Arkansas Blog

It can be done, but it is never easy. While I never picked up the habit myself (my scholarship relied on healthy lungs), many of those whom I went to school with did... and most of them have fought off the habit in their 30s. Some have defeated it, others still wrestle. Considering the high-stress job Obama is about to take, it's no wonder he might be having a hard time. It takes concentration, will, determination, cooperation from others, and sometimes a good substitute.

Thinking now about how he'd be if he switched to coffee instead. Interesting mental picture.

People always say to live with no regrets, but I've always regretted picking up this habit.

I agree with you, Max. Quitting smoking is extremely difficult, and my heart goes out to those who want to quit but can't. When I quit smoking 23 years ago, I was smoking three packs a day. Every time I encounter a person smoking, I always say a little prayer of gratitude that God gave me the power to quit.

The medical community has a lot of good advice about measures smokers can take to help them stop smoking. I used Nicorette gum, tips from doctors, and a lot of the tools I picked up in a 12-step program. If you still smoke, the most important thing you can do to improve your health --- and prolong your life --- is to stop. If Barack Obama can't quit, I hope he keeps his smoking private to avoid projecting the image that smoking is acceptable. Too many young men will be tempted to emulate him.

I grew up in a smoking environment, too. Only one of us four siblings was smart enough to not light up. I smoked for about 25 years, and after trying and trying, I quit almost a year ago. I was mostly a closet smoker--didn't want to set a bad example for the nieces/nephews. But when my own young 'un came along, I knew I wouldn't be able to fool him. It's one thing to go out behind the garage when he's not looking, but you still come back with the smell. I had no choice. Dammit.

Thankfully, Mom quit some 25 or 30 years ago. Dad, who started at 13 and quit at 78, has been smoke-free for 3 years. If he could quit, I think anyone could.

I wish President O could quit and stay that way, for everyone's sake. But if his nerves need calming...far be it from me to criticize.

I always wondered...is that a photoshopped pic?

Smoke, don't smoke, I don't care....
If it makes him a better and calmer President I hope he lights all day.

Gave them up 25 years ago myself. All you have to do is not smoke the next one.

If it was a photoshopped pic would it not be a crack pipe or something more damning or stereotypical like all the others?

I had freed myself from constantly having to keep track of my cigarettes and lighter. Life was sweet, then, my wife assigned me a cell phone to constantly keep charged and avoid losing. You'll never reach me because if I knew where it was it wouldn't be charged.

Tobacco may be one of the only exports the USA may have left that might bail us out of the economic collapse. May we continue to ship boatloads of the cancer sticks to all of our enemies in ever increasing quantities.

i found a real easy way to quit. have a heart attack that kills 40% of your heart and spend 3 weeks in cardiac intensive care. after that i haven't wanted another. i have also struggled to stay alive since and was lucky to be one of the few that survived odds of 90% against me lasting 1 year. i have kept a count of my friends for over 10 years and the 90% rule is true. only 10% of men in their 40"s and 50"s survive. it has disabled me for life but i still don't smoke. it is one of the stupidest habbits you can have. tell anybody that can't quit to ask me and i will give them about a million reasons to quit.

I used to smoke, but not very much, so it was fairly easy for me to quit. But boy do I miss it. I loved smoking, and would do it all the time if I could. If there were no consequences, I would spend all my time in Paris, sucking down Gauloises and eating fried food, pastries and cheese.

Silly me looks at a pic like that and sees glamour. I guess I was the sucker that big tobacco marketing departments dream about.

I have to take issue with Kinsey's claim that smokers are discriminated against. Whether tongue in cheek or not, the claims that public health efforts for tobacco free space discriminate against smokers' rights is exactly the tact the tobacco industry has used to thwart smoke free air legislation.

(Just FYI, the courts have consistently ruled that claims under due process or equal protection clauses of the constitution do not guarantee the right to smoke. It's the smoke, not the smoker.)

This is a topical issue because the mobilizing force behind the smokers' rights movement was Phillip Morris and their hired gun Burson Marsteller which distributed millions of PM's money to found the National Smokers Alliance and the Accommodation campaign. If you ever hear a politician, say Governor Beebe, use the term "accommodation" in regards to tobacco you know they are either in the tobacco industry's pocket or in dire need of education about the science behind secondhand smoke.

I mean even if you didn't know about Burson Marsteller in Bhopal, hearing that the people who have the contract for Stamp Out Smoking, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, are now affiliated with the people who created the National Smokers Alliance should scare the hell out of you.

This is a real test of the commitment to tobacco prevention for the Department of Health.

I grew up in a non-smoking environment and took it up, put it away, took it up, put it away. Started all over. The starting all over was a buzz every time I lit up.

Like Mark Twain said, 'Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times.'

Stopped and stayed stopped 3 years ago but that was years too late.

500,000 Americans die each year from smoking and the stuff is still subsidized. Tells us something about the power of Southern slave-state Senators. Yet, a simple wild growing weed is made an imprisonment offense and Ark arrested 7400 of them last year.

The simple wild growing weed has never been proven harmful. Tobacco is an insidious killer.

Wonder how many were arrested for selling tobacco to minors?

Anyone still smoking tobacco just pass along your name and I will bequeath you my inhalers, plastic air tubes, puls~oxy finger meter. Any Md will tell you that eventually you will use them.

If you thought keeping ash trays empty, maintaining your cigs, and lighters was a hassle wait until you get to keep up the meds and equipment. Advair, the main COPD drug, costs twice as much as a cigarette habit.

Pres Obama, clean up your life act. Just do it. At his age quitting today will allow his lungs to return to a nice baby-pink color before he is fifty.

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"Tobacco may be one of the only exports the USA may have left that might bail us out of the economic collapse. May we continue to ship boatloads of the cancer sticks to all of our enemies in ever increasing quantities"

Cigarettes make child sweatshop workers more productive, too. They don't get as hungry.

I'm not worried about the Prez and cigarettes but if the new Prez starts monkeying around with cigars then.....................

Elwood, I tell folks that Nicotiana Rustica, what aborignal Americans grew, has as much in common w today's tobacco products as fat free barbecue Pringles do with a potato. That's being generous given the new no spit spit tobacco being marketed.
Actually about 80% of the world's tobacco is grown in developing countries, and much of it share cropped with child labor. Note that Phillip M orris International broke off from PM America recently putting it out of reach for any pesky labor or health regulation in the U.S.

I started smoking to piss off my college roommate....and boy did it! Of course I wish I had never started. It's messy and costs a fortune and I find myself dying to get out of meetings and interviews and dinners and parties...so I can smoke. Outside of masturbation, it's the last pleasure I have left and I sure hate to see it go. Age ruined the fun, diabetes ruined food and sex. So, petting my cats and dogs and smoking is what I do for fun these days.

But....that's not what this thread is all about. Not since Washington, Lincoln and FDR has a President-elect come into office with more problems to face. And you could arguably say that Obama's problems are greater than the earlier Presidents. Washington had one war to recover from, Lincoln had one war to fight, FDR had 1 Depression with 1 war at the end of it. Obama has 2 wars, a blooming Depression, and a whole world that hates us, not to mention energy concerns and many other problems associated with our modern age.

Obama's got to think and think hard like no one before him. Unfortunately, I do my best thinking with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. Boy can I make the wheels turn and boy....am I thick headed trying to think without one.

So....I personally am willing to risk the health of Barack Obama for the good of the nation. If he's successfully quit.....good on him! If he hasn't.....I give him a pass....cause that dude is going to have to do the thinking for 300 million people....more if you count restoring the damage and hurt feelings Bush created around the world. Obama's gots to think and get us out of this mess before smoking or not is the last worry on our minds. If PCP or angel dust will help Barry come up with eleventy plans to pull our fat out of the fire.....I'm all for it! He and I can check into Betty Ford after his term in office is over....or after he's fixed the world and life is good again. Think Barry think!

I actually quit about two years ago (with the help of the "new" stop smoking meds) when I found out I was going to be a Daddy. I didn't want to be the kind of Dad that tells his kids not to do it while sucking down a Marlboro. I miss it once in a while, but then I look at my boy, and that cures it.

For those that can afford it and can stand the weird dreams, mood swings and stomach upset, Chantix is a good option. If it hadn't been for that, I'd still be smokin' like a freight train.

OTOH, having a President with mood swings may not be such a good idea...

i watched my mother die from smoking. Nothing else. then i had to watch my younger son start smoking. What does he have in there where most people have brains?

Tina, what he has is the typical adolescent mind that has been shown to be unable to appreciate long term health effects. And those prone to risk taking behavior often get addicted to nicotine.

There's nothing wrong w risk taking behavior. It's how we change the world. But it is unrealistic to expect mere education to make a significant dent in tobacco use when we allow public displays of nicotine addiction. We have to de-normalize tobacco use and the subsidy our tolerance for corporate crime allows. 'Cause make no mistake. The profiteers have no reason to save lives.

Prohibition is not effective tobacco prevention. But incremental efforts to make tobacco less easily marketed, or socially acceptable, or cost prohibited is. And all of this makes it easier to quit.

If anyone is interested in URLs I'll scrape something up but the short point is that nicotine is very addictive and the tobacco companies are very, very rich. Bad combination.

One might try and help him savvy that instead of making an individual decision he's getting played by folks that used to use a cartoon of a camel to addict young people. They call him a "replacement smoker."

Quaint, no?

As I see it, this is not the most important thing. If he can't quit, it's no problem IMHO. As long as he does it in private, no harm done.

Took me quitting 4 times to finally really kick the habit. Thought I was dying the last time I smoked, because of the flu. Never done it since.

Now, if I found out I was terminal I just might start up again. Hard to say...