Whatcha smoking?

[yahoo]

An enterprising drug dealer can easily ad some synthetic substances to refills.

[|iR|Focalor]

The size of the BALLS it took to put out these ads. GOD DAMN CHURCH BELLS, I TELL YOU!







These ads are a mere 50 or 60 years old. And you think, "God damn, they could say ANYTHING back then. Thank God we have the FDA and regulations for this kind of thing today." And while we're looking back on 60 year old tobacco ads as being crooked as a pigs dick, I have a sneaking suspicion that in decades to come, they'll be looking back on today's prescription pharmaceutical ads and thinking the exact same thing.

[Th0m@s29]

Hey hey hey Smoke Weed ALL DAY EVERYDAY SON!!! CHEA BOYYY WOOTY WOOTY WOOOT WOOOT!! Eat Healthy,Stay Fit And Die Anyways.... Sooo Just Smoke Some Bud Man!!! I'M GONNA RAW DAWG THESE BITCHES TILL MY BAWLLS FAWLL OFF MAAAN!!! LOL!

[|iR|Focalor]

You know Thomas, for the sake of all the people that are trying like hell to finally get marijuana completely decriminalized (something that I'm sure you want too), you should probably refrain from ever opening your mouth about anything ever again. Because every time you do, you just help to reinforce the stereotype that all pot smokers are killing all their brain cells and turning themselves into brainless drooling dopes, making it necessary to continue prohibiting the substance in an attempt to prevent people from becoming just like you. Mkay? You make the rest of us who are responsible enough to handle our shit look bad.

[|iR|Focalor]

I've tried readyrolled American Spirit cigarettes in the pack before. They were pretty good from what I remembered. Their big thing is that they're 100% additive free, so I guess they don't flue cure it with ammonia fumes like RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, and Brown & Williamson does to all their tobacco to boost nicotine content. I guess whatever all-natural curing processes American Spirit uses also causes the leaf to retain more natural moisture and in turn causes it to burn a little slower. I definitely remembered that from the one or two individual packs of American Spirits I bought years ago. At the time, I was pretty amazed at how much longer it took to smoke one compared to a Marlboro the exact same size.

So I got it home and peeled the metal seal off the can. WOW. This stuff smells AMAZING. It smells fucking beautiful. This smell is LIFE-CHANGING! If you're a smoker and you think a fresh pack of Marlboros or Camels (or whatever brand you smoke) smells good, you have NO FUCKING IDEA what "good" smells like until you take a whiff of this stuff. You take one sniff of this stuff in the can and you'll be saying to yourself, "Jesus Christ, what the hell have I been smoking all this time!?! It smells nothing like this!"

Anyway, rolled a couple, then smoked one. Oh my fuck-biscuits. That's the best cigarette I've ever smoked in my life. From now on, Camel and Marlboro can go fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned.

Been about 4 months since I posted the above. Found out a little more about the "all-natural curing process" that Natural American Spirit uses, at least for their cans of 100% US Grown roll-your-own. It's a blend of several types of tobaccos grown in the southeastern US, but part of the blend that goes into it is some kinda very unique aging and fermentation process called "perique". When they grow the tobacco, they don't let it get tall or flowery and they harvest it kinda early in the season too. When they harvest it, they initially cure it open to the air in a sideless curing barn for a couple weeks until it just begins to dry out, at which point they take it down, remove the stems, roll it into small bales, and then pack it into hickory or oak whiskey barrels which are pressurized to remove excess air so that the leaves won't set up mold during the fermentation. They ferment it in the barrels for about a year, and the fermentation process along with the hardwood from the barrel leeching into the leaves and flavoring it much like it does in whiskey making produces that really rich aroma, which is exactly WHY this stuff smells so much better than the plain-jane crap that other US cigarette makers use.

HOWEVER.... I think I said something like "I would highly recommend this brand". I dunno about that. Don't get me wrong, it's fucking terrific stuff. But damned if it ain't strong as fuck. Too strong, I'd say. I cough a helluva lot more than I use to, and often times it involves hocking up goopey chunks of that nice light brown lung pudding. If you're a pack-per-day smoker looking to smoke this stuff exclusively full-time, I'd have to advise you to stay away from this stuff.

I think part of the problem might be the teeny tiny filters I'm using. The only filters I can find are these Top drop-in filters and they're only 18mm long, which is pretty close to half the size of a standard filter you'd find on any other cigarette. I dunno that using longer filters would help much. This stuff just seems to be really moist and high in tar. Typically when I roll cigarettes, I'll take out about half an ounce to one whole ounce at a time, chop it up a little finer with some scissors, then let it sit on my rolling tray for about 20 or 30 mins to get pretty dry and brittle so it'll roll without clumping in spots quite so bad, and then I'll roll it all into about 30 or 40 cigarettes that'll last me a few days. And even with letting it dry out more before rolling it, it's still a little too rich and tarry.

I ended up going back to smoking AND dipping just so I could cut down the number of cigarettes I smoke per day so that I wouldn't wake up in the mornings feeling like someone had run a pizza slicer across my lungs 40 times. Like they say right on the can of this stuff, "No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean safer." That's very very true. In fact if I had to guess, I'd say this stuff is probably a little worse for you than Marlboro reds.

Tried quitting this stuff this week. Told myself I wasn't gonna get anymore. But as soon as I got down to about 2 cigarettes, somehow I found myself back in the tobacco store buying more, haha. Shit's addictive as hell, man. They say nicotine is more addictive than heroin. And that shit's the truth too.

[[BTF]adam]

been awhile since I checked in, still a horrible smoker, trying slooooowly to cut down but really, not getting very far with it. I went up to 20-30 a day for about 2 months after I split with my ex (funnily enough the one that I turned into a full time smoker as a result of being with) and have come back down to around 10 a day, which is much better but still too much. It's drinking really, that does it. I know full well if I've had a few drinks, there's no thing in the world I'll want more than to have a cigarette or 10, and my willpower is zero when pissed. So I just end up saying to myself, im drinking 3-4 times a week these days, what's the point in even trying to stop when I'm not drinking? perhaps I'll try again in winter.

It does scare the shit out of me though, I have had swollen lymph nodes in my neck for almost a year which the doctor checked about half a year ago and said she wasn't worried, but they haven't gone down and I've been burying my head in the sand with it about going back to get them checked out again, and one of my lungs has a dull pain in it when I stretch my massive lats or smoke too much in a day. worrying stuff yet the lil nicotine monster says phuck that have another.

have tried e-cigs, not my cup of tea. It's just not the same, all the vapours i've used have been equally if not more harsh than actual smoking, make my throat and mouth dry as fuck and just don't hit the spot in the same way. ahhh well, I'm off for a cigarette.

[|iR|Focalor]

DAY ONE.

I was gonna try to stop smoking around New Years this year, but... that didn't happen.

Right after New Years, I stopped buying the roll-your-own Natural American Spirit shit and switched to packs of Marlboro silver (the artist formerly known as Marlboro ultra lights). Since then, I've been telling my old lady to pick me up a few boxes of nicotine patches when she does the grocery shopping, but every time, she'd come home with more packs of damn cigarettes because she was too lazy to go to the pharmacist and ask for them. Anyway, last week I made an effort to try to keep my smoking to no more than 10 cigs a day. By Sunday, I had maybe 8 left, so I smoked 7, with my last one of those getting burnt at about 7pm, and then I finally went to sleep around 2am.

Got up this morning at about 10 and was in a white hot seething rage for no good reason. Nicotine withdrawal, big time. So I smoked my last one with a cup of coffee on the back porch, and by the time I came back in 5 minutes later, I was all good again. Don't let anyone ever tell you quitting smoking is easy or simple. Fuck no, it ain't. I've already been at the point where I HATE the taste of the damn things for many months now, and I hate the way my lungs gurgle and rattle when I breathe even more. I'd just fucking STOP if I could, believe me. But it would not be safe... for everyone else. The mood swings are REAL. When I go too long without my precious vitamin N, absolutely EVERYTHING pisses me off. Just the sight of someone walking into the room makes me go, "Grrrrrrrrr, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU HAVE TO EXIST FOR!!?!?!?!?! FUCK YOU!!!! DIE!!!!!!" And that ain't like me at all. I'm not someone who gets enraged over every little thing. Certain things trip my trigger faster than others, but for the most part, I'm a really laid back who-gives-a-fuck kinda guy about everything.

Anyway, after my morning cup of coffee and the last cigarette from the pack, I slapped on the nicotine patch for the first time. Been about 9 hours now, and so far I haven't felt the urge to murder anyone with a hammer. Right after dinner, I did find myself thinking, "I kinda wish I had my usual post-meal cigarette." And if I didn't have this patch, I'd probably be busy rolling up someones severed body parts in plastic and duct tape, but... I'm actually good. No one's dead, I'm not fighting the urge to commit acts of violence, and I'm not breaking things around the house in a blind rage. So apparently these little stupid patches actually work... just in case anyone was wondering.

I will say this, though. If you're a smoker reading this and thinking you can just pick up a box of nico-patches and magically stop smoking, that's probably not gonna happen. You have to be to the point where YOU actually WANT to quit and you're sick and fucking tired of the habit. Because, if it weren't for the mood altering shit associated with smoking, I wouldn't need these patches at all. The patch isn't gonna make you want to stop smoking. But, as far as I can tell, they will help keep you from going batshit kamikaze on everyone.

[Sgt. Dick]

Wishing you luck Buddy   

[Booya]

Right... What a nightmare Foc. I did the Chantix. Twice... I'm close, that shit does make you not even want a smoke. its pretty nice. then later it makes you sick if you smoke.. If you can handle the extreme lucid dreaming.. its expensive as fk. health insurance will buy it once I think.. did for me.  Next step I knew I was gonna have to do anyways  is get dropped off at the lake and take the boat back to the falls and camp out for 1 week stranded with out any. Any more I do it out of boredom, and the sanity of my family

[|iR|Focalor]

My aunt's been a smoker since before I was born, and she quit on that Chantix stuff. And knowing how long she's been smoking, that's enough to tell me that it obviously does work. However, when I last bumped into her at my grandmothers funeral last year, she was puffing on that vaporizer pen shit, which is every bit as bad as smoking. Maybe you don't get all the tobacco tar in your lungs, but you still get nicotine, and that's really the worst part of smoking. The nicotine does all the mood altering and physical addiction stuff that keeps you hooked, and it's still traveling through your bloodstream, roughing up your arterial walls to where plaque sticks to it better leading to all sorts of potentially deadly heart problems.

As far as the lucid dreaming shit goes, that may not be something exclusive to Chantix. Before I slapped a patch on yesterday, I went through and read the giant instruction sheet that came in the box, and it mentions that one very possible side effect can be vivid dreams. It wasn't as hard to fall asleep last night as I thought it might be, but I did keep waking up every 30 mins to an hour, and probably because of the crazy dreams I was having.

At one point, I was dreaming about meeting some short little young redhead at a bar who was rubbing up all over me. She said, "Follow me, there's a bed in the back." She opened some door right there beside the bar, and sure enough there was a full bedroom right there, lol. She went in and sat on the bed. I walked to the door and stopped before coming inside, then said to her, "Hold on a second." I ran over to the bar and grabbed a napkin and tucked one corner into my shirt collar. I went in, shut the door, and said, "This is my pussy eating bib!" Hahahaha! She didn't even laugh though. I started pulling her clothes off, I was about 2 inches away from jamming my cock into her pussy, and then it was right there that I said to myself, "Aw shit... this is just a dream isn't it... fuuuuuuuuuuck.", and then I woke up.

So, yeah... I think that qualifies as "vivid dreams".

[Sgt. Dick]

I'm all for you being able to quit, but if you have any dreams about 2dum, go back to smoking because it in not worth it. 

[LedZep]

Is it not normal to smoke Camel Yellows/Blues these days? Nobody buys them apparently. And I mean the American ones, none of that Camel North shit that came out recently as they taste like depleted nuclear power plant shit. Of course I like in Cuckmond Hill, Morontario so I guess that explains it.

Edit:
LIVE* not like. I don't like anything about this place these days..

[|iR|Focalor]

I used to smoke the Camel blue 99's for a while. Before the cigarette tax hike back in maybe 2008 I think, Camel blue 99's were labelled Camel Light 100's... I think... pretty sure. But while the government was bumping the taxes on them, they also imposed several other measures, one being that they could no longer use terms like "Lights" "Ultra Lights" etc in the names. The tobacco companies argument was that names like lights and ultra lights were descriptors about the "flavor" of the product, whereas the govt said, "No, you're implying the STRENGTH the product with those descriptors, and thereby implying that one cigarette might be less dangerous than another." So from then on, Camel Lights became Camel Blue, Marlboro Lights became Marlboro Gold, and Marlboro Ultra Lights became Marlboro Silver.

Not all United States major brand cigarettes sold in other parts of the world actually ARE the same cigarettes that you can buy in the US. In fact... I think most of them AREN'T the same. The Camels you buy in the US are a blend of a particular variety (I dunno the names of any of them) of somewhat mellow and weak flavored Virginia grown tobacco and Turkish grown Samsun and Ismir varieties, which are also kinda weak and mellow flavored. But then when they cure it, they hang it in a humidity controlled room and fill the room with smoke from certain types of smoldering hardwoods, usually oak and hickory, and this practice is done to make all the leaves taste the same when you smoke them, because some plugs of leaves from different plants can taste a lot stronger than others even though they are the same variety and were grown on plants sitting right beside one another. They also pump in ammonia fumes, which helps the leaves to dry out and cure faster, which cuts curing time a little and increases productivity. But it also has the added benefit of not allowing as much of the nicotine in each leaf to evaporate like it would if they DIDN'T use ammonia fumes in the curing process. What this means is... obviously, there will be more nicotine content in it. And I forget the medical/scientific specifics of it, but the ammonia curing also allows the boosted nicotine levels to be absorbed more quickly into the bloodstream, creating a more addictive product, something that the tobacco companies denied while they were testifying in Congressional Hearings. And this is one of the many reasons the anti-tobacco lobby hates big tobacco.

Anyway, the Camel cigarettes you get outside of the US (or any other brand from RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, etc) usually have no US grown tobacco in them. They taste VASTLY different from the domestic US cigarettes. Honestly, even the domestic US Camels no longer taste the same as they did back in 2000. At some point several years before the 2008 tax hike and govt crackdown on big tobacco, Camel changed up the blend. They've tasted significantly more burnt and smokey since then, leading me to believe they're using cheaper shittier variety of Virginia tobacco than before and then hardwood smoking the living fuck out of it to cover up it's natural bitterness.

I'm still a non-smoker. Been on the patch since last Monday April 3rd. Haven't smoked a single one yet. There were a few times in the first couple of days that I thought to myself, "God damn, I wish I had a cigarette right now.", especially right after dinner on that first day of quitting, and especially right after the first time I got done fucking my old lady after quitting. But now I can finish dinner or finish fucking and really have no thoughts about it. Yeah, there's still that small devil on my shoulder saying, "One more time, then you can stop again. What could it hurt?" But at this point, it's far more important to me to continue my non-smoking streak than it is to give in to the temptation and smoke that "just one more" cigarette. At this point, the wheezing and god-awful noises that were coming from my lungs at bedtime has mostly stopped. I still have maybe 50% or less of the lung capacity that I used to have 10 years ago, that hasn't changed, and I don't suspect it will ever improve that much. I've already done the damage. They say lung tissue can regenerate, but at certain point you do so much damage to certain parts that it becomes impossible.

[[BTF]adam]

Seems only right to contribute to this, I did make it after all..

  Focalor! I've been a (mostly) non smoker since about June last year, I got big into the e-cig thing after having a similar but less severe revelation to yours that I wasn't about this life anymore. I needed to quit tobacco before it became any harder than it needed to be and before it started severely impacting my health! Dropped some money on mods tanks and juices and found combinations that worked for me, reduced nicotine levels to where I'm at now, vaping 0.2mg juice which is the lowest possible, I tend to only vape in the morning, lunch and walking home. In the evenings, man has dat dere vaporizer for another substance which is fantastic. Don't really feel the need for nicotine at that point, though sometimes just out of habit and the fact my set up and juices taste so good haha.

That said, I've had the occasional cigarette drunk at parties and weddings, this remains rare and doesen't lead me to wanting to smoke cigarettes in the slightest when sober. Thailand was difficult, I had my vape with me of course but jeez something about holidays and smoking go together so well! Resisted though Sometimes my friends roll with tobacco when consuming the other ting, which I don't mind but need to stop getting involved with really, totally kick the tobacco out of my life. I plan to do that when we get the keys to the house I've just bought with the lady, as I usually host where we're renting and unfortunately for my dudes they'll simply have to stop smoking tobacco with their shit in the house - which is largely in part due to the ballache I'll have moving out of this rented place, definitely gonna have to whitewash the walls before we go! It's not awful, but you can tell tobacco hath been here.

Keep up the good fight quitters!

[Whirlingdervish]

This is my 4th year since quitting. Went from pack a day, to 5 a day and eventually started limiting when I could have one to after noon. Once I could do that I just stopped buying them and went right to 0.

It took 6 months or so for the majority of the built up tarry shit to come out, and a year before my lung capacity started to come back. You will breathe better in the long term, even if you were at it for more than a decade, it just may never be what it could have been without ever smoking.

I still burn some herb, but no vapes, no smokes and I don't really miss it anymore even if I'm drinking.
After meals and when out drinking were some of the worst times, and that moment when I first fire up my truck and roll down the window still makes me itch a little to light one but it's just a back of the mind kind of thing.

keep on keepin on