Colorado Going Smoke Free! Awesome!

It's obvious that taking smoke breaks entitles you to work less over the course of an 8 hour day. I'm not sure how that's justified, but it is. Maybe I should be able to hang out outside unproductively for 10 minutes each hour or perhaps leave 80 minutes early?

I've also found out that those of us who have chosen to not have children are called upon more often to stay late and work weekends because, "you know, "so and so" has kids and family obligations". Message? Your time is less valuable if you don't have children.

 

Wyoming---which should put "The Recalcitrant State" on its license plates---will be one of the last five. Wyoming is the home of Darth Cheney.

 

This, I assume, is a recovering tea addict...

 

I was a smoker for 50 years.

Some of the things I'm about to say, I've never said before.

I cannot believe that for most of my lifetime smokers got away with what we did. When I was a teenager (for the younger of PriusChatters):

* parents could smoke IN SCHOOLS on Parents' Night, in the hallways between periods, although not in the classrooms.

* shoppers could smoke IN GROCERY STORES (and most other stores, too); stores had ashtray urns scattered around, but many jerks still routinely crushed their cigarettes on the floor (as they did in schools, too)

* at work, smoking in meetings was never even an issue until the 80's; ashtrays were always provided on the tables (but every carpeted room still had cigarette burns in the carpets).

* smoking was routinely accepted in hospital waiting rooms, hallways and elevators, as well as in restaurants and even many theaters and concert halls

* pregnant women (and dads) were not discouraged from smoking

* millions of us, without giving it a second thought, routinely flicked cigarette butts out of car windows, crushed them out on sidewalks, smoked in other people's houses without asking (hosts were simply expected to provide ashtrays) and smoked in every public place you can think of (buses, subways, planes, the little observatory at the top of the Memorial Arch in St. Louis)

In retrospect, I am so sorry it took so long, and took so much effort and money by so many people to put a stop to all this, that I can't express it. I've been thankful over the last 25 years as the anti-smoking forces have piled up their successes and forced smoking to exist mainly as the outdoor, isolated activity it has become in so many places---even as I was unable to quit in the middle years of my life.

I cannot believe how low our collective consciousness level was with respect to smoking. If it was obvious enough to us as teenagers (50's in my case) that smoking is a killer (we called them "cancer sticks"), why hadn't the outcry started long before? Yet I do remember the magazine ads proclaiming that 6 out of 10 DOCTORS smoked Camels, so in retrospect, it's now clear that Big Tobacco knew what was eventually coming and was making subtle, pre-emptive moves even then.

I've never complained about one "restriction" imposed on me and other smokers, and have been disgusted at the whining and bitching I've listened to other smokers indulge themselves in, as if smoking where it can be breathed by others is some sort of RIGHT.

Mostly, I'm embarrassed and ashamed for every cigarette with which I've contributed to the general malaise, in every public situation where I was permitted to irritate and even sicken others.

 

hey, that's what i did when i worked at the video store! all the managers, except me, were two-pack-a-day smokers. so while i busted my tail most of the time, i also decided to take 10-15 minutes whenever i felt like it for a "non-smoke break" to sit on the hood of my car and BS with my coworkers while the CSRs were ringing up customers or putting away tapes. (this was back in the day of VHS, when the biggest store in the region- mine- had like 20 DVDs total)

why should i work more than them for the same paycheck anyway? :lol:

LOL Danny!!! you're so right.

tobacco road, brightleaf square, the whatchacallit tobacco auction bays right across from the Bulls park, the whole downtown district is all tobacco related. this state is going to fight anti-smoking laws as hard as it can. tobacco farming is still a glorious and to-be-admired profession here.

and i am soooo tired of hearing about the bouncing back and forth about this soon-to-be state lottery... they change their minds 20 times a day! if it weren't a 2+ hour drive either way i'd buy some tickets in VA or SC just to piss off the "lottery is evil" people.

 

You betcha. Apparently, if it's not a child, it's not "family." I'm right there with you, jaybee!

 

Good on you, ghost!

 

Yeah, I had a friend who as in the Corps for several years and that's why he started smoking.

Oh and come visit us here in CO anytime. It's a great state.

 

I 2nd that...Good for you Ghost !!! 50 years of smoking is a long time and rare to have quit without some illness coming into the picture. I wonder if you have ever figured up how much you think you have spent on cigs over that 50 year period of time. You probably could have bought your Prius with the money you would have saved. <_<

 

I'm highly allergic to second hand smoke... They passed smoke-free in restaurants and bars in chicago and I'm thrilled.

I can second hand smoke without all the filters they give to the smoker, so I'm exposed more than what the smokers are... but I can't second hand drink. Bad example to use.

 

I was a heavy smoker. I stopped 22 years ago.

It annoys me :angry: when:
Smokers come in out of the rain - and stink up the indoors
Smokers hang their cigarettes out their windows so they aren't bothered by the smoke they are creating
That I have to smell their smoke (even when their windows are rolled up) in my car 2, 3, or 4 car lengths away through my ventilation system
I see them use the sidewalk as a trash can
I see them throw burning butts out their windows
I have to deal with their body odor because they don't think they stink

I contribute to clean air with my Prius. Wish they would by <_< .

 

well i started smoking at 18 when i joined the air force. and yes smokers do take extra breaks.

we constantly have focus groups, meetings, training updates, etc. and all smokers run outside to grab a quick couple of puffs etc when coming and going to these various get togethers.

besides regular breaks, we are also allowed "unscheduled" time. used for coffee runs, bathroom breaks etc (yes, every second of our time at work is tracked) these are breaks, that should only be taken if needed. bathroom runs are typical, especially in my job that entails a lot of staring at the computer, (high levels of caffeine seems to make that task MUCH more tolerable) when the numbers start to run together, i get caffeine.

 

I agree with the concept that parents who smoke near their children are guilty of child abuse. This is not the "good ole days" when we believed that cigarettes were safe, we know now dangerous they are. A parent smoking in a closed space with their child is no less guilty of a crime than the parent driving while intoxicated with their child in the car.

This has always driven me crazy. In a small office you see clearly how much time people spend puffing.

Smoking is a behavior/addiction/habit that affects others directly (smell, asthma, etc.) and indirectly (insurance costs, work related losses). I am so very happy to live in a state where smoking is regulated and I wish that it could be even further regulated to no outdoor/public spaces.

I smoked in high school, quit when I was pregnant for my daughter at 20 and restarted for a couple years after her birth. Even 25 years ago smoking was too expensive and I made the choice to quit. My dad quit after his first heart attack, my brother after he developed cancer. My sister quit after my non-smoking brother had a heart attack.

Smoking is a horible thing and it should be regulated.

 

It annoys me :angry: when:

Smokers come in out of the rain - and stink up the indoors

Smokers hang their cigarettes out their windows so they aren't bothered by the smoke they are creating

That I have to smell their smoke (even when their windows are rolled up) in my car 2, 3, or 4 car lenghts away through my ventilation system.

I see them use the sidewalk as a trash can

I see them throw burning butts out their windows

I have to deal with their body odor because they don't think they stink.

Heres some Cheese with your whine...

Theres nothing worse than a reformed smoker,, I quit for 2 yrs & started back because I like to smoke.. Yes I smoke outside of my home and outside everywhere else to lol My choice even before the bans, does it stink um yeah, do I care? No, now Ill know to stand near the entrance doors to restraunts when I want to annoy some one lol..

I used to smoke a pipe (they smell nice), then cigars (those really smell bad)
now pal-mals $1.70 a pack )

The smokers will remain outside wich is cool, if you dont like the smell go stand somewere else....

 

I didn't put a bumpersticker on my last car until it was 10 years old...and even then it was only on the back window. I can't bring myself to STICK anything on my beautiful Prius...although I love those two suggestions...especially the second one!

And I'm one of those militant ex-smokers. I don't have a lot of willpower....so I figure if I can quit (after about 15 years), then anyone can.

 

We've always known how dangerous smoking is, even if the tobacco companies claimed the evidence was not in. (They themselves had proof that smoking kills, even when they claimed such proof didn't exist!) Mark Twain, writing in the second half of the 19th century, said that he knew smoking kills! (Though he also said that he didn't care.)

People who sell tobacco are murderers, just as people who sell crack cocaine are murderers.

As for smokers, maybe we should require smokers to use a kind of space suit that would keep all their smoke inside, away from other people and the environment.