[pertikuss]

I've tried to tell friends "you know how much you would save if you quit smoking..."

I have known a number of people like you who make those comments to us smokers.. BUT when you then look at how much a lot of those people spend on an average friday and/or sat night of partying, i will take my smoking. Currently i go through 2 packs of smokes every 3 days (roughly 14 a day). So that is a Carton every 15 days, or 2 weeks. A carton is 28.99 for Pall malls.. Some of those partiers go through 100 a NIGHT, compared to my habit which is 30 every 2 weeks.. give or take.

I'm all for indulging in pleasures once in awhile but when I know something will eventually kill me if I do it all the time, I don't think I"ll do it. I know eventually we all die but I'd rather it not be cancer and be slow and painful, or hacking up blood, etc.

In the 20 years i have been in, i have known over 3000 smokers. Add in their kin who smoke, those i grew up with who smoke (And still do), that is more like 8000 people over the past 36 years. Of them, i know of only 3 who have died from something that 'gets attributed to tobacco. BUT i know over 20 who have died from 'tobacco causing illnesses, who never smoked in their life...

I do think jacking up the prices by adding "vice taxes" on products is BS...unless those taxes are being used to pay for some type of consequence of the product....i.e. it costs the govt. X millions of dollars to have alcohol counseling centers...then I don't mind alcohol taxes paying for that...but don't add taxes just to try and encourage me to quit...I'm a grown man and can make my own lifestyle choices, thanks.

Thanks for the back up on that. As a smoker, i am getting sick and tired of places jacking up the taxes on tobacco products, just to help fill in budget holes, when most of those holes are NOT to pay for things related to tobacco's ills.. And worse yet, when places put a new tax on smokers, to 'pay for x' then BAN us from smoking in that zone; such as Santa Barbra who put a tax on smokers to help pay to beautifying and clean up the beach front (by putting in smoker canopies with ash trays in, rather than having us just drop the butts all over) then went and banned smokers from lighting up on the beach front. WTF OVER?

It's just a matter of what you choose to waste money on...you quit cuz the price got too high...good on ya.

I know people that give more than $150 every month to their church? How much could they save there?

Or people that spend 4 times that on a car payment that uses that much more in gas...

Or people that spend more than that on their skydiving hobby...or gambling...or golf...or buying shoes

EVERYBODY wastes their money on something...if not, then their life is probably boring.

Very true.. I know plenty of people who spend around 300 a month for golfing.

But you could be hurting them physically with all the second hand smoke. Some people are retarded and smoke in front of their kids, etc..

Sorry, but i call BS on that 'retarded for smoking in front of kids crap. I knew plenty of people growing up who were all ways around smokers (such as those next door who worked with their kin in a local pub in England, which was ALWAYS full of smoke).. 2 went on to do track and field at Uni, while the 3rd went to the RAF.. NONE have had health issues from being around smokers..
As far as Asthma, i know a hell of a lot more people who have had it, who grew up around NON SMOKERS than i know of who grew up around those who DID smoke... Almost 17 to 1..