How To Plan A Smoke-Friendly Trip

From one perspective, the dramatic rebound of premium cigars couldn’t have come at a better time. After decades of competition from cigarettes, the gradual deterioration (through age) of its customer base, and decreased consumer interest in tobacco products generally, the sudden early-nineteen-nineties resurgence of interest in premium cigars was instrumental in keeping the industry alive. After fourth quarter industry growth in 1992 (the first in years), the launch of new magazines devoted to the hobby of cigar smoking, and a proliferation of cigar bars and specialty shops, cigars were trendy for the first time in decades.

But the timing was also somewhat ironic. Between a high-profile class-action suit against cigarette companies and controversies over cigarette advertising – not to mention a general decline in the number of smokers – the world’s cigar makers found themselves experiencing new popularity at a time when their industry was also facing new marketing challenges. Along with these changes came a gradual increase in the number of buildings, towns, and sometimes entire states where smoking of all kinds was regulated. All those new cigar smokers found themselves restricted from enjoying their new hobby in airports, restaurants, and entire localities.

All of which raises a question – if you’re a smoker traveling the United States, what are your options? To what parts of the United States can you travel if you’re hoping to enjoy a box of fine cigars alongside the new sights and sounds?

There’s no easy answer to that question, because individual towns and cities within an overall smoking-friendly state can enact their own forms of anti-smoking legislation. But in terms of statewide laws, here is a brief guide to the states with the most permissive – and the most restrictive – smoking legislation.

First of all, the overall news is – if you’re planning a true cigar-lover’s vacation, you might want to stick to the South (no surprise there) or parts of the Midwest. Of the eighteen states that allow smoking in bars of all kinds, as well as in casinos, restaurants and workplaces, quite a few are in one of these two regions of the country.

Among the southern states with permissive smoking laws are Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Tobacco plays an important role in the history of many of these states: Virginia was a major tobacco producer and smoking hub, not to mention the place where many Union soldiers first discovered the habit of cigar smoking during the Civil War. North Carolina was the scene of the discovery of Brightleaf tobacco, and the home of Durham, a major tobacco city. South Carolina was also, early on, a big tobacco producer.

Other very smoke-positive states include the Midwestern states Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Perhaps smoking helps deal with the harsh winters for which many of these states are infamous. The same beat-the-cold explanation may apply in Alaska, another state with maximally permissive smoking laws, and Kentucky, which I would have counted as a “Midwestern” state, except that some Kentuckians take violent exception to this designation. (Some also don’t like it if you call them “southern.”) Rounding out the list of the top pro-smoking states are Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

As for the bottom of the list: if you like smoking in bars, restaurants, casinos and workplaces, stay out of Arizona, Delaware, Washington State and Washington D.C., Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, and – no surprise – California. All of these states have enacted the least permissive, widest-scale smoking bans at the statewide level. Not only that, but several of them are cold – it’s hard to imagine a worse fate than traipsing around Minneapolis or St. Paul in winter, with an unlightable stogie, exiled from your favorite bar. In Arizona and California, at least it’s warm enough out on the sidewalk.

States that allow at least some indoor, public smoking include Tennessee, Arkansas, and Montana, where some bars and casinos allow smoking, as well as Hawaii, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, where bars, casinos and restaurants that allow smoking may be found. Most of the other states have heavier but not full restrictions. (And as for Nevada, if you’re wondering – well, you can smoke in some casinos and bars, but not anywhere that serves food.)

Wherever you go, if you’re worried about encountering roadblocks to smoking, call ahead to your hotel or visit the city’s web page. After all, local ordinances can be as restrictive as any statewide ban. Do research first.

by Max Nathan

Various Stop Smoking Techniques

Smoking and human life expectancy share an inverse relationship. An increase in the former brings a decrease in the quality as well as length of the latter. The smoke that enters human body during a cigarette smoking session is replete with a very hazardous substance called nicotine. Active as well as passive smokers suffer greatly due to smoking generated diseases. It is not surprising to see the escalating number of human lives that come to an end every day. In view of the alarming death rates caused by cigarette smoking, doctors have started developing new therapies. This article attempts to list the various methods and measures taken in this direction to thwart people into getting into this vicious cycle.

When starting to save a smoker from the habit of smoking, the first thing that has to be done is to cleanse his body of excess nicotine. The various kinds of nicotine therapies and nicotine replacement therapies work towards serving this very purpose. During the treatment period, the individual must restrain himself from smoking by being fed with fixed doses of nicotine so as to avoid any detrimental repercussions. This will serve to keep the person in a very balanced state. This will also minimize the smoker’s craving for cigarettes, and the dose of nicotine can be reduced gradually over time.

Nicotine substitution is also carried out by making use of nicotine laced chewing gums. This method, included in many smoking cessation programs, can be traced back to the year 1972 and it was approved in 1984. These nicotine gums were effective to a great extent but lost its efficacy when people started getting used to them. In addition to nicotine- gums, nasal sprays, inhalers and skin patches, there are some other devices also that work towards the same cause. Users who are keen on quitting the habit put the nicotine patches to have assistance as and when needed.

Some prescription drugs have also been found to be of great help to hard core smokers in getting rid of smoking addiction. Basically, most of these drugs are antidepressants in nature and are prescribed by doctors to patients suffering from depression. But, these drugs have great efficacy in controlling the habit of smoking. Negative Stimulus is another method employed for quitting the habit of smoking. It involves administering feeble electric shocks that instils in the person an aversion to smoke. The governments in various countries as well as some non-profit organizations have kicked off quit smoking campaigns and programs in order to make people aware of the deleterious effects of smoking.

Hypnosis therapy is a psychotic therapy that helps in lessening one’s obsession to smoke. This particular therapy purges the smoker of pro-smoking thoughts and instils in him an anti-smoking concept.  This is successful due to the fact that hypnosis takes the person undergoing treatment to a semi-conscious state where his mind can be programmed to do some things which the expert wants him to carry out. Regular and controlled treatment using hypnosis can diminish one’s craving to a good extent.

I delete retarded comments. Deal with it. Rody Walker performing The Pro-Smoking Cigarette Song. Given out with a FREE CD at a secret show on June 20, 2009. Being that this CD was given out for free, I assume there are no copyright issues. Photo taken from Flickr. Download the track here: www.mediafire.com

by termie

Various Stop Smoking Techniques

Smoking and human life expectancy share an inverse relationship. An increase in the former brings a decrease in the quality as well as length of the latter. The smoke that enters human body during a cigarette smoking session is replete with a very hazardous substance called nicotine. Active as well as passive smokers suffer greatly due to smoking generated diseases. It is not surprising to see the escalating number of human lives that come to an end every day. In view of the alarming death rates caused by cigarette smoking, doctors have started developing new therapies. This article attempts to list the various methods and measures taken in this direction to thwart people into getting into this vicious cycle.

When starting to save a smoker from the habit of smoking, the first thing that has to be done is to cleanse his body of excess nicotine. The various kinds of nicotine therapies and nicotine replacement therapies work towards serving this very purpose. During the treatment period, the individual must restrain himself from smoking by being fed with fixed doses of nicotine so as to avoid any detrimental repercussions. This will serve to keep the person in a very balanced state. This will also minimize the smoker’s craving for cigarettes, and the dose of nicotine can be reduced gradually over time.

Nicotine substitution is also carried out by making use of nicotine laced chewing gums. This method, included in many smoking cessation programs, can be traced back to the year 1972 and it was approved in 1984. These nicotine gums were effective to a great extent but lost its efficacy when people started getting used to them. In addition to nicotine- gums, nasal sprays, inhalers and skin patches, there are some other devices also that work towards the same cause. Users who are keen on quitting the habit put the nicotine patches to have assistance as and when needed.

Some prescription drugs have also been found to be of great help to hard core smokers in getting rid of smoking addiction. Basically, most of these drugs are antidepressants in nature and are prescribed by doctors to patients suffering from depression. But, these drugs have great efficacy in controlling the habit of smoking. Negative Stimulus is another method employed for quitting the habit of smoking. It involves administering feeble electric shocks that instils in the person an aversion to smoke. The governments in various countries as well as some non-profit organizations have kicked off quit smoking campaigns and programs in order to make people aware of the deleterious effects of smoking.

Hypnosis therapy is a psychotic therapy that helps in lessening one’s obsession to smoke. This particular therapy purges the smoker of pro-smoking thoughts and instils in him an anti-smoking concept.  This is successful due to the fact that hypnosis takes the person undergoing treatment to a semi-conscious state where his mind can be programmed to do some things which the expert wants him to carry out. Regular and controlled treatment using hypnosis can diminish one’s craving to a good extent.

Related Pro Smoking Articles

by mar_g0t

Lets Go Beat Up Some Smokers

The war on smoking has been going on for over 40 years now and it is not going well despite the preponderance of the evidence is that cigarette smoking damages one’s health over the long run. Yes millions of people have quit smoking and yet millions more have also started during the same time period.

The American public has been so inundated with anti-smoking information that it is no longer effective and commercials are becoming more and more outrageous. According to one of the latest commercials on Spike TV the tobacco industry supplied its products to have it featured in a Muppet movie. I thought I have seen every Muppet movie ever made and for the life of me I do not remember any Muppet movie that featured a cigarette. I must have missed that one.

The same production company produces another commercial that shows a knucklehead trying to purchase light bullets for his gun and one if his statements is something like “cigarette companies are labeling there cigarette with light and ultralights even though they are just as deadly as regular cigarette?”. Lets see now, if I apply the same logic to air quality then if I lived in Linfen, China (dirtiest air in the world) or if I lived in Cape Grim, Tasmania (cleanest air in the world) I would still just as likely to develop respiratory problems because both have places have at least some air pollutions. Give me a break.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do not condone smoking. If you want to smoke great. If you do not want to smoke great. But if you try to force me to do either one we will then have a big problem. So why is it that this commercial producer can get away with blatantly false statements? It is because it is socially unacceptable to be a smoker. Smokers are in the minority and it is ok to beat up smokers today.

Do you know of anyone who would publicly admit to being pro smoking? Even smokers will tell you that they know it is bad for you and they are trying to quit or have tried to quit in the past but they will not admit to being pro smoking. If a tobacco company filed a law suite against that producer can you immanage the publicity that would be generated against the tobacco company? Its just not worth the effort.

I do not have a problem with the anti smoking campaign but I do have a problem with the way society is allowing certain business and government practices to occur. Business have won law suites allowing them to not hire employees that smoke and to fire existing employees that do smoke. The bases if the law suite is that the health insurance cost would rise if they employee smokers. I have worked for a lot of companies over the last 40+ years and never once have I seen an insurance representative come into my company and taken a pole of how many smokers and nonsmokers were employed and then adjusted the companies insurance rate based on the results. The next time you update your resume, you may want to include references willing to vouch that you never touch tobacco.

I believe that all of the jurors on the employment issues of smokers were non smokers. Smokers were relieved from jury duty because they may be prejudice. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2004 44.5 million U.S. adults were smokers comprising 20.9 percent of the adult population so 2 of them should have been smokers. Sounds like stacking the deck to me.

I think that I should be allowed to fire all of my employees that are over 40 years of age. After all older employees will use more health care benefits than younger employees so this policy should keep my insurance rates to a minimum. While I’m at it anyone with a higher than 12 percent body fat is gone. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 1989 that Obese people cost 51.5 billion in health care costs per year.

Here is an interesting fact. The Department of Public Health, Netherlands reported in 1997 that smokers have more diseases that nonsmokers but nonsmokers live linger and can incur more health costs at advanced ages. For a given age smokers can cost 40 percent more in health care cost than nonsmokers and if all smokers quit today health care costs would be lower at first but after 15 years they would be higher than at present. That does it I’m going to fire everyone over 40.

Why does society allow this type of injustice happen? Because you as an individual do nothing. To paraphrase a popular saying; for injustice to occur all that is needed is for good people to do nothing. If it is ok with you that smokers are being punished for there actions then do not complain when it is your turn.

by Call It Crazy

Lets Go Beat Up Some Smokers

The war on smoking has been going on for over 40 years now and it is not going well despite the preponderance of the evidence is that cigarette smoking damages one’s health over the long run. Yes millions of people have quit smoking and yet millions more have also started during the same time period.

The American public has been so inundated with anti-smoking information that it is no longer effective and commercials are becoming more and more outrageous. According to one of the latest commercials on Spike TV the tobacco industry supplied its products to have it featured in a Muppet movie. I thought I have seen every Muppet movie ever made and for the life of me I do not remember any Muppet movie that featured a cigarette. I must have missed that one.

The same production company produces another commercial that shows a knucklehead trying to purchase light bullets for his gun and one if his statements is something like “cigarette companies are labeling there cigarette with light and ultralights even though they are just as deadly as regular cigarette?”. Lets see now, if I apply the same logic to air quality then if I lived in Linfen, China (dirtiest air in the world) or if I lived in Cape Grim, Tasmania (cleanest air in the world) I would still just as likely to develop respiratory problems because both have places have at least some air pollutions. Give me a break.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do not condone smoking. If you want to smoke great. If you do not want to smoke great. But if you try to force me to do either one we will then have a big problem. So why is it that this commercial producer can get away with blatantly false statements? It is because it is socially unacceptable to be a smoker. Smokers are in the minority and it is ok to beat up smokers today.

Do you know of anyone who would publicly admit to being pro smoking? Even smokers will tell you that they know it is bad for you and they are trying to quit or have tried to quit in the past but they will not admit to being pro smoking. If a tobacco company filed a law suite against that producer can you immanage the publicity that would be generated against the tobacco company? Its just not worth the effort.

I do not have a problem with the anti smoking campaign but I do have a problem with the way society is allowing certain business and government practices to occur. Business have won law suites allowing them to not hire employees that smoke and to fire existing employees that do smoke. The bases if the law suite is that the health insurance cost would rise if they employee smokers. I have worked for a lot of companies over the last 40+ years and never once have I seen an insurance representative come into my company and taken a pole of how many smokers and nonsmokers were employed and then adjusted the companies insurance rate based on the results. The next time you update your resume, you may want to include references willing to vouch that you never touch tobacco.

I believe that all of the jurors on the employment issues of smokers were non smokers. Smokers were relieved from jury duty because they may be prejudice. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2004 44.5 million U.S. adults were smokers comprising 20.9 percent of the adult population so 2 of them should have been smokers. Sounds like stacking the deck to me.

I think that I should be allowed to fire all of my employees that are over 40 years of age. After all older employees will use more health care benefits than younger employees so this policy should keep my insurance rates to a minimum. While I’m at it anyone with a higher than 12 percent body fat is gone. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 1989 that Obese people cost 51.5 billion in health care costs per year.

Here is an interesting fact. The Department of Public Health, Netherlands reported in 1997 that smokers have more diseases that nonsmokers but nonsmokers live linger and can incur more health costs at advanced ages. For a given age smokers can cost 40 percent more in health care cost than nonsmokers and if all smokers quit today health care costs would be lower at first but after 15 years they would be higher than at present. That does it I’m going to fire everyone over 40.

Why does society allow this type of injustice happen? Because you as an individual do nothing. To paraphrase a popular saying; for injustice to occur all that is needed is for good people to do nothing. If it is ok with you that smokers are being punished for there actions then do not complain when it is your turn.

Find More Pro Smoking Articles

by termie

Who Are Electronic Cigarette Smokers?

NJOY’s market research comes in the right time to bring together points that many of the interested parties had been putting forward since product was released. While media and government institutions had been swaying and dithering about whether the menace of new smoking technology is welcome or not, the committed smokers were supporting this surprising alternative with their hard earned cash. This new product attracted
great amount of unwanted controversy in form of bitterly opposed pro-smoking and anti-smoking lobby. While engaged parties were opposing each other with overheated exaggerated reactions, it often seemed that opposition to smoking is simply not taking notice of the arguments about new features that electronic cigarettes introduced. It really felt that opposition to smoking still talks about tobacco cigarettes, when it was criticizing the e-cigs. Both the demand and supply of electronic cigarettes has steadilly increased and there are new manufacturers joining in every few months.

 Just one US company, NJOY Inc, it had sold internationally over 300,000 e-cig starter kits and disposables. Each one of those 300,000 e-cigs had replaced at least several thousand of ordinary cigars.  That means that e-cigs are progressively winning over the tobacco cigarettes and cigars in the smoking products marketplace. Even the most entrenched critics of electronic smoking must admit that, if not helping the committed smokers to quit, electronic cigarettes are at least helping enormously to reduce the adverse effects produced by the most harmful type of smoking. That definitely means that hesitant questions about electronic cigarettes, like “but do they work” are simply past tense and that consumer belief in the product definitely set up a steady trend. Electronic cigarettes, like Gamucci Micro electronic or Gamuci NicoVap, are here to stay and providing that some government legislation doesn’t abruptly change the situation, they are here to stay. Without any doubt it is interesting to look into what market survey will reveal. NJOY of Arizona comissioned electronic cigarettes market survey, so lets see what does it reveal.

 This survey throws some new light on the trends in the electronic cigarettes market. Confidence levels that survey produces are very high, which is generally accepted standard in a statistical surveys of this kind. Well, this is our average smoker: he is 45 years of age, he smokes 24.7 ordinary cigarettes per day, which is really hot, nearly 80% higher than more general smoking average of about 14 cigarettes per day or .72 packs per day. Conclusively, the average smoker who had chosen electronic cigarettes as a complement to regular smoking, is enjoying his habit and he just wants to avoid some of the side effects connected with classic tobacco smoking. Probably he didn’t quit real tobacco cigarettes either, but he combines the two, possibly using electronic cigarettes when he is in the public spaces and only smoking real tobacco when he is in his private home. Surprisingly this shows that average smoker is ‘tech-savvy’ middle-aged person, rather than ‘tech-savvy’ younger generation consumer. This might mean that in a long term, smoking is going to become abandoned whim, we’ll only watch in the one time black & white movies.

 One thing that review is telling us is that smoking technology is here to continue, in a tobacco or in a electronic cigarette form. Hard core smokers are aware of the negative impact of classic smoking products on well-being and they are pro-actively experimenting with electronic cigarettes as a less harmful supplement to their habit. Immediate friends of the electronic cigarette smokers are tolerant of their habit, but not necessarily encouraging. Simply put, lovers of tobacco are not failing to appreciate the benefits of the alternative electronic smoking. Once charged e-cig is usually equivalent to a whole pack of tobacco cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes offer flavors, like mint, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, cherry etc., that are only rarely available in the tobacco equivalents. And nowadays, the consumers know that electronic cigarettes are accepted in a majority of public places.

If you would like to find more about any particular models, try Gamucci Micro cigarette.