Tobacco

[Tom]

I have cable for my Television and enjoy the non-network channels.  Some call them educational channels.

Today, I walked into a show on the History Channel, Modern Marvels, where the subject was Tobacco.  I was immediately enthralled and sat to watch it.  I missed some of the first but It was talking about cigarettes.  Cigarettes, much to my chagrine, are manufactured objects.  I smoked them for years when I was younger and thought they were shredded tobacco being held by paper.  That's a very naive shade of the truth.  Tobacco is actually cooked, and the "broth" used to impregnate chipped up stalks, leaves, and other parts of the plant that would normally be thrown out as waste.  Half of the filler of cigarettes is this concoction and half is leaves.   Must be some kind of class B cigarette, your say.  No it isn't either.  The ones being packaged were advertised as being used by the Mxxxxxxx Man and sold as one of the most popular. 

The show went on to talk about smokeless tobacco and how it is made.  The things that make it addictive.  The different types of products used in different countries and whys involved in their manufacture.

I wanted to get on here and yell at everybody to come watch.  Then I realized that nobody was home and I didn't know how long it would last either.   So, I'm making this plea.  It is supposed to be shown again, on the east coast, at Seven tonight.  Please find out when it is coming on in your area and watch it.  It worth watching by an adult.  I learned more about tobacco addiction than I ever knew existed.  It may also be a worthwhile show for young adults and teenagers to see, especially in the presence of their parents, so that it can be talked about.

Make a date to see this thing even if you have seen it before.  It's Modern Marvels on the History Channel at 7pm eastern.   Please. 

edited to reflect Furby's
corrrection.  Tom

[Furby]

Tom, it's actually on The History Channel, but since they are all owned by the same company, it don't matter much. ;)

[thurlow]

Have seen the program;  hard to understand how anyone could use the stuff, 'though I probably don't understand the addiction.   Of course, I'm addicted to sugar, caffeine, sleep,  Forestry Forum, the computer, sex and other things..................

[Raider Bill]

I'm trying to get that monkey off my back right now. It's been right around 2 months with a couple slip ups all while partaking Barley pops.  just walking into a Pub with all the smoke in the air triples the urge.
As anyone that has quit knows it's a minute by minute challange. Some equate it to heroin addiction withdrawal due to the chemicals they put in.
Thing that ticks me off is I had quit for a couple years and started up again. DUMB ME.

[Sprucegum]

Hang in there Raider

I had to quit drinking so I could quit smoking  ??? once I got er done I could relax with a cool one again  8)

[thecfarm]

I watched the program.Had a lot of infro on all the ways to smoke.I would of never  heard of it,I don't watch much TV.What time I do have is spent right here on the FF.I used to be a smoker,cigars,pipe all that stuff.But that chewing I could never do it.And I tried quite a few times.I had to stop drinking to quit smoking too.I have not went back on either one and I don't plan on it.I miss smoking way more than the drinking.Wife said she would kick me out if i ever start to smoke.

[Raider Bill]

Hang in there Raider

I had to quit drinking so I could quit smoking  ??? once I got er done I could relax with a cool one again  8)

So far every urge I've had was while either having a cold one or a cup of coffee. Working in the woods this past week alone has helped.

[beenthere]

You have our support for quiting. Apparently it is a rough row to hoe.

Also, gonna try to lend our friend, Thee Bob some support if he wants it. Had us a little worried about him this weekend....with some real gut-wrenching cough spells.

[Warren]

Folks,  I don't smoke.  I don't want to smoke.  I don't want my family to smoke.  My dad died from lung cancer, (tho unrelated to tobacco use), so I understand the agony of watching a loved one waste away while not being able to help them.

However, living in the middle of tobacco country, let's keep a couple things in mind:

1) Tobacco use is just as legal as alcohol consumption and gambling, even if not as "politically correct". 

2) Documentaries produced by left wing, politically correct, do gooders can be just as biased against the tobacco industry as they are (and have been) against loggers and sawyers.    Ground up leaf stems, yes.  But I have yet to see a bale of tobacco with a stalk in it.  Tobacco producers look at stalks the same way sawyers look at slabs...

3) (while I am on my soap box..) I used to bristle at the mis information about the previous tobacco program being a "government subsidy".  The conveniently overlooked fact was that it was actually  producer funded.  Each producer paid  3 cents, (or 3% ?) for each pound of tobacco sold in the old auction system.  The USDA "managed" the program.  But they did not "subsidize" it.  However, this fact was not "convenient" for the politically correct crowd.  So it was overlooked...

Yeah, I know the tobacco company executives are a bunch of greedy sleeze bags.  But the politically correct shoe can be just as twisted and uncomfortable on the wood products foot as it is the tobacco foot....

I know this is not a popular attitude, so flame on !

Warren

[thurlow]

Warren, I think any adult has the right to smoke, if he chooses to do so.............long's he doesn't blow smoke in my face.   My m-i-l and f-i-l both died young, from smoking related diseases.  I've never understood the lawsuits brought and won.....against the tobacco companies, although they obviously lied about their product.  What business doesn't?  Are you happier;  are you more attractive to the op-posite sex because of the car you drive?  Their ads would have you believe you would be.  At least as far back as WWI,  cigarettes were known as coffin nails.............can't believe anyone ever lit up a cigaretter without being aware (even though he might not have thought about it each time) that they weren't good for him/her.

[Tom]

I smoked for a long, long time.  I don't any more.  I'm glad.

I enjoyed that program, not for its political bent, but for the information about product manufacture that I was unaware.   Perhaps some misinformation occurred.  I am naive enough think that the show was edited. I am also intelligent enough to take a show like that with a grain of salt and an open mind.  I wasn't judging the use of Tobacco when I suggested it be watched, but rather the entertainment value derived from the education I received.

By the same token I don't want anyone smoking within a thousand miles of me.  It makes me sick. I hate the smell.  What someone else does though is their business, just don't let it impact me.

[Greg Cook]

Thanks Warren, for reminding us if it's on TV it ain't necessarily true.  I have wondered for a few years of "organic" grown tobacco, grown from old-time varieties of seed would be less harmful than the commercial varieties.  Couldn't be worse...
Now that we can grow in TN without any government intervention, I've been thinking of giving it a go.  Guess I'd have to market it online to get a decent return.

Greg

[WH_Conley]

Something I have wondered for a long time goes along the lines of what Greg is saying.

The oldtimers used Manure instead of chemical fertilizer. No MH30, hand suckering, course there was no blue mold back then so no Ridomil. Who knows what is added after it leaves the farm.

I know the oldtimers were very proud of their product, just like a good sawyer is proud of a pile of well manufactured lumber.

[Dave Shepard]

I am a rabid anti-smoker, but I try not to say anything, not even to my closest friends. It is their choice, and who am I to make their decisions for them. I certainly wouldn't respond well to someone pointing out that I am a big fat gorilla, and might die young from it. In fact they might then want to reconsider their mistake of pointing this out to someone thats, well, a BIG fat Gorilla. ;D :

This discussion comes at a time when I have been giving a lot of thought to tobacco. I am working on my homepage which is about life in colonial America. I certainly don't want to spend a lot of time discussing it on my site, but if you think about it, this country probably wouldn't be here without it! It was the first cash crop of the new colonies!

Dave