![\"NewImage\"](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/NewImage25.png\" "\\"NewImage.png\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I used to smoke. <\/p>\n
Yeah, I was a smoker. I was the evil puffing bastard everyone has come to hate! I put your children<\/strong><\/em> at risk! According to the nanny state I should have been taken out and shot.<\/p>\n Not to put me out of my misery but out of yours.<\/p>\n I quit years ago and I still miss it.<\/p>\n Now theres an un-PC admission in this day & age!<\/p>\n I’m glad I quit and everything, but I liked the nicotine rush! I also liked that it killed my appetite and it was a lot easier to stay skinny.<\/p>\n The health benefits outweighed the desire to smoke and so I was able to leave it, albeit with regret in my past.<\/p>\n I quit because my best friend asked me one day how it was that I could justify going to the gym 4 days a week and still smoke when I came out of the gym?<\/p>\n It was a good question and as usual his logic was completely irrefutable.<\/p>\n I quit that day…<\/p>\n I still miss it.<\/p>\n I miss smoking when I’m drinking at a bar. You can’t smoke at bars in California anymore but I still miss it.<\/p>\n I miss smoking after sex. I miss the ashtray on my belly, the red cherry of my cigarette glowing in the darkness and me thinking quietly about what I’d just done and knowing that I was going to do it again when I stubbed out my smoke. I miss having my arm wrapped around my partner, their head on my shoulder while I smoked that in between fuck cigarette.<\/p>\n I doubt I’m the only man who feels that way.<\/p>\n I miss getting up from my desk and walking outside to have a smoke and bitch with my co-workers about the boss or the latest political fuck-up in the company.<\/p>\n I smoked because I enjoyed the taste, and the hit. Not because I was lured into it by unscrupulous corporations. (Their ads were enticing, who didn’t want to be the Marlboro Man?) I knew damn well what I was doing.<\/p>\n My Dad smoked. It killed him, you’d think that I wouldn’t wax lovingly about cigarettes.<\/p>\n I didn’t start smoking until I was 18. Near the end of my smoking days, I was doing almost a pack a day.<\/p>\n The nicotine was one thing. I think I was self medicating a bit. Nicotine acts as a stimulant and because it’s a stimulant it has a very specific effect on persons who happen to have been treated in their childhood with drugs like Ritalin.<\/p>\n The child may have outgrown the reasons they were put on Ritalin but their bodies will always have an affinity for stimulants in general.<\/p>\n I’ve known more than one smoker who had been on Ritalin in their childhood, of those more than a few who really liked pharmaceutical grade stimulants. <\/p>\n Interesting thing is that if their Doctor was smart and recognized certain traits they’d end up back on Ritalin and suddenly they’d stop smoking.<\/p>\n But sure… Ritalin is completely safe for your unruly child, we’ve been using it for 50 years on kids just like yours… (with no or generally undocumented, unproven ill effects.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Moving on…<\/p>\n I recently had the opportunity to try one of those e-cigarettes. For those of you that don’t know, these are things that look like cigarettes and that provide a nice flavor and optionally a selectable hit of nicotine without the tar, and other nasty chemicals associated with combustion in a “real” cigarette.<\/p>\n It was nice…<\/p>\n Not exactly like smoking a cigarette, but it was pleasant.<\/p>\n Since then, I’ve done a lot of reading and investigation The jury is out about the negative effects of these devices.<\/p>\n About the only consistent thing is that they’re less unhealthy than a cigarette. The “Smoke” is essentially water vapor, there’s no smell, but there is a good taste (at least in the one I tried<\/em>). You can choose the nicotine leve I’m not sure that I’m ready to start up with one of these things all the time but I do like the option.<\/p>\n The only problem I could see is that unlike a real cigarette you don’t know when you’re done. <\/p>\n I’d smoke a real cigarette in about 10 -15 minutes if I wasn’t in a hurry. These e-cigs don’t burn down so you could find yourself completely losing track of time if you weren’t paying attention.<\/p>\n For someone like me that really enjoyed smoking even when I quit… these things might be a neat option. I could also see how they might assist in quitting for some people.<\/p>\n But I suspect that there will be a larger number of folks who switch over to this option. At least until the government starts to regulate them and drives the prices up to normal cigarette levels.<\/p>\n There’s also the fact that cigarettes used to be, and e-cigs still are cheaper than a monthly prescription of Ritalin.<\/p>\n I don’t know if that’s still the case. I haven’t looked into Ritalin in a very long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I used to smoke. Yeah, I was a smoker. I was the evil puffing bastard everyone has come to hate! I put your children at risk! According to the nanny state I should have been taken out and shot. Not to put me out of my misery but out of yours. I quit years ago … <\/p>\n![\"NewImage\"](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/NewImage26.png\" "\\"NewImage.png\\"")
l and they’re also a lot cheaper than cigarettes. <\/p>\n