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Human Trials Of Anti-Smoking Vaccine Begin
Makarand writes "A Nicotine
vaccine that may help smokers to quit
has made it to human trials.
The vaccine is administered as a series of eight shots --
patients receive two shots per visit during four different visits. The vaccine works by
stimulating the human immune system to produce antibodies that
bind with the nicotine molecules
to form a larger complex molecule which
cannot pass through the blood/brain barrier to get
into the brain. As a result smokers
will not feel the 'high' from the cigarettes they light up and lose interest in smoking.
Preliminary studies have shown that this vaccine is safe in humans." (Each link goes to a slightly different version of the same wire story.)
Maybe this could be used to treat physical addiction, but I don't see how it would help psychological addiction. You can become clinically addicted to something without your body being dependent on the substance; you just feel an uncontrolable urge to smoke, not for the high feeling, but just because you always smoke on the way to work, always smoke at parties, etc.
Seriously, people are going to get cold feet after a visit or two to the doctor when they're starting to really feel the pull of addiction, and realize that they are permanently destroying their ability to get a fix.
They need to get this vaccine down to something that can be administered in one visit, so people don't have a chance to get cold feet after the begining.
If they can make this something joe six-pack-a-day can just do one afternoon on an impulse, then I'll be really impressed.
Of course, then how long will it be until cigarette companies come out with anti-vacine cigs?
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
I can deal with the problem of smokers not being able to quit their filthy disgusting habit, but how about the more sociopathic problem that seems to plague the better part of them, therefore society as a whole?
Ever notice what happens when a smoker opens up a fresh pack? The plastic wrap goes onto the ground. Then, once the smoke is finished, it goes onto the ground too. When the pack is finished, it tends to end up on the ground too. In other words, smokers are some of the most sociopathic polluting assholes on the planet! Ever have a look around a typical smoking area around, say, a public building? Butts everywhere, despite the usual presence of buttcans and ashtrays. They don't use them or need them, because they consider the world as their ashtray!
Fucking assholes! These people don't need a vaccine to deal with their smoking problem. They need a simple boot in the ass, or several hundred as the case may be, to teach them a much needed lesson about simple politeness and courtesy! All before even getting into the usual controversies about polluting the air that I have to breathe without my consent.
I have to admit that I have been smoking for the past 9 years. Considering that I'm only 24 years old, that's a very long time. I've tried quitting cold turkey, I've tried the patch, the gum, and they all worked up to a point. Every time I tried quitting smoking, I stopped for a few days, but afterwards, I just had to start again. It wasn't the addiction that much, but simply the fact that I enjoy smoking too much.
Before I get all the replies describing all the side effects of smoking, you should know that I can do 150 push-ups every day, I can ride a bicycle for 30kms in about an hour through Toronto (which has its share of hills). So I'm still pretty healthy. When I'll get older this won't be the case anymore, but that's still a way off, so it doesn't feel like such a threat.
I guess this vaccine might work for me. If I can't derive pleasure from smoking, then I might have a chance of quitting. Because my willpower in this respect sure isn't helping.
If you WANT to quit, you will. You don't need any drugs, devices, or enemas.
Everyone I know who has tried (and failed) to quit, failed because they did not want to quit smoking. They tried to quit because they just felt they should.
You can quit when you actually WANT too.
Mind over matter, and shit like that....
The flaw in your logic is that when you discover the pencil doesn't make you feel good you will go back to the cigs. If you have the vaccine you can't go back. (unless you stop having the vaccine shots, which is a problem someone has already pointed out)
...your kids will have to be vaccinated against drugs before entering public schools.
It's not really a flaw, it is the strength. Extending my ealier "logical" arguements ...
Using the vaccine, once you discover cigs don't get you "high" any longer, you would find something else to get a similar "high." And this is called crossing the "gateway", i.e a gateway drug. And worse you might never get the same high with anything else, and you will be setting on an endless search ...
By smoking pencils you know that cigs can still get you high if you want to. And you don't need to go around chasing something else. There is no time wasted searching - The choice is right there confronting you.
So, the real test is not in whether the cig exists or not, and not whether you can smoke it or not, but it is a question of "Do you want to get High?"
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
Ever notice what happens when a whiner opens their mouth? The first thing out of it is a bitch session about how someone else is screwing up their life. Once the stop frothing at the mouth about that, they have to start rebutting others. Then, they whine about getting modded down on Slashdot. In other words, whiners are some of the most sociopathic assholes on the planet! Ever have a look at the social habits of whiners? They empty a bar in no time. They don't need to go out because everyone hates them already, but they do anyway, just to make others unhappy.
Fucking assholes! These people don't need a vaccine to deal with their whining problem. They need a simple boot in the ass, or several hundred as the case may be, to teach them a much needed lesson about simple politeness and courtesy! All before getting into the usual controversies about what impact whining has on the economy, or how it kills kittens.
I forget what 8 was for.
I don't own a car. I use public transit.
Did you quit heroin today or something?
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
ban smoking and make sure people don't start. Surely that would be cheaper for the health service. Of course that doesn't take into account the amount of tax the goverment gets off the sales
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
A friend of mine was smoking American Spirit's. They advertise themselves as having no added chemicals and just being "pure" tobacco. It's well known that brands like Camel and Marlboro put added chemicals in their smokes, for whatever reason. Apparently a good amount of the addiction in these brands comes from some of the added chemicals, not just the nicotine.
Anyway, my friend said that as soon as she switched to American Spirit, she just didn't feel the need to smoke as much and the though of it kind of disgusted her. So I switched too.
After about a month, the very thought of smoking just disgusted me to the point where I stopped doing it. I started smoking their strongest ones, of which I could only finish about half a cigarette, then went to the medium, then their ultra-lights.
It's ironic using cigarettes to quit smoking, but it worked for me. The only side-effects I've had is that I feel much better. The smell of smoke in bars even disgusts me now.
Mockery serves a purpose, as does the lameness filter. Wait, at least one of those does, at least...
I forget what 8 was for.
That means you are relying purely on Will Power, if Will Power works for a person, then they don't need to worry about any special methods, the vaccine is for people who can't do it with just Will Power.
Doesn't nicotine look like a neurotransmitter? (I forget which one, but your brain is chock full of nicotinate receptors). I'd be wary of a nicotine-binding antibody, it might well bind to a neurotransmitter... and that would not be good.
I'm glad it didn't have to come to that for me to quit smoking. :)
:).
Yeah, I used them patches but it was because I love my friends, anyone who knows someone who quit smoking cold turkey knows what I mean
Anyways, I'm glad because at least I can feel prouder about having quit with littler help than those future vaccinated guys.
Also, patches help you a lot psychologically because it's very very gradual. You have about four months to give up the patches and during that time you learn to kick off addiction, it's not just nicotine addiction, it's all the impulsions that make you an addicted person. In other words, I learned how to not substitude my nicotine addiction with alcohol/your favorite drug
But if the end result with the vaccine is less smokers in the world, I'm all for it.
People experience the effects of drugs differently because they differ genetically. That probably influences their susceptibility to addiction. It would make a lot of sense to try to even the playing field by vaccinating kids before they become addicted.
Of course, it shouldn't be mandatory. But it should be offered free to any parent who wants it for their child. And it should be carefully tested and monitored initially to make sure it doesn't have any unintended consequences.
I disagree. I smoked when i was 13/14 for about a year before I quit. I obviously don't think smoking/drugs is a good thing, but I think that (however ridiculous it may sound) the experience of feeling the effects of different drugs should not be robbed from people without their consent. And it isn't like you can undo the effects of a vaccine once you are (what society considers to be) old enough to responsibly make your own decisions. I think the decision to use drugs or to experiment with feeling high should be made by those that it truly concerns, the individual. Not the individual's parents. I can also tell you that for me, quitting smoking was a valuable experience. I didn't quit for my parents, I quit for me and for my friends and my life, and it really did help me grow up quite a bit.
eBayDig 1s a typo saerch engien
The danger of cigarettes is not the nicotine. It's the smoke. Smoking nicotine-less cigarettes could still give you cancer. Chewing nicotine gum probably won't.
Reason Magazine has a pretty interesting article ("Snuff Treatment: Lying in the name of public health") about the US gub'mint lying to us about the dangers of chewing tabacco. Even though it is 90% less hazardous than cigarette smoking, numerous US health agencies repeatedly claim chewing tabacco is "just as dangerous" as smoking cigarettes.
cpeterso
I smoked when i was 13/14 for about a year before I quit.
How lucky that you managed to quit. Most teenagers who start can't quit, and they lose decades of their lives.
the experience of feeling the effects of different drugs should not be robbed from people without their consent.
Parents have the right to have parts of their children's penises removed without their consent and with little demonstrable benefit. Talk about robbing people of experiences. I'd worry about that long before I'd worry robbing kids of the experience of becoming drug addicts.
I started smoking a few years ago with cigars. At first I would puff one once in a while because it was something to do with my friends. I would not inhale ( who the hell inhales cigars anyway? - Ouch! )
I did enjoy cigars. I did eventually form a habit for them. Basically any chemical you ingest that you enjoy is habit forming since once you learn that in certain situations a substance can make you feel better, it takes willpower to not ingest that substance when it is available in those situations.
Tobacco to smoke can make you less bored when 'hanging out' aka 'listening to boring people jabber'.
A Pepsi can make you cool and refreshed on a hot summer day, or cleanse your mouth with bubbles after some food. One could say I am addicted to Pepsi too. Water will meet my biological needs but soda is more refreshing.
I felt my addiction begin with cigars. I could feel the mild 'nic-fit' feelings I had at the time. I didn't know if this was as bad as a nic fit could get or not, but I didn't think it was *THAT* bad. I tested whether or notI could quit or not. After a day the 'nic-fit' feeling went away. Soon, nicotine's effect was gone without a trace. Downtime still exists. Not hungry but wanna take the eyes off the screen for a while at lunch anyway. I'll just go outside and smoke a cigar. It's winter? I'd sit in the car and listen to the radio smoking a cigar.
After the thrill of quitting successfully would wear off, I'd be bored and realize that there was no 'nic-fit' 'compelling' me to want to smoke. But I was bored, and could enjoy a cigar or a pipe and it wouldn't be that bad. I stayed away from cigarrettes at the time because I didn't want to inhale or mess up my lungs. A couple or three cigars a day or even a pack of 8 Backwoods Wild Rum Flavored if I happened to be bored and was 'hanging out' with a bunch other smokers wouldn't give me mouth cancer. Or it might, but I was willing to take that small chance for the added pleasure it gave my life.
Let me clarify: 'Hanging out' is boring - not constantly, but with many periods of boredom in there. Boredom and natural restlessness - not peer pressure is what makes the tobacco intake go up in a crowd. Smokers generally don't give a damn if you smoke ciggarettes or not.
'Ciggarettes' is the operative word. Smokers won't care if you smoke a cigarrette, but they often object to a stinky cigar or pipe. I was a cigar smoker 'hanging out' his friends who was not inconsiderate enough to light up a stogie. I was bored, restless and slightly nic-fitting, of course I would pick up a pack of camels on a beer run.
Wow! Ciggarettes sure are convienient! You can smoke em lots of places you can't light a cigar or pipe. Maybe they don't have the flavor of gourmet tobaccos but they are still something to do when there is nothing else to do. You have to smoke like a chimny though to have enough smoke coat your mouth to get a relaxing buzz and that's expensive! Have to start inhaling... Oh well there go my lungs... But I've been known to smoke a joint now and then. If I only use cigarettes at those social times when I might smoke a joint then that's once-in-a-while and isn't likely to cause the health problems associated with chronic smoking. I don't like pot that much though. Haven't smoked it in about 6 months and wouldn't miss it if I never smoked it again in my life.. I don't like being impared. Rather smoke a ciggarette.
Gee these cigarette things are potent. I smoke one and it gives quite a buzz.
Notice nic-fits in no-smoking zones are getting a bit worse. Better try quitting again. Can't concentrate for a day, but then all better. Yup still ca
Eat at Joe's.
Go to your doctor and ask him to prescribe Zyban/Wellbutrin. It works by mimicing the "high" you get from smoking (i.e. raising dopamine levels), and was pretty effective for me.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really get "high" off cigarettes. I get a little woozy off the first one of the morning, but it's not a pleasant feeling. Subsequent cigarettes have no real effect (and I only smoke ten a day). They don't make me more alert, or keep me awake.
It might be that there is an effect, one so subtle as to escape my notice, but if it's that subtle I doubt it factors greatly in my addiction.
If they could invent a drug that would stop me from feeling like Spike Spiegel every time I lit up, maybe they'd have a chance...
"When you show the odd flash of contextual intelligence, I forget your generation can't read." -- Hannibal Lecter
You obviously would have hated Einstein.
Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the
eBayDig 1s a typo saerch engien
That's a load if I ever saw one. Go have a look at the incidence of childhood asthma among children with parents who smoke versus those who don't. Come back and let us know what you find.
Consider that the University of Wisconsin medical school estimates annual health care costs of $4.6 billion for treating the asthma, ear, and respiratory infections of kids living in smoking households.
I watched my girlfriend suffer for years living with a smoking parent. When they finally quit, the immediate improvement in her health was remarkable. Smoking affects no one but the smoker? Give me a break.
Wonderful post... very good description and I totally agree with the conclusion. It sucks being addicted to something you'll have to avoid permanently (especially when everyone around you is smoking the damn things). BTW, tho only time I managed to quit for a decent amount of time (8 months) was a cold turkey and every time I was bored and thought "... hell, one won't do me bad..." I used the AA strategy "... but then you'll have to reset the day-count, that would be a shame..." It did work pretty well...
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
Erm... now, I'd be against the government or any other entrenched institution making it mandatory (nothing quite like mandatory vaccinations against "illegal" or "immoral" behavior, is there?) but give me a break! That's like saying that people should not be robbed of feeling the effects of different diseases without their consent. It could be argued that there's the difference in being infected and choosing to shoot up, but given that we don't consider children under 16 capable of making pretty much any decisions for themselves, that's not really an issue. Hell, we don't consider people intelligent and mature enough to make decisions on chemical ingestion until the ripe old totally arbitrary age of 21 here in the U.S.
If parents want to decide beforehand that their children will be immune to the addictive properties of harmful drugs like cocaine and nicotine, so be it. Parents have every right to guide their child's development in a responsible manner, so until an individual is X years old, it's not up to them.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Yeah. Something puzzles me about this. Your analogy of "Smoke a pencil! It's unpleasant!" hits it on the head. Smokers, riddle me this. (I'm a nonsmoker.)
An alcoholic who likes the taste of beer can drink non-alcoholic beer. (OK, obviously he doesn't like the taste of beer that much, but you get my drift :) He's doing himself no harm. I don't think I'd even call him a "drinker".
A reformed caffeine freak who likes a warm cuppa can drink decaf. (He's a sick person who needs psychological help and some real coffee), but he's no longer a caffeine freak.
A nicotine addict who enjoys the smell of cigarettes and/or the habit of having something in his hands to smoke can get himself "vaccinated" and light 'em up. He's getting no nicotine from his smokes, but damn it all, he's still a smoker. Still stinks up the closet whenever he hangs up his coat, and so on.
And yet, aren't most of the negative health effects (lung and other cancers) associated with smoking the result of the actual act of smoking (inhaling smoke), rather than nicotine addiction?
The act of smoking is certainly the only negative quality-of-life (read: "smells bad") factor here.
What I'm trying to say is: What would be wrong with going to the drugstore (and it's be a drugstore!), picking up a pack of nonprescription nicotine patches/gums labeled "Joe Camel Hides", or "Camel Chews", slapping one on, and enjoying your drug fix without bugging the rest of us.
We nonsmokers would win - we don't even know you're using. And because you're not smoking up our air while you get your fix, it's none of our business that you're using.
You'd win - you'd get your fix any time you wanted, and you'd cut your lung, throat, and other cancer risk to that of a nonsmoker. (Might cut your heart disease risk too, at least you're not inhaling CO. Not sure by how much, since nicotine's still a stimulant.)
Heck, even the tobacco companies might win. It's gotta be cheaper to produce the nicotine in a patch than it is to pay people to grow, haul, dry, and process all those tons of tobacco into cigarettes. And with nicotine-by-patch being widely available and destigmatized, overall usage might go back up.
My drugs of choice are alcohol and caffiene, for which liquids are ideal delivery devices. Gaseous or solid delivery of alcohol doesn't sound like fun. Solid caffeine, however, is available in the form of Penguin Mints, which are a cool, refeshing twist on summer days when I don't feel like getting my fix via coffee :)
Smokers, as a user of alcohol and caffeine, I've nothing against your drug of choice. I just don't understand why the "cigarette" has to be the only delivery device for it. Why hasn't the market responded to what seems to be a pretty big pent-up demand for a more discreet nicotine delivery device?
I can deal with the problem of smokers not being able to quit their filthy disgusting habit,
I think you fail to understand the nature of addiction. It must be a nice perspective that you have.
The craving for a cigarette feels every bit as instinctive, internal and hard-wired as the cravings for food, sex, and a trip to the bathroom when the bladder is full.
If you, presumably as someone who has never smoked, wishes to understand the agony of quitting smoking, I suggest that you simply deny yourself peeing for a week. Tell me how it feels. That's exactly what quitting smoking is like.
Most attempts to quit smoking never make it past the first day. The worst for me was always day three.
After a week or so, the brain starts to get over the cravings, but they never really completely go away.
Ever notice what happens when a smoker opens up a fresh pack? The plastic wrap goes onto the ground.
Not mine; even when I accidentally drop it, I pick it up and take it to the trash.
Then, once the smoke is finished, it goes onto the ground too.
That happens because all the anti-smokers ran around, from the depths of their ignorance about the nature of the nicotine addiction, screaming that "If we take the ashtrays out of public places people won't smoke!".
Bullshit. I have been in a situation where I could have sex or I could smoke - this was an ex who told me that we'd have sex if I didn't smoke that evening. Guess which one won out?
So, if flicking a butt on the ground - which is abhorrent to me - is the cost of having a cigarette, then it's a cost I will bear. Again, I've foregone sex for it.
I would use ashtrays if they were around. I'm not putting the butts in the garbage can; I'm sure you can appreciate the risk of fire.
When the pack is finished, it tends to end up on the ground too. In other words, smokers are some of the most sociopathic polluting assholes on the planet! Ever have a look around a typical smoking area around, say, a public building? Butts everywhere, despite the usual presence of buttcans and ashtrays. They don't use them or need them, because they consider the world as their ashtray!
When you smoke outside, you're so accustomed to the lack of an outdoor ashtray that you reflexively toss the butt on the ground. It's unfortunate.
Fucking assholes! These people don't need a vaccine to deal with their smoking problem. They need a simple boot in the ass, or several hundred as the case may be, to teach them a much needed lesson about simple politeness and courtesy!
I agree with the littering, but I wouldn't agree that smokers throw their empty packs or wrappers on the ground any more than the various sasquatches who throw gum wrappers and losing lottery tickets on the ground.
The only way to address the butt litter will be to have more ashtrays in more public places, but that's not going to happen because of all the idiots who will say it encourages smoking. (Heh... looking at an ashtray always grosses me out; if anything, it's a deterrent.)
All before even getting into the usual controversies about polluting the air that I have to breathe without my consent.
Well, for the most part, it will only affect you in a bar or restaurant. Smoking in the workplace is essentially verboten now.
Coping with it is very simple. If you don't like smoke, sit in the non-smoking section of that bar or restaurant. If they don't have a non-smoking section, go to a bar or restaurant which does.
"Quitting smoking is easy; I have done it a thousand times." - Mark Twain.
Smoking is:
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
I've tried the patch, the gums, even managed to quit without any nicotinic surrogate (which being the only period totally off nicotine I consider my only true success) for as much as 8 months but I've always relapsed.
Ask your doctor for some Wellbutrin. (sorry...tried to look up a link for you but all I get from Google is online pharmacy ads) It's a mood elevator but it appears to be very good at relieving nicotine cravings. I know people who have used it to quit smoking and said that it was totally effective.
...and no, I'm not shilling for a pharmaceutical company. I think they're evil, democracy-destroying bastards, actually. Not as evil as tobacco corporations, though. The 9/11 hijackers killed about 3000 people a couple of years ago. Tobacco corporations kill that many people every two-and-a-half days . Who are the real terrorists?
- Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
(1) A nicotine vaccine does NOT solve the chemical addiction at all. Your body would still have the cravings for the a cigarette, because when you smoke it...the nicotine doesn't make it to the brain. Your brain still yells out: "give me something to stop this withdrawal"
(2) A nicotine vaccine actually would help the emotional side of the addiction. The emotional addictions follows thus: your body needs a chemical, you associate that chemical with a cigarette, and therefore you smoke a cigarette to meet your body's need. If you stop associating the cigarette with meeting the body's need, then you stop having a desire for a cigarette. Now you just want some nicotine (e.g., patch, gum, etc.). Else, you can feel free to smoke that cigarette for the other purposes (social, comfort, etc.).
It's like decaf coffee. Doesn't fix your chemical craving for caffeine, but it's sure as hell nice to drink when you want to warm up.
(3) Notice too that they call this a "vaccine". Is the point of a vaccine to cure something after you've got it? Not really. It's a preventative measure. So while you can argue the merits of trying to "prevent" nicotine addiction (and also, who on earth would pick up the habit if they already know they don't want the nicotine from it)... this is not a therapy aimed as a one day fix.
It's not a nicotine de-addiction treatment: it's a nicotine vaccine
I hereby yeild using mod points to simply responding to the rant!
I smoke. I'm not a moron.
Why? Addiction. Moderation. I fucking like the taste.
So, I'm probably gonna die a few years sooner than every other non-smoker just because I chose a disgusting (to some), expensive habit. Big deal.
If it were discovered tomorrow that bananas were deadly, we'd still be eating them. McDonald's food is unhealthy, but the parking lot is still packed and the drive-thru is backed up every lunch hour of every day. It all depends how you look at it. Someone likes McDick's, so they eat there, even if they know it's gonna make them a fat fuck. They just look at it as being (semi) tasty and quick, not deadly. I like smoking, I like the social part of smoking, so I quietly overlook the it's-gonna-kill-me part.
Do you drive? I don't suppose you avoid travelling because you might sometime be met with a 65MPH head-on collision with a tractor trailer.
Whatever happened to freedom?
I'm all for your freedom to smoke whatever you want. I'm all against the tobacco corporations' freedom to sell a product that addicts people and kills 1200 of them each and every day. What kind of civilized society allows corporations to kill 1200 people a day? Even the 9/11 hijackers weren't that bloodthirsty.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Exactly. Like smoking.
- Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
Exactly. Even if you manage to chemically disable all of the major drugs during childhood, people who really want to get high will find a way. There's always whipped cream, spray paint, plastic bags, etc.
Solution: Every year, raise the minimum smoking age by 6 months. No one on the verge of legal age will be seriously inconvenienced, and even now-newborns will be able to smoke when they reach the age of 32.
Actually, go ahead and stop when the minimum age becomes 45, and the "for grown-ups-only" aspect that wanting-to-define-themselves teenagers are looking for will be seriously diminished.
Seriously, the RJR-Nabisco anti-smoking ads are the worst thing public policy could allow... they say "little baby kids shouldn't smoke", with the subtext "if you don't want to be treated like a baby, then you should smoke" (or, if you disagree with my statement there, consider the "nonsmoking is immature" alternative). They usually show 9-to-12 year olds when they should be showing teenagers instead.
disclaimer: my mom had 1/5th of her lung removed and still smokes. She'll probably still smoke when she has emphysema... (p.s. those warnings on cigarettes say you can get emphysema, but I would say most people who start smoking don't have any idea what that is, much less met someone with it)
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
No, it's exactly the kind of unthinking lameness the original poster was complaining about.
During the 20 years I smoked I never threw a butt on the ground. My friends that still smoke don't do it now. Just strip the biodegradable bits off and put the filter in your pocket until you find an appropriate receptacle.
And yes, I occasionally forgot and ran one through the laundry, at which point all my clothes smelled vaguely like an ashtray - but face it, if you smoke you smell like an ashtray to other people regardless. If it really bothers you, carry one of those small round sweet tins in your pants pocket and use it for a filter bin, I've seen people do that too and they easily hold a pack or three's worth of stripped filters.
I'll chime in here with my own point of view:
I'm all for your freedom to smoke whatever you want. I'm all for the tobacco corporations' freedom to sell a product that addicts people and kills 1200 of them each and every day. I'm all against me having to pay for it in the form of medical expenses for cancer patients who have been life-long smokers, even though they KNEW it would cause cancer. What kind of civilized society makes me pay for someone else being a moron?
--rhad
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
living in a house full of smoke is vastly different than claiming the guy puffing on a cigarette in the park is going to give you cancer.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
I'm all for the tobacco corporations' freedom to sell a product that addicts people and kills 1200 of them each and every day.
I'm all against me having to pay for it in the form of medical expenses for cancer patients who have been life-long smokers, even though they KNEW it would cause cancer.
Thanks for demonstrating the cold, hard, calloused heart of the modern laissez-faire capitalist.
It's fine for a corporation to murderously addict an ignorant segment of the population to their product as long as they're making a profit on human suffering. But screw the victim of their criminal behavior who's only transgression against society was ignorance. Nice philosophy you got there.
- Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
Smokers, as a user of alcohol and caffeine, I've nothing against your drug of choice. I just don't understand why the "cigarette" has to be the only delivery device for it. Why hasn't the market responded to what seems to be a pretty big pent-up demand for a more discreet nicotine delivery device?
Because all of the other delivery devices have dangerous side effects.
There is no way other than cigarettes that give the same amount of nicotine in a condensed burst without causing the user to throw up, or have other more extreme side effects.
Nicotine is a poisonous stimulant; one droplet of it can kill a horse.
Patches give a low dose all the time with a tail-off - it's nothing like smoking, and takes at least a month to get used to (I know, I'm on it). You get a continously accelerated heart rate and higher blood pressure the entire time - instead of in bursts. This has actually made it more likely that I will get nosebleeds and migraine headaches.
On the plus side, I can breathe more easily.
Gum? You have to be exceptionally careful how you chew it. You can't swallow it. You have to time your chews and make sure that you don't do too much.
Again, it's not a good substitute for a cigarette unless you really want to quit; the amount of nicotine delivered is not the same.
Unfortunately, the cigarette is the most effective nicotine delivery mechanism ever devised. The smoke itself acts as an anti-nausea mechanism, and actually increases uptake of the drug. So there you go.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
A note on stop smoking aids containing nicotine: Maybe some people find them helpful, but there is one thing wrong with them - they contain nicotine! They're frikken nic-teasers! They delay the time ( 4th day cold turkey ) when physical urges cease! I can't imagine putting up with that for months.... Maybe ONE patch to bring you down, but then you'll have 3 days of physical urges after that, and that first day you will still be bored and want a ciggarrette. Maybe substuting ONE DAYS WORTH OF cigars ( throwing any extras in the toilet ) for the one patch would help ameliorate the I smoked a cigarrette - I got a buzz association but that fourth day completely nic-free is golden.
:)
The trick with nicotine patches is that they don't get rid of the nicotine cravings - they help you break the physical addiction.
I've had success with them so far... (Not over and done with yet, but getting there).
The trick is, you have to remember to put it on every morning (I tried putting it on the night before when I started quitting... I had exceptionally vivid dreams... very freaky). If you don't put it on first thing, you'll start feeling withdrawal after a couple of hours which will drive you completely nuts. The first thing you must do every day is put it on.
In other words... don't punish yourself or test yourself and see how long you can go without. It doesn't work that way.
Right now, I'm doing great. Stepped down to 14mg, and about to step down to 7mg. I don't get the urge to smoke any more, and weaning myself off this way takes the edge off the physical cravings nearly completely - and the stepping down is relatively painless.
There's a knack to it
Coming soon - pyrogyra
If parents want to decide beforehand that their children will be immune to the addictive properties of harmful drugs like cocaine and nicotine, so be it.
While I agree in principle with your idea, it would never work. The reason those compounds get people "high" is because they are very similar to substances that occur naturally in the body. Good idea, make kids immune to their own brain chemicals.
Even if that problem could be solved, which I doubt, those compounds have therapeutic uses. Cocaine is a phenomenally good local anesthetic. The opiates are excellent painkillers. If your kid has surgery, would you want it so they could get no benefit from good ol' Tylenol 3? Or if things were bad enough that your kid ever needed a morphine drip, would you want it so that it couldn't do anything for him or her? Would anyone? I doubt it.