Cost of cigarettes: Avg $6.10 for pack of 20 in Ohio, also............

[togor]

Indonesia is a lucrative tobacco market. They smoke like crazy there and there are few if any regs, even for kids.

[JB White]

Like Major Tom, I've been a smoker for well over half a century. Like him my lungs are still clear. Xray techs on different occasions said smiling "I see you're a non-smoker which is great." Huh?
Docs have told me when asked that some.....SOME people for some reason do not retain tar and those people tend not to trigger the cancer genes. However, it doesn't mean the nicotine isn't having some effect somewhere. There are only suspicions which have been turned to blame because that supports the goal.

They can't say that smoking research is flawed and there are exceptions to the 'rule'. It isn't beneficial to the public interest at large.

[SloopJohnB]

Started smoking as a 17 year old Navy Gunner's Mate in 1956. Cigarettes (Sea Stores) were $0.10/pack outside the 12 mile limit! Quit smoking at age 40, and very glad I did. 82 now and pretty healthy overall.

[tmark]

In the early sixties, I, a minor at the time, could walk into a High's store and buy my mom cigarettes (Taryton) for 25 cents a pack.

[Merc]

$.25 in 1963 is worth $2.11 in today’s dollars.

I smoked as a teen because all my friends smoked but gave it up when the Surgeon General said there was a link between smoking and lung cancer. I’ve been anti smoking every since and struggled to get my wife to quit. Morning sickness from when she was pregnant with our first child did the trick. Keeping both kids off cigs was also a challenge. I actually know very few people who still smoke. Those few that still smoke are in poor health and they spend enough each month on cigs to buy a new car.

I was in the Navy in the 1960s and we were given cigarette ration chits that I used to give to my friends who were smokers. Ten cents a pack was reality. A few would risk prosecution by selling their rationed cigs to locals on the black market for huge profits. I remember how bad the foreign made cigs smelled. No wonder the US made cigs were so popular.

I’ve seen several relatives and a few friends die of lung cancer. Believe it when I say that it is near the top of the list as one of the most horrific ways to die. Both lungs typically fill with fluid and blood and must be pumped out every few days with a huge hypodermic needle.

My wife and I lived in an apartment when we were first married and our next door neighbor suffered from a severe case of emphysema. He said it was like trying to breath through a straw. He was dead within a year after it was discovered that he had lung cancer.

There’s a particularly nasty fungus infection of the lungs that I caught in Arizona in 2014. It’s known as Valley Fever. The fungus spores live in the soil and become active in the spring and fall. I was cleaning horse stalls and obviously stirred up some dust that I breathed. I was back home in Pittsburgh when the symptoms started to become apparent. My family doctor diagnosed it and sent me to an infectious disease doctor who successfully treated me for nine months with Diflucan.

Edit: My grand daughter just returned home after spending two months in Baltimore, MD while serving an internship at a hospital and stayed in two separate apartments. The smell of marijuana was nearly everywhere in public places.

[SUPERX-M1]

Approximate statement by an American tobacco executive: " I don't smoke that sh#t. That stuff will kill you." Yeah,he knew and the companies knew.

When BIL was in the us army, break time was announced by " If you got em, smoke em." And, everybody had them.

[Major Tom]

There is an assortment of chemicals that are put in cigs. Nicotine is the least toxic of the bunch. Now cigs go out by themselves when not constantly puffed. Making my own cigs using pipe tobacco means a lot less chemicals. Certain cancers are hereditary. Some people get cancers while still living a 'clean' life.

[tmark]

Viping is no better than smoking the real thing!

[Gun Smoke]

Maybe non-smokers can get in on the bandwagon and DEMAND reparations for being exposed to cigarette smoke.

[blackhawknj]

Yes, it was always a source of resentment in my Army days when we heard "POLICE CALL! " and we non-smokers had to pick cigarette butts that had been in someone's filthy mouth. Or trying to run a range and constantly repeating "NO SMOKING ON THE RANGE !" And I wonder how many accidents involving POL or munitions were caused by someone trying to sneak a smoke.