly this argument, but, it's an applause line, not a convincing argument.

Maybe it is true? Don't suppose you have some studies to back that up from reputable sources?

I am all for preventing passive smoking though. Why should someone else give up his time on earth for someone elses addiction?

I agree with you 110%

Even if, for the sake of argument, we assume that smokers are cheaper on the healthcare system, it should still be illegal to smoke around unwilling smoke-breathers because their right to life trumps any right there might conceivably be to smoke.

B.

 

[man2manfun]

I do not smoke myself, but I do have a smoking fetish. I find it quite sexy when some one else smokes. As a Bi male, I find both Women and Men smokers sexy. Especially during sex.