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Topic: Are you a smoker?

Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-02-2010 05:52 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
Also, doesn't hemp make a great material of some kind? Isn't that outlawed as well? That always seemed kind of dumb to me.

Yep. They've selectively created a new sub-species that is only used for the industrial purposes. It has tons less THC (so little that you'd have to smoke pounds of the leaves to get high) and its fibrous stem has more fiber content than the other grown for the drug purpose.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-02-2010 06:28 PM

Cigarette smoke is very bad for electronics. Our company's accountant has gone through several desktop computer systems over the past decade due to his chain smoking. The smoke and ash settles and accumulates anywhere air can flow. Then it degrades and eventually shorts out circuitry. He has a separate office in our old factory building; we don't allow anyone to smoke in our main office area.

Our neon guy has had his XBox360 serviced at least 4 times, once for the Red Ring of Death issue but then again for optical drive issues. Then the Blu-ray drive in his PS3 went on the blink. I'm convinced his constant smoking is a culprit.

On the topic of pot smoking, lots of people in Oklahoma smoke it. Those boys from Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong. They're too damned skinny and way too long. Marijuana can be found growing wild in many places, but it doesn't have any potentcy. You have to control how it is grown for it to develop a desireable level of THC. Recently criminals associated with Mexican and Salvadoran street gangs were discovered growing large quantities of pot in rural areas of Oklahoma.

I don't mind if marijuana is legalized, but am not in favor of legalizing harder drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine. Those substances are much more dangerous and far more addictive. Pot isn't even proven to be addictive, unlike nicotine in cigarettes.

With all the brutal violence happening in Mexico, I certainly would not spend any money supporting the illegal drug industry. I would feel like I was endorsing and enabling bloodshed by doing so. OTOH, I don't really have a choice in the matter. Our business has a company-wide random drug and alcohol screening policy. You get piss tested and blow into a breathalyzer. As lawyers and insurance companies continue to battle each other further I think we'll see that drug testing thing become common in a lot more businesses. It's a liability thing.

quote: Scott Norwood
I'm fine with prohibiting smoking in public buildings and in confined spaces (airplanes, public transportation, etc.), but I'd prefer that owners of private establishments (restaurants, office buildings, etc.) be allowed to make their own rules.

The situation could be different in other areas of the nation, but around here if the smoking policy was left 100% up to restaurants and other businesses they would never be able to prohibit smoking. They would lose too much business to rivals who encourage smoking. A widespread ban or restriction delivers a more level "playing field" for various businesses.

Oklahoma has a lot of militant smokers. One of my former co-workers falls in that camp. She absolutely will not visit any restaurant or bar where smoking is prohibited. Harlows, a local bar here in town, can't allow anyone to smoke because it is located inside a hotel and its main entrance is in the hotel lobby. Some people still try to light up in there and a few of those folks throw a big shit fit when the bartender tells them they can't smoke, "it's my right to smoke, dammit!" The bartender usually tells them about a big fine if members of ABLE commission make a surprise visit and that the big fine will go on that customer's tab. No one keeps smoking after getting that warning.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-02-2010 06:53 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
With all the brutal violence happening in Mexico, I certainly would not spend any money supporting the illegal drug industry.

Not to make this too political, but one could argue that the notion you're supporting (banning these hard drugs) itself supports that industry. People no longer kill others for the ability to sell beer/wine, but that did happen when they were prohibited.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 03-02-2010 07:01 PM

I used to smoke a pipe and cigars when I was younger but no longer do anymore. I had smoked cigarettes too but not much. When I used to smoke, I rarely inhaled so that was the reason I was able to quit without any problem. I loved my pipes and still do but my dentist made me give it up when he had noticed it was irritating the roof of my mouth and suggested I quit or risk getting cancer. I did and I am fine today. My greatest pet peeve right now is when I am forced to breath other people's cigarette smoke at places like bust stops and other public places where smoking is still allowed.

-Claude

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-02-2010 07:41 PM

quote: Chris Slycord
one could argue that the notion you're supporting (banning these hard drugs) itself supports that industry.

If I don't give drug dealers any money at all I'm not supporting their industry regardless of what soft or hard drugs they're selling.

I don't have a problem with anyone advocating the legalization of drugs. That's their choice. However, if they're buying the stuff while it is still illegal they are contributing to the problem which includes the blood shed associated with the illegal drug industry. So many Americans got their blood boiling when they heard of terrorists in the Middle East brutally murdering defenseless people in front of video cameras. The drug gangs in Mexico are committing the same grisly acts on a larger scale and the brutality is not getting nearly as much of an outcry.

I liked the end of The Untouchables where Elliott Ness is asked what he's going to do since prohibition was going to be repealed, "I think I'll have a drink." He was just interested in upholding the law.

I don't think consequences would be too serious if marijuana was legalized. However, a strong case can be made against the legalization of harder, more highly addictive drugs. The United States has already tried it. Over 100 years ago the United States was dealing with an epidemic level of legal drug use. Millions of mothers were hopped up on opiate-laced laudanum and they were spooning this stuff into their kids to get them quiet. Thousands of Civil War veterans were addicted to morphine. The Bayer Aspirin company developed Heroin as a treatment for morphine addiction. The "cure" turned out to be even worse!

Many of the United States' current drug laws grew from legislation passed early in the 20th century. The ban on alcohol grew from that as well because there was such an upheaval of disgust over what was happening.

I think if drugs, hard or not, are legalized in widespread fashion we'll see the same problem of widespread addiction take place again. And there's no guarantee the illegal drug trade and peripheral street crime will stop either. Prescription drugs are legal in the technical sense, but their use is restricted to the discretion of a doctor. That creates the underground market for those legal drugs. What do we do about that? Sell stuff like Oxycontin over the counter to anyone who wants it? A fellow with a bad addiction to "Advil brand Smack" won't be able to hold down a job, so he's going to be mugging people and burglarizing houses anyway to get his fix.

I also fear widespread legalization of drugs could be very bad for business. My company already has a hard enough time as it is finding good quality employees. We live in a global economy now. We didn't 100 years ago. Entire industries can uproot and move to where the best labor pool is located.

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Carey Barber
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 143
From: Newport News, VA, USA
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 03-02-2010 07:41 PM

Regarding the littering issue...Cigarettes seem to be the one thing that people still find acceptable to just toss on the ground. For many (or most) smokers, the world is their ashtray.

I think that starting a couple decades ago there was a big push for people to stop littering and I believe it has had an effect. Very few people would just toss their McDonalds cup out the window anymore. But cigarettes...that is a different story. And these are things that have been in contact with some stranger's mouth and spit.

I remember as a Boy Scout we would do litter clean up in the parking lot of the building where we had our meetings. We were actually forbidden to pick up cigarettes because of the hygiene concerns. But of course the most common form of litter was...you guessed it...cigarettes!

I find the used butts way more disgusting than the smoke itself. Also, I think that stale smoke is more offensive smelling than someone actually actively in the process of puffing on one. If somebody is a really heavy smoker their house will often have a constant stale, musty smoke smell and their curtains will be a wonderful shade of yellow-brown.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-02-2010 07:57 PM

Oh man! That reminded me of a really nasty memory. This sound guy named Dave who I worked with at a TV station in Albany, GA decided to quit smoking. He cleaned the walls in his office. I thought the walls were painted yellow, but that was just the smoke stains. Worse yet, he took his office window screens out to the studio loading ramp and hosed them off. A lot of thick, yellow and brown crap was coming off the screens. GROSS! Dave met all the disgusted reactions with loud laughter.

Another thing on the cigarette butts, I find the damned things along the curb side in front of my house. Someone down the street is probably emptying their car's ashtray into their driveway and hoping it washes into the storm drain. Not all of it does.
[Mad]

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 03-02-2010 08:36 PM

Man, you should have seen what cigarette smoke did to the cabin pressure outflow valves on airliners back in the days before smoking was banned on most flights. The tar would build up so thick the valves would stick, sometimes open, sometimes shut, sometimes making it impossible to control the cabin altitude.

Same thing for flight deck instruments, especially vacuum-driven gyro-based ones (like attitude and heading indicators). Stators, vanes, and bearings all gummed up from tar. Yuck.

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Jeremy Jorgenson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1002
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 03-02-2010 09:21 PM

quote: Greg Anderson
As a related question, is there a place where smoking is still allowed in movie theatre lobbies?

When I was getting my MA in Poland ('07-'09) smoking was still acceptable in most restaurants & cafes. The vast majority didn't even have non-smoking sections. But even there I can't recall smoking being allowed in cinema lobbies. Although, now that I think of it, one (Kino Kijow) had a bar upstiars in the lobby, perhaps smoking was allowed up there?

When I first started as an usher ('93), the union projectionist at the 2-plex I worked at would smoke from his perch in the hallway that overlooked the lobby. And a number of the managers would smoke in the office.

I think the last time I saw (smelled) somebody smoking in an actual customer-filled auditorium was at the Thunderbird in Urbana, IL. This was probably '96 or '97 and it was set up as a Brew & View at the time. I don't know whether it was allowed by law, or just not enforced.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 03-02-2010 09:36 PM

Like others...I have never smoked and never will.

One negative aspect of the smoking ban indoors is that instead of smoking areas, people now smoke near the entrance (get that last drag before going inside or waiting for a table or, in my case, smoking between their turn at bowling).

So now, instead of the smoking being sectioned off in a room I don't go into...I now have to walk through that cloud of smoke to gain entrance to the building or when I leave. I believe there is something about how close you can be to an entrance but I've yet to see anyone follow that.

Honestly, I would prefer if they kept the smoking room for those that choose to light up...it would be easier on us non-smokers.

Steve

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-02-2010 11:36 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
If I don't give drug dealers any money at all I'm not supporting their industry regardless of what soft or hard drugs they're selling.

I disagree. You may not directly support that industry, but the prohibition itself (which you said you support to at least some extent) creates that industry.

quote: Bobby Henderson
And there's no guarantee the illegal drug trade and peripheral street crime will stop either.

1) If you legalize drugs then automatically the illegal drug trade has stopped because there's no such thing anymore.
2) Yes there's no guarantee that the street crime would stop. But we have examples of countries lifting bans on drugs and focusing all their efforts on treatment and prevention rather than banning. And they had a precipitous drop in that same crime. Although gangs could just switch to fighting over something else.
3) There's also the notion that people are often attracted to things they are not supposed to have. For instance, recent surveys indicate that 35-40% of high school seniors in the US have smoked pot at some time in their life (and the real number likely slightly higher since some people still assume surveyors are gonna report them) whereas in Amsterdam only 15-18% said the same thing.

But I doubt I'll convince you.

quote: Steve Guttag
One negative aspect of the smoking ban indoors is that instead of smoking areas, people now smoke near the entrance (get that last drag before going inside or waiting for a table or, in my case, smoking between their turn at bowling).

At least in Washington, the law was that you had to be 25 feet away from any "open to the public" facility to smoke, though in downtown Seattle that would literally have you standing in the road.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-03-2010 12:29 AM

So are you a smoker, Chris?

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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God

Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004

posted 03-03-2010 12:37 AM

I'm a smoker but not of tobacco. [evil]

Actually I do indulge in cigars when at my annual Ren Fest. I used to smoke a clay pipe at the Fest but it was a pain to keep it from getting lost/broken/stolen.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-03-2010 01:16 AM

quote: Joe Redifer
So are you a smoker, Chris?

Absolutely not. I just remember at the time they banned it in all Washington, one guy went in downtown Seattle and spraypainted a line 25 ft away from the bars, which was in the middle of the street.

I hate smoke. I don't like being around it at all. But I also feel that private businesses should be able to decide for themselves. No one forces me to go to a bar that's allows cigs (plus I rarely go to bars anymore even with smoking banned here too).

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-03-2010 01:22 AM

I think it is 25 feet away from the entryway instead of any wall of the building itself... at least that's how it should be. And it should be closer to 15 feet. Personally I don't mind walking through it really quick, it is never really bad for more than a couple of seconds (during which I hold my breath). I'll put up with that if I can be inside and breathing relatively clean air.

As for smoking indoors being decided by the venues, that really makes concerts hard to attend if smoking is allowed because concert halls WILL allow it if they can. I am glad that they can't allow it now as the concert experience ends up being MUCH more enjoyable. I remember coming home from an Eric Johnson/Joe Satriani concert and I had to shower right away, wash my clothes right away, leave my shoes outside overnight and air my car out for days (because I sat inside of it with the smelly clothes). If smokers just can't go for a few hours without a cigarette or whatnot, then they really have a problem and their suffering is well-deserved. The thought that non-smokers won't patronize a place and the establishment will change their own policies because people are voting with the almighty dollar is ill-conceived at best. The concerts won't have a no-smoking night, and if you want to see it you MUST put up with the smoke. That is absolutely wrong.

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