All the cool androids are doing it.

@bo

I'm not sure I believe at all that more people are smoking pot than in the past. Even if they are, that's really a separate issue than what's being discussed here.

So far as I can tell from basic observation in and around society - my generation (I am 24) has more smokers than the generation just above me. Perhaps it is specific to my demographic, or even to just my social circle, but the early-30s crowd seems to be the best at avoiding them, and perhaps, there is a resugrence already happening.

I have never used a ecigarrette, nor do I really know what it is. I do smoke cigarettes, however.

@Lando

An eCigarette is a battery-operated nicotine vaporizer. It's shaped like a cigarette and when you breath in, you inhale nicotine and water vapor. From what I've heard, it produces almost the same effect as smoking, unlike other forms of nicotine, such as gum or patches.

Lots of young people do it. That's all I'm saying.

I think there are fewer overall smokers simply because the education and general wave against smoking is starting to take hold. I think the younger generation, largely unlike the one above me, generally considers health to be a greater incentive than the tax money and the profits of the tobacco companies to get rid of smoking as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation after me outlaws tobacco as a whole.

No, I have never smoked anything like an eCigarette, nor do I have any idea what they are. I don't think smoking will ever come back to the statistics from the last 50 years. I don't know how accurate those are though.

The reason I wonder is because:

1) eCigarettes are comparable if not lower in price than real cigarettes,
2) Other than the nicotine, they contain no harmful chemicals or carcinogens, and
3) In states like Mass, where it's illegal to smoke almost anywhere, eCigarettes are still allowed.

Good god, Bo -- we agree on something. Ban alcohol and tobacco and regulate, tax and sell pot instead. Way safer than both alternatives - and kills two birds with one joint.

That's like getting stoned with two birds at once.

I am fairly sure weed has concistently been very prominent. But again, it really has nothing to do with smoking.

Except, the ""vapourizer" method of smoking weed is mostly unappealing to me. As such, I would imagine the ecigarette to also be unappealing.

hahahahaha ban alcohol :)

"hahahahaha ban alcohol :) " You are laughing, but that's exactly what happened in this country and several others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition

I quit smoking for good about 10 years ago (thanks to my then newborn daughter), and I used patches. I have to say I might have never quit completely if I would have been able to buy eCigarettes at that time - the jury is out though if that's really a bad thing, since smoking these is simply annoying, vs. real cigarettes being so unhealthy for everyone around you as well.

^ Chris, how long did banning alcohol work in America?

@Chris - congrats on the quit smoking thing. I just quit smoking for good about 3 months ago and still going strong.

@Chris - trust me I know about prohibition, just chuckling at the thought of what would happen if it was tried now, thats all.

@bo_sox - "I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation after me outlaws tobacco as a whole."

I would bet real money that will never happen. There is more to tobacco than just cigarettes and banning cigarettes in the US would just result in the cigar industry out of Central and South America and the pipe induistry out of the UK and Turkey to go "underground" with cigar and pipe smokers like me flipping the law the bird and finding ways to get cigars and pipe tobaccos in. Especially cigars as some very powerful and influential people are notorious cigar smokers and at upwards of $20+ per cigar, most of us have money to burn (literally).

@krellin - You also fall into the "tobacco=cigarette" camp I see. Cigars are less dangerous than pot because you don't gebnerally inhale them and it isn't the tobacco that is so bad, but the additives and the cheap ass garbage tobacco they use to make shredded cigarette filler. Whole leaf cigars are at least as safe as pot.

Except cigars are addictive, weed is now. Cigars give off deadly second hand tobacco smoke whereas weed gives us harmless second hand weed smoke (and could help get other people high!). Cigars, while very different from cigarettes, can't really be compared to let alone concluded as "safer" than weed.

Draug, there is a big movement, especially in health education, that in some places actually says that marijuana is a healthier alternative than tobacco. I don't think either is a good idea; both of them just give me a giant headache and I won't smoke either of them again.

The other big movement in schools now is to say that the tobacco industry took off before the USA existed and has become such a traditional thing that we've lost the health aspect, which in some sense is true. I'm all for the industry, but as this thread states, there are alternatives, and as new technology comes out there will hopefully be a healthier alternative that has the same "qualities" that tobacco does. I think that, with the young people leaning liberal at least for now, health will override industry, and while that may hurt our economy, there are going to be a lot of bigger problems in 50 years that need dealt with. Health is going to be one of them. I hope I'm wrong.

@bo_sox - I want to know where the heck you're getting your ideas from. We're from the same generation and there are shit-tons of smokers my age. More people smoke cigarettes on a regular basis than pot, that's for sure, and the overall number of cigarette smokers is probably just under the number of weed smokers. Its the same story from my rural hometown in the north to the city in the south where I go to school.

But I can see why krellin would support the illegalization of alcohol. Shits far more dangerous than cigarettes or pot. Kills more people than almost anything else in the US each year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/alcohol-related-deaths-_n_821900.html
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

Pot smoke is dangerous. It still has carcinogens the same as tobacco ( http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-questions/does-smoking-cannabis-cause-cancer ) andthe mind altering effects of weed are far more dangerous than those of nicotine.

I think in regards to pot simply more research needs to be done. Now, I'd like to temper my remarks by saying I have not smoked anything in my life nor do I intend to, but from the knowledge I have, cigarettes are more dangerous

Cigarettes yes. And therein lies the rub. Non-smokers equate cigarettes with all tobacco products when three other big ones exist: pipes, cigars, and chew.

Isn't chew the worst of the 4 kinds you recognized? But yes, I'm ignoring cigars and pipes. The topic of the thread is related to cigarettes though...