Smokers, Assemble!

[RJ]

*hands out tie-dye t-shirts*


Oh... and only look at this if you want to quit smoking...

http://www.quitnow.info.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/content/smokescreen-lp

Feel lucky if you're not in Australia- we have some of the "worst" quit smoking ads, EVER.

[King Of Hearts]

does pot count?

I never really developed the habit of smoking, not in my nature. Of my family Ive only seen one of my uncles [who is now paralyzed because of a stroke from drinking, smoking, and eatimg fat foods too much] and my lil' sister whom have recently stopped bcause of her epillepsy.

[xHaZxMaTx]

*hands out tie-dye t-shirts*


Oh... and only look at this if you want to quit smoking...

http://www.quitnow.info.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/content/smokescreen-lp

Feel lucky if you're not in Australia- we have some of the "worst" quit smoking ads, EVER.

I wish they had ads like those here.

[RJ]

The mouth cancer one is the most terrifying. And as far as I know, it's the one that's gotten the most complaints. It's funny that people complain that it should be taken off because it scares them, but it's supposed to do that. Boo-hoo if little kids get scared from it (I say)- more reason for them not to take it up.

[xHaZxMaTx]

Heh, reminds me of those VW commericals where the peeps get in an accident.  Everyone was complaining about them,  but they get the point across really well.

[Amber Williams]

The main drawback behind scarier commercials is that sometimes the message gets ultimately lost in the shock/fear.

There was once a commercial for the anti-drug campaign around here where this little girl is in a bedroom and it starts filling up with water.  It was suppose to have the message that what feels like a high is your brain drowning, and they show a shot of her underwater pounding on the glass window and then just floating dead.

That commercial scared me to heck...but it was only many years later did I realize it was an anti-drug commercial. It made me more scared of death via drowning than anything.
---------

Canada is kind of wacky.  For a very "liberal" country, it is very vicious when it comes to cigarrettes.  They have images of grisly things on the very containers of cigarettes.
---------

I don't advocate smoking, but honestly I don't see the need to be incredibly vicious in getting adults who are old enough to decide for themselves to quit.  I have a few friends who smoke, and I've seen some people be downright assholes to them despite knowing nothing about them other than that they were smoking in an open-outdoor area where smoking was allowed even.

In some ways it feels almost like harrassment.

[RJ]

The mouth cancer ad we have here is actually quite tasteful after you get past the shock of it. It's quite direct, not metaphorical, and it centres around the woman speaking (that's the shock part- first you see the mouth, then it zooms out and show the woman with it, and she speaks about how cancer did this to her).

; You know, sometimes I do feel like saying something to people. Mostly whenever I see a mother smoking with her baby in her arms (trust me, it's quite common to see where I'm from), but I'm too shy to...

[Anara]

OMG! The add where they go to cut the guys foot off is disgusting
Your right RJ, the adds down here are pretty intense. They even stuck one of the posters up right next to my locker for a while, not the sort of thing I want to look at every morning >_<

I don't like it when people smoke and if any of my friends started I'd probably get really annoyed at them but on the other hand, as long at people know the consequences of their actions I don't see why anyone else has the right to judge them or try to make them stop. It's their life. 

[Alondro]

Hmm, mouth cancer is far more common with chewing tobacco rather than cigarettes.  We have had a few like that, though, mainly from people who had a cigarette hanging from one side of their mouth pretty much all day, every day.

Yet my grandfather started smoking at age 17 and didn't quit until he was 80, after his major heart attack... then he lived until he was 91.  He did get diagnosed with lung cancer at the end, but his bad heart gave out first. 

Meh, something's eventually gonna get ya, no matter what you do.   

[Jack McSlay]

cigarrete, cigar, pot, crack, whatever, if someone else uses it it's not really my problem. personally I think the only difference between tobacco between something more illegal such as put, heroin, whatever is that it's legal, and I'm not saying to make tobacco look bad.

I think it's hypocrite to allow alcohol and tobacco (in some places, pot as well) and not allow others, I don't see any clear difference between them..

however I have a few classmates who smoke and then suddendly feel the need to smoke and then leave for up to 20 minutes, it's pretty annoying when we're on the mid of something

[Gornemant]

Only 2?

My forum is full of hippies!  D:

correction, if they were all hippies, they would smoke.....
just something else 

[Amber Williams]

I think it's hypocrite to allow alcohol and tobacco (in some places, pot as well) and not allow others, I don't see any clear difference between them..

There tends to be a noticable difference between someone who smokes a single cigarrette and goes back to work versus someone who shoots a line of heroin and then proceeds to fling themselves off a building thinking they can fly.

Honestly, you could do maybe 5 minutes of wikipedia research and find out the differences for yourself and why they are considered different from cigarrettes and alchohol. Granted all drugs of any scale will be a mood stimulant/depressant...but there are multiple factors that separate nicotine and alchohol from things like Meth and Crack.

[Tug]

but there are multiple factors that separate nicotine and alchohol from things like Meth and Crack.

Oh yeah.
Remember kids.

Cigs + Coffee = Laxitive

Their will be a quiz.

[Alondro]

 

Amber is quite right.  Virtually every illegal drug (with marijuana as a notable exception, THC now showing very significant effects as a possible Alzheimer's treatment) has very severe side effects in small doses and the addictive potential is exponentially stronger.

Heroin withdrawal can be fatal, and the addiction is so powerful that lab animals will die of starvation or dehydration if given the choice between the drug and water/food.  The same goes for cocaine and crack.

Phencyclidine (PCP) frequently triggers psychotic episodes in frequent users, leading to murderous delusions.  PCP is also directly neurotoxic, stimulating NMDA receptors and causing prolonged depolarization of neurons, leading to the eventual death of those neurons.  Blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration drop.  High doses cause seizures and coma (not to mention outright death).

Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine-MDMA) almost extinguishes inhibitions and psychological barriers, also repressing thrist and exhaustion sensations leading to dehydration.  The effects are caused by increased serotonin secretion and inhibition of re-uptake, which may lead to depression due to the artificial upregulation which induces downregulation of production.  Paradoxically, the drug can also cause the inverse effect of water intoxication (hyponatremia) in some people due to the stimulation of vasopressin secretion, resulting in water retention, which can be fatal.  The come-down period (known as 'suicide Tuesday') is an example of the withdrawal danger.  The depression caused by serotonin depletion can be severe and lead to suicide.

Other amphetamines increase aggression, irrationality, and cause brain damage in the long-term.  Adolf Hitler was addicted to amphetamines... nuff said!

LSD, now seen to be making a comeback, has the obvious effects of illusions and visual distortion, plus very intense fantasies.   It is derived from lysergic acid found in ergot, a very poisonous fungus that grows on grain.  Its main danger is that during a regular trip, the user may have loss of comprehension and understanding of danger, thus leading to life-threatening situations.  

Essentially, nicotine and alcohol are mild drugs compared to virtually everything else on the illegal market.  

[Vidar]

I think it's hypocrite to allow alcohol and tobacco (in some places, pot as well) and not allow others, I don't see any clear difference between them..

There tends to be a noticeable difference between someone who smokes a single cigarette and goes back to work versus someone who shoots a line of heroin and then proceeds to fling themselves off a building thinking they can fly.

Honestly, you could do maybe 5 minutes of wikipedia research and find out the differences for yourself and why they are considered different from cigarettes and alcohol. Granted all drugs of any scale will be a mood stimulant/depressant...but there are multiple factors that separate nicotine and alcohol from things like Meth and Crack.

Indeed.
Though pot is comparable in destructiveness to tobacco or alcohol, and is, in fact, not a hard drug (you don't get physically addicted to the stuff), it gets cracked down upon disproportionally harsh by US law.
A friend of mine has smoked pot (in moderation) in the past, and he now has a masters degree in philosophy. (no, not thanks to his 'pot habit'. He dropped the weed before he decided on his study.)

<warning>
No drug should be taken without thorough examination of its effects on you. Also, no drug should ever be used when down in the dumps. This includes alcohol. There is a reason why the term 'alcohol abuse' exists.
</warning>