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I've been smoking since I was about 18. I've heard the risks my whole life. So I've got them down.

But I swore I'd quit when smokes got to $5 per pack. When my brand got to there, I switched to a cheaper brand. But couldn't stand them. They stank and burned up like a fuse and they made me cough too much. It looked like my smoking days were over. And I wasn't looking forward to it. I enjoy smoking cigs. Regardless of how "accepted" they are now a days.
Anywho, my step dad told me to start rolling my own and that he'd been doing it for a while now.
My last experience with RYO (roll your own) cigs was they were worse than the cheap cigs. But his advice included buying a few small 6 or 8oz bags of tobacco, of different brands, including "Good Stuff," which is what he used.
So I bought the machine, and a few bags of tobacco and a couple of cartons of 100mm tubes (with the filters already on them). From the cheapest to the most expensive the tobacco shop had.
After a few packs of one brand, I was starting to wonder why the hell I haven't been doing this for the last 30 years. It was awesome.
The machine I bought rolled a perfect cigarette almost every time. So I stepped up to an electric one.

Long story short, with the online tobacco store I get my stuff from, I'm spending about $1 a pack. And I'm smoking a better cigarette, that doesn't have all the flavoring, hydrators and preservatives as packed cigarettes have.
Obviously, it's not a "cancer free" cig. But if you enjoy smoking, but can't stand the $6 per pack, it's the ONLY way to go.
I have my machine set up in a tray, with a box to hold the tobacco I'm about to roll. The tubes in their box and another empty tube box where I put my rolled cigs.
Sit in front of the TV and start rolling. I can roll a pack in about 7 or 8 minutes. By the time a movie is over, I've rolled a lot of cigs.

I quit smoking cigs over 20+ years ago. & I did it kinda like you described, by buying cheaper ones. I refereed to them as "Floor sweepings"..

I would light one up & it was terrible, so after a puff or 2 I put it out. Later I would repeat the same insanity. One day it just hit me I was only smoking about 1 nasty cig a day, although I lit it numerous times.

And with that revelation. I just threw out my cheap smokes & never looked back. I don't miss them one bit. Add up the money that went up in smoke. For some that could be a fancy new truck. That's what I'm talking about.

But to each his own, I ain't no preacher.

Never smokes but did chew from when I was about 18 until 46. Got up on Valentines day in 2014 sick and couldn't hold anything down which forced me to go cold turkey. And 4 months later ended up in the ER after collapsing on the kitchen floor. Spent two days in the hospital doing cardiac testing which came back OK, but the whole affair left me very weak (two hours of shop time would leave me physically exhausted) for about 8 months, and wasn't sure if I was going to be able to even continuing working.

Yeowww, Glad you made it thru.

7394 said:

Yeowww, Glad you made it thru.

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Took my at the time 79 year old mother that used a walker to get around to Aldi to go grocery shopping and I had to sit down and rest before we got done.

I tried chew, snuff, patches, gum, candy and just about everything to quit smoking. That was many years ago. And vaping a few years ago. But after I'd do one of those things, I still had the urge to lite up.
So I realized that I'm not going to force myself to quit, until I really wanted to quit.
I haven't tried quitting since.
Now that my cigs are back to $1 per pack, I can actually enjoy smoking again. Instead of thinking about all the money it costs to smoke.

Every time I walk up to a counter at a convenient store and see the cig prices, I just smile.

Lifer here

ILENGINE said:

Took my at the time 79 year old mother that used a walker to get around to Aldi to go grocery shopping and I had to sit down and rest before we got done.

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It takes what it takes, God Bless your Mom. I could envision that & relate to it. Seems to have worked for ya.

As a kid my Mom never gave up on me, she used to tell me, she would rather but a pretty dress, than buy those nasty stinking cigs.
Much later after I had not touched a cig for years, I told my Mom, she was right.& Thanked her for her support.

I remember as a kid I always thought a cigarette smelled good, especially on a hot day. Started at 19 in the Army, good beer, hot cup of coffee and a smoke, that's good living. Hell to quit but after 6 or 7 years of it I finally made it. And that first cig. of the day made me about throw up anyway.

Still, smell a cigarette and I want one.

tom3 said:

I remember as a kid I always thought a cigarette smelled good, especially on a hot day. Started at 19 in the Army, good beer, hot cup of coffee and a smoke, that's good living. Hell to quit but after 6 or 7 years of it I finally made it. And that first cig. of the day made me about throw up anyway.

Still, smell a cigarette and I want one.

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Ever seen "The Big Sleep," with Humphrey Bogart? The old man, Mr. Rutledge says "It's a shame when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy."
The first cup that comes out of the pot (not just the first from a full pot) is the strongest best tasting. Couple that with a good strong cigarette, and you got the makings of a good morning.

I started smoking when I was 16. Smoked all through the Marines (up to 2 cartons a week in Vietnam, that didn't last long however as we were using rationing cards); finally kicked the habit after 30 years. Didn't really want to quit, happened by accident. A whim really. Abd in the process, I discovered the secret to quitting.

In 1993 I was driving through Michigan doing inspections at boat manufacturers. Was early morning, lit up a cig and took a drag, then put in the ashtray holder. Before it burnt all the way down, took another drag and flipped it out. About 20 minutes later I decided to light another. Cant explain why exactly, but I realized that I had been lighting up a new smoke every twenty minutes. Same process, take a drag, let it burn down, then another deep drag and pitch it.

I know it sounds strange, but all at once I had this thought where I wondered, "what would happen if I didn't light up"? Sort of an experiment.

So I put the cigarette back in the pack and kept driving. And that's when I figured it out.

After 30 seconds, the urge went away. Didn't really want to light up after that. It came back about 20 minutes later. "Time to light up" it said. But I didn't. (It was just an experiment after all). After 30 seconds, the urge went away. No desire to smoke

Went this way for the rest of the day. Through the night at some crappy motel, the next day, on and on. That was in April of 1993 and I never smoked a single cigarette or cigar after that (and I loved cigars, used to inhale. Went to Canada 3-4 x a year on business and used to smuggle Havana's back. Just loved them).

Anyway, that's the secret. It's NOT an addiction to nicotine that keeps you smoking. IT'S THE MENTAL HABIT.

The urge came every twenty minutes and I responded by lighting up. But I found that if I just ignored it for 20-30 seconds, (which didnt require much effort), the urge simply went away. It went away whether I lit up or not. My brain had been programmed to send me a light up signal and didn't care how I responded.

As time went on the urge still came, but, that 20 minutes turned into 30 minutes, then 40, an hour, couple of hours. Then once or twice a year. That lasted for several years. But always the same. Wait 20 seconds and it goes away. After about ten years, it stopped. Came once or twice since, but nothing since around 2010.

All you have to do is resist for 30 seconds.

I even started a mental game with it. When the urge came, I told it (the urge) "all be right back, just wait for me". It worked. But anyone can hold out for 30 seconds.

Course your appetite will come back. With a vengeance. Big time. You gonna want to eat everything in sight.

Tobacco is a huge appetite suppressant. And stimulant, your heart beats twice as fast and ups your metabolism, reason why you can eat a pizza and not gain an ounce. So after quitting, your taste buds come back and you can taste food again. And smell. So food really has an appeal.

In 2000 I had a rapid scan on my heart and lungs. Smoking had taken around 30% of my capacity. Permanent damage. And it was so gradual, i never noticed. Causes other damage as well. Especially to the heart. You find out as you get older.

I am so glad I quit when I did. As I said before, I never really wanted to quit. But it was worth it. Never regretted quitting.

When I busted my knee up in about 98, we were down to just the wife's income. And since I couldn't drive, and she didn't make much money, that I wanted her to stop buying cigarettes. She'd go about 2 days into my bad moods and bring me a pack.
LOL.. The whole time I frantically opening up the pack, shaking as I lit the cigarette, I'd tell her "I told you not to buy me any cigarettes."

I've never done drugs. I stopped drinking in my 20's after realizing I had never really liked the taste of alcohol. So smoking has been my only real vice. And since I now roll my own for a buck a pack, I enjoy it even more.

I was out last week for longer than I expected and was still a few hours from getting home, and stopped and bought a pack. Having to dish out that $6 made me cringe. But I noticed something while I'm smoking, it, those packed cigs are skinnier than RYO. Made me feel like I was getting even more jipped.

From the comments on this thread, I guess I'm the only smoker here. lol

Actually you are doing drugs. Nicotine is a strong drug. Affectes brain chemistry, heart, lungs and liver. All bad.

The difference between pot & tobacco is the tobacco industry was already well established with powerful political connections when the prohibition on booze was lifted .
The government had no appetite for another fight so they banned pot at the behest of the then redundant FBI & Dow Chemical who had the patients on synthetic fibres.
There was a religious nutter senator behind this pushing hard , can't remember his name right now but you know the type, unless the good lord provided it in a form ready to be consumed then everything else was the work of the devil.
Thou shall pay every hour on the hour & every one who gets sick or dies is punishment from the lord because they are unrepentent sinners.
So pot got banned, the FBI got more powerful with a massive increase in budget & manpower the religious nutter dragged in support for who ever was in power at the time and the government had a new enemy to frighten the population into submission.
Dow got massive sales boost for fibers , we all got horrid nylon shirts and ropes , Mexicans became the enemy as they were corrupting our youth by growing & exporting pot to our children as prooven by the movie "reefer madness " and every one was happy.
From memory it was about this time tha CokeaCola removed cocain from the drink cause you could now get booze .

The difference between pot and cigs for me, is I fall asleep if I smoke pot.

From what I understand about it's history, one of the BIGGEST opponents to hemp was a big timber giant who was making millions on his timber to paper mills. Hemp created a big competition to timber, because it grows faster and makes a better product. He probably buddied up (financially) with the politician you're talking about.

Most recently, we had an attorney general, who was once a senator who was also a religious nut, who had some crazy idea's about pot. Him being the US AG, made the pro pot industry hard to chance taking on the feds. From what I understand, even Obama, who was supposely pro choice when it come to pot, still had his DEA going after US growers and sellers.
There's just too much money to be collected in confiscation and fines to let that kind of money slide. Now a days, a lot of states are legalizing it, so they can collect the tax on it.
Money was the reason it was made illegal. And money is the reason why it's becoming legal.

In other words, the government cares about one thing. And one thing only. Well make that 2 things.
Money & control.

I haven't had a drink in 30 years. Don't miss that either. I have more fun with a gallon of gasoline, than a barrel of booze.

And no I don't drink gas, I put it in my Harley(s) & enjoy the ride....

And a good while after stopping smoking, it was amazing how good food tasted again. But how the nicotine can embed itself into clothing in spite of washing. When we were selling our 1st home (wife & I) we removed all the pictures on the walls, that were once white. You could see where every picture was exactly. So some repainting was in order. Can't be any better in the lungs.

In out current home we don't even allow company to smoke inside. ( No preaching, just my world.)

PTmowerMech said:

The difference between pot and cigs for me, is I fall asleep if I smoke pot.

From what I understand about it's history, one of the BIGGEST opponents to hemp was a big timber giant who was making millions on his timber to paper mills. Hemp created a big competition to timber, because it grows faster and makes a better product. He probably buddied up (financially) with the politician you're talking about.

Most recently, we had an attorney general, who was once a senator who was also a religious nut, who had some crazy idea's about pot. Him being the US AG, made the pro pot industry hard to chance taking on the feds. From what I understand, even Obama, who was supposely pro choice when it come to pot, still had his DEA going after US growers and sellers.
There's just too much money to be collected in confiscation and fines to let that kind of money slide. Now a days, a lot of states are legalizing it, so they can collect the tax on it.
Money was the reason it was made illegal. And money is the reason why it's becoming legal.

In other words, the government cares about one thing. And one thing only. Well make that 2 things.
Money & control.

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Getting a little off topic but there was a doco done a while back called
How to make money selling drugs
there are a 1/2 dozen episodes each one dedicated to a level from street dealers right up to the DEA , FBI & Local police.
It is worth a watch. Pot like most illicit drugs should be treated as what they and ciggies are and that is a health problem