Drinking, Smoking & other bad habits

[tobe2165]

[tygrkhat40]

I've never been a big drinker. I prefer hard liquor to beer or wine, Johnnie Walker Black on the rocks is my drink of choice. I don't drink coffee, never got the taste for the stuff. I'll get my caffeine from tea or diet cola. And I don't smoke...tobacco.

[Ace1965]

I got drunk twice when I was 19 and I felt like shit for 3 or 4 days afterwards so I've never done it since. I can socially nurse a beer over dinner or if I'm out with a friend but that's the limit of my drinking. Probably the last beer I had was about nearly a year ago.

I've never smoked and not to offend you smokers out there but smoke gives my a splitting headache so I always avoid being around it. Here in the US they have banned smoking from just about every indoor situation that you come across.

It's funny because I attended my first concert back in 1982 and there was always a smoky haze of cigarette (and other things) smoke that hung over the arena. But at the last one I went to in 2008, there was none. I even went to an ampitheater show in 2004 and they wouldn't let people smoke. I had Tennessee Titan season tickets until 2007 and there was no smoking in an outdoor stadium.

I have never done drugs of any kind including marijuana.

[Rick Danger]

Smoking bans vary state to state. I gave up cigarettes years ago. I'm a little strange in that smoking was never an ingrained habit with me, despite the fact that my Dad smoked while I was young. However, I do like to have a cigar now and again. I'll smoke while either outside my home, in my garage, with friends, or at a cigar shop. I was fond of pipe smoking, but over the years I've lost my entire collection. A pity.

HOWEVER, the "Sin Tax" on cigarettes and other tobacco products has gone to ridiculous extremes. A pack of cigarettes around where I live averages around $6.30 a pack. I can remember my Dad could buy a carton for that much! An this concept is also fueling proposals for taxes on snack foods, soft drinks, and anything else that local or state governments deem as 'unhealthy'. The rationale of course is that these taxes will influence people to make more healthy choices. Frankly, it just another money grab.

I also think the ban at outdoor concert venues is a bit much. My wife and I regularly attend a large outdoor jazz concert that is held at a large wooded park. It would be nice to take a stroll and enjoy a leisurely smoke, but the county banned smoking at such venues.

Contrasting that, the tougher standards for Driving Under the Influence cannot go far enough. In recent months in the metropolitan area we've have two horrific cases involving of all things intoxicated women endangering their own children while driving. One woman was driving at high speeds on a highway in the wrong direction with her child and several nieces and nephews on a Sunday morning while apparently under the influence of alcohol and marijuana. She struck a car head on, and the crash and resultant fire killed seven people, including herself. If tougher enforcement can prevent a single death in the future, it is all well worth it. I do drink. I'm not much of a hand at wines, but beers I have a good palate for. I'm a fan of scotch (I presented my favorite on a VEF thread some time ago), whiskey, bourbon and vodka. But I have a strict limit, and I prefer to do my drinking at home. But if I'm on edge or feeling down, I DON'T drink. It solves nothing.

I love coffee, but to be blunt rarely do I find a coffee house or restaurant that makes coffee better than I can. Fresh ground beans, clean water, my French press. I do miss the perked coffee from my parents days. Nothing fancy, just good full flavored coffee.

Has anyone noticed the modern penchant for labeling any habit as an "addiction"? If you like sex (esp. outside of marriage), you have a "sex addiction". If you like pornography you have a "porno addiction". If you wear a leather or fur coat here in the US you run the risk of being attacked by animal rights activists. Don't get caught smoking, you may face a civil suit claiming that you're trying to ruining someone's health.

My best advice is to enjoy your vice(s) in moderation. Oddly enough, if I were single I'd probably be able to give up drinking. But married life has wrecked my nerves !

[abro]

Everything in moderation - wise words indeed, and ones to live by IMHO.
Sex will always be my favourite vice (if you can call it that), then beer, wine and spirits 3 or 4 times a week (haven't been completely fall over drunk in a few years now) and a infrequent bit of the demon ganga.
A mate of mine works in the party pill industry so always has plenty of free samples - but I haven't really warmed to those - too many chemical connotations.
Cheers

[victor meldrew]

As an ex smoker I can see both sides of the argument. The Landlord of our local boozer puts a giant side covered gazebo up during the winter so the somkers can at least get some protection from the elements.

What I find strange is, the non smokers used to complain like hell when smoking was allowed inside, but still complain on the good weather days that they cannot sit outside.

I don's mind, nice outside in the summer, nice and warm inside in the winter.

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by mvasilj

Mate, smokers down here are made too feel like leppers

It's basically banned everywhere, soon ya won't even be able to smoke in your own car.

In some states it is illegal to smoke in your own car if you have a child as a passenger. This makes some sense, but I wonder how often it is actually enforced.

Originally Posted by ErnestoGuevara

One boneheaded piece of legislation that we have here in Scotland is that you cannot buy alcohol until 10 am.

I've found myself standing around in supermarkets for two or three minutes on a Saturday morning because I've bought some ale/wine for a Saturday evening and I don't want to embarrass the assistant (and myself) who'd have to tell me that I can't do that at two minutes to ten, but I can at ten.

Again, in the US we have a crazy quilt of laws state to state. My Father moved us across the river from New York City to New Jersey in 1962. He walked into a supermarket looking for beer and they thought he was crazy. Nearly fifty years later the vast majority of supermarkets here do not sell wine or beer. In the South they typically have "ABC" stores where you can buy booze. Also in some states if you order a drink you must show your driver's license. I'm told it's to check to see if you have a stamp on your license to show if you've had a DUI conviction. But it used to be just to check for proof of age, even if you were well past your teenage years. And the fake driver's license industry is still going, though after 9/11 it's much harder to forge a license in most states.

One reason I tow the line on drinking is that my Father had a drinking problem, so statistically I'm three times more likely to develop the problem. One thing my parents did when we were old enough is they let us have a sip of wine or beer now and again. I think it helped to demystify the subject. As a teen I never felt the need to go and sneak a drink. Of course if my folks did that today some nut would probably have them charged with child endangerment.

Society makes a great deal of drug abuse, and rightfully so. It's amazing what new chemical concoctions people can come up with. One bizzare mix is marijuana soaked in embalming fluid referred to by the street name of "sherm" (there are those who dispute whether the ingredient is formaldehyde or actually PCP). And prescription abuse, esp. amongst teenagers is way too high. But having a drinking problem is nothing to laugh at, though the images of the comical drunk are universal. Think about it: you can't go down to the local market to buy crack cocaine or heroin. If you came home from work and had to shoot up someone in your family would raise the alarm. But no one thinks twice about alcohol. It's an insidious problem. And I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

God bless and watch over all of you...... be safe out there.

[Mal Hombre]

I always say A man shouldn't have too many vices,You won't be able to enough time for all of them.On the subject of masturbation and it's beneficial effects,where are the posters to inform men about it?"Never mind five pieces of fruit ,Make sure You have Your five wanks a week."

[tygrkhat40]

Originally Posted by abro

Everything in moderation -

Including excess and abstinence.

[Mal Hombre]

I only drink two days a week-today and tomorrow