[nemo]

I'm a recovering nicotine addicts, been clean for seven months now. I was an occasional smoker, but my main method of drug delivery was the snus. Though nowhere near as bad health-wise, the addictive properties are the same, if not worse.

I'm glad I'm free of the shackles of addiction, but I'd like to add something to the discussion regarding why people start smoking in the first place: nicotine is a wonderful, mysterious drug, and the buzz I got before my tolerance increased is the greatest buzz I've ever had (though not the strongest). Saying that cigarettes don't offer the smoker anything just ain't true. Just because smoking will kill you doesn't make nicotine less great as a drug - a very easily abused and addictive drug perhaps, but a great one nonetheless if the high is to be considered on it's own merits. Like all addicts, I wish I could have that first cigarette over and over again...

[lotrfan55345]

Really? I don't remember feeling anything from my first cigarette, except for the coughing, and I thought it tasted horrible.
The 3rd time was when I actually felt a buzz, and I thought they were delicious.

I tried to trip off salvia today, I had two bowls all to my self (regular salvia leaf) - I was laughing like a maniac for 10 minutes (felt like much longer), I saw some black spots with dark red outlines randomly appearing in the wall, I think if I would've packed another I could've had a real trip but I was too high to pack another one, but I felt like I was at the edge of something really really big.

[deMolay]

How many non smokers of tobacco on here smoke grass?

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', 'I') felt like I was at the edge of something really really big.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'H')ow many non smokers of tobacco on here smoke grass?

[gg3]

I smoke a pipe too (there are a few of us around here).

Mostly briars and a couple of meerschaums, with various blends: some Cavendish, some English, some Oriental, some odd mixes such as Orientals + Virginia, etc.

Minimum health risk, maximum enjoyment. Sensual, contemplative, relaxing, a wonderful distraction, a good accompaniment to focused thought, and the oral gratification factor is in the same league as good chocolate but with zero calories:-)

Whoever said that the first cigarette is the best and after that it's only a habit: it's the other way 'round with a pipe: the first time is good, but it gets better over time.

TylerJC, you don't know what you're talking about in terms of health costs. The taxes on tobacco sure as hell aren't being used to subsidize the cost of health care for smokers because we don't have a single-payer health care system! And in any case, us pipe smokers live slightly longer than nonsmokers and our quaint oldschool vice is basically harmless. As for your "second hand" smoke (clever propaganda phrase, that), children who live within a mile of a major freeway are highly likely to develop respiratory illnesses, so what are you doing about that?

IMHO the anti-smoking puritans are as bad as the anti-sex puritans. Smoking is the PC lefties' equivalent of homosexuality to the righties (and yeah I'm gay too). Just as nuclear power is the PC lefties' equivalent of Darwinian evolution to the righties.

So let's see: other pipe smokers here: The Dude, VisionMaster, anyone else?

Jasonraymondson: If you're smoking cigs and don't like 'em, switch to a pipe. For all the reasons those of us who smoke pipes have been mentioning. BTW, it costs less than cigs too. Figure 50-cents per day to smoke all you like, and like what you smoke.

And now I'm going to do a terribly un-PC thing and invite all the nonsmokers in the crowd to try a pipe too. Start with something simple: an inexpensive corn cob pipe (Missouri Meerschaum is the usual brand) and a pouch of Captain Black (the white pouch). Remember, puff, don't inhale. You will be amazed. "Wow, this is the evil weed tobacco?! Darn, this is good!"

Re. PMS re. Salvia for depression: Very interesting, that deserves further research (carefully & cautiously).

Lotrfan, I'm going to send you via private message, stay tuned....

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'I') understand nicotine is a horrible habit to break but you've got to do it if you care about your long term health.

[gg3]

Yo Dude!:-)

Re. recommending people start by trying Captain Black: only because it's universally accessible and, for most people, a good first exposure to pipe smoking. Though I wasn't about to suggest someone try, for example, G.L.Pease Haddo's Blend for their first pipe, or some equally stout mixture that, if they smoke it too fast, might only make them get sick to their stomach and then have an out of body experience (there are far easier ways to have out of body experiences). Blends of that sort come later, after one has acclimatized oneself to the "evil weed."

At this very moment, I was just mixing up some English/Oriental plus Virginia (4:1 respectively, by weight. Those little digital scales, often used for pot, are actually quite handy for blending tobacco, which, like mixing concrete, should properly be done by weight and not by volume.) I'm not much of a fan of blends that are heavy on the Latakia, which I find a pleasant in smaller quantities but somewhat astringent-tasting if over-used. Virginias add a hint of sweetness, though if over-used can taste sour. Now that I've got a digital scale, I'm experimenting with various ingredients to see what hits the right spot.

OTOH, all of these blends probably taste considerably differently when smoked in a clay than in a briar. Very tempting to find out... though I need to find a local tobacconist who keeps decent clays in stock... hmm...

Interesting theory about agrarians smoking like chimneys. I suppose when our group gets land, I should plant some tobacco and be preparing to put the first harvest into processing right away. I need to learn all of this from scratch, knowing not-much-if-anything about growing and processing. Any suggestions? Assume I'd like to produce a few different types of blends, within similar ranges as what's presently available. If someone else wants to produce tobacco for cigarettes (presumably RYO) and cigars, they're welcome to do so, but I'll be concentrating on pipe tobacco since that's what I know.

[MD]

After many years of experimentation and shifting opinions, I have pretty much settled here:

Any substance that has been chemically altered and/or purified is generally unwelcome within my personal chemical plant. I will make exceptions for medical treatment, as long as my DNR specs are not violated.

Any substance in it's natural state, in moderation, and thoughtfully applied, I'm good with.

I haven't enjoyed a good pipe in many years. Not going to either. Those camel-light chemical sticks are just too easily accessible and honestly . . . they frighten the hell out of me.

[TheDude]

You'll not be giving up your Dapper Dan anytime soon though, right, MD?

Latakia/Virginia/Burley/Carolina/Perique are all types of tobacco. Perique only grew in St John's Parish of Louisiana, and it looks like Katrina has destroyed production for the time being, unless someone wants to step in. No matter where else they planted it they couldn't quite get the same flavor - very sharp, the pepper of tobaccos, you don't use it as the entire mix.

Tobacco quality has gone down over the years according to a blender friend of mine. Latakia's a good example, lot of it comes from Turkey. It's a cured tobacco and traditionally they used fires made of, well, dung. Funky enough, but lately they've been using tires. Another pal of mine says sometimes he'll inhale some rubber...

I bought a copy of Growing and Processing Tobacco at Home from seedman.com. Also got a little packet of seeds. Tobacco's pretty robust but the best climate for it in the US has always been the South, where it could be grown on marginal land, giving poor farmers a crop they could make some cash with. But with global warming the growing belts will shift north, so those of us in cooler climes may have a shot at growing primo stuff if we can't already.

There's a twist called Rochesterville that you can get from rendevous/Civil War reenactment suppliers, who also sell these tavern clays - the "yard of clay." This tobacco will tear your head off, I always feel discombobulated after even a small pipe. Don't what they put in it to achieve that effect. Salvia, maybe...There's a length of it at the Champoeg State Park Visitor's Center, it looks like something that came out of a dog's butt. Probably confuses a lot of people.

g, isn't there some monster tobacconist in SF? If they don't have what you need, vegassmokes.com has these English Pollock clays, they're good mechanisms. I've bought a few oldies on eBay, too. Sometimes guys'll sell dredgings from the banks of the Thames - clay pipes are used in archaeology, as the shape of the pipes started out small and grew larger over time in a documented manner. Another good thing about clays is that they're a renewable resource, unlike the briar wood that most pipes are made out of. I plan on making some clays by hand soon. Not that complex a job.

[gg3]

Yo Dude-

No more perique, eh? Damn. Well, some years ago I smoked a lot of high-perique blends, but not so much now; too much nicotine, tends to give me the spins.

Latakia cured over tire fires would probably taste like crap; I can't imagine that's actually going on; need to look into this further...

Seedman.com: Major thanks for that information! As soon as we're on the land & dug in, I'm going to make that a project of mine. Ideal case is to grow the stuff without any fertilizers except for manures and compost, no synthetic insecticides, and then process it without any added flavorings: from a practical standpoint, we can't count on fertilizers, pesticides, and flavorings in the future anyway.

Twist, plug, rope, and flake: all tend to be very intense. Darn if I can't remember it but there's a particular brand of this stuff that is notorious for leaving a semi-permanent flavor in one's pipe, and yes I tried it once, and yes the "ghost" of it did stick around a while. Anyway, I think the thing that took your head off was a high nicotine level, which tends to occur when this stuff is pressed.

There are some very good tobacconists in SF though one of the main ones seems to be under new ownership or something since they appear to have less of a selection of pipes and pipe tobaccos than they did a few years ago. The market seems to have bifurcated between the very high-end and the "drugstore" variety; the "middle" seems to have dropped out more or less. I'll not go into specifics in writing because there's a lot of "politics" about all of this in the area, but if we ever talk by phone...

Agreed that clays are a renewable resource, so long as one has access to the requisite type of clay. Though there is a certain kind of "resonance" that good briar has with tobacco, the taste/aroma equivalent of the acoustical resonance of a speaker cabinet with music.

OTOH, this just occurred to me: One of the reasons cigars are more popular than pipes in the equatorial latitudes is due to ambient humidity: when smoking a cigar, the larger exposed burning area provides a means of dissipating heat as well as excess humidity from the smoke, whereas with a pipe, the smaller exposed burning area doesn't and so humidity can condense in the pipe stem. The ideal climate for smoking a pipe is cool and dry, but global warming will tend toward greater humidity as well as heat. OK, so now about clays: you have a bowl that conducts heat readily, thereby dissipating the heat; and a long stem made of a material that I would think tends to be somewhat more absorbent than a briar bowl and vulcanite stem, so this might tend to absorb excess humidity from the smoke, thereby making for a cooler, drier smoke. Hmm!

So: do you have a specific source to recommend, or should I just go searching and see what comes up?

[Narz]

I tried a cig once at 14. I thought it was terrible and never tried another.

[Alcassin]

I smoke, I'm an addict, and I feel good with it. No more healthy brainwashing, I'm not going to live forever. Cigs in Europe are enourmously taxed that, every time I pay for them I know that my responsibility is in this money. Crusade against smokers is funny, like there was no other problems on Earth.
I choose the way I die, and what I do with my body, sorry, but I get all the information I need to quit my habit, and I won't do that.

Anyway, industrial civilization is unhealthy, you sit in your car, you don't move on feet, you have always warm in your places, and you think that your alergy comes from where? No immune system. Then you need to relax, because you're nervous all the time... 30 yo people die because of heart attack, because they are so stressed.

My conclusion - chill out, take your time on this planet, there is nothing special in your problems, you don't need to hunt animals and be a forager. Enjoy your life the way you like, and let the others do the same

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Alcassin', 'I') smoke, I'm an addict, and I feel good with it. No more healthy brainwashing, I'm not going to live forever. Cigs in Europe are enourmously taxed that, every time I pay for them I know that my responsibility is in this money. Crusade against smokers is funny, like there was no other problems on Earth.
I choose the way I die, and what I do with my body, sorry, but I get all the information I need to quit my habit, and I won't do that.

[static66]

I think you need to clarify "smoke" some people smoke, just not cigarettes.....

[gg3]

I found a source for clay pipes, which are surprisingly inexpensive compared to briars. Will probably order a couple this week. Ahh, something entirely new to try...

Also a "burning lens" for focusing sunlight to light one's pipe (or tinder for a household fire): Solar powered pipe smoking! Yee-haww!

Yes, some of us smoke but not cigarettes. And not even pot, so far as the pipes discussion goes.

No doubt some of us do smoke a little pot, particularly in the pacific northwest where it seems to be as common as wine and microbrews.

Hmm. Clay pipes, natural tobaccos without any added flavorings, and sunlight instead of a lighter. Starting to sound vaguely 18th century...

[gampy]

I have smoked for all of my adult life and a good portion of my teenage years. Roughly 25 years. I have tried quitting before and always failed after a couple days.

I am about 4 days into cold turkey. Longest 4 days of my life.

When does it get better? Please tell me the urges subside after a few days.

Holy fuck, this shit is worse than heroin. Going a little crazy. Afraid to leave the house for fear of walking past a store. Seriously going bat-shit crazy lol. When do the urges begin to taper off?

Help? I need to quit this time. I don't wish to slowly die of COPD.

I must have eaten everything in my house already. Am trying to drink water when I feel an urge...(every fucking 30 minutes) but feeling a little full and bloated. Uggggh. Any help appreciated. Tried all the bullshit stuff like gums, and patches, but figured that cold turkey is the only way.But man...feels like a month since I had a cigarette...instead of days. Fuck it going for a walk..leaving my wallet at home.

[jasonraymondson]

I have made it two weeks before and it felt like my lungs were trying to kill me even then. (It felt as though my lungs were trying to push through my chest to go buy a pack of camels)

[HEADER_RACK]

chantix ...bro.... chantix
It works just add a little willpower. I smoked over half my life. Heavy 2 packs a day easy. I quit, my sister she smoked and she quit and my mom quit on it to. It makes the cravings go away. You just have to get through the habit of not lighting up. Good luck I never made it four days cold turkey.

[gampy]

Chantix? Will check it out. Thnx.

The cold turkey thing is also a means to test myself. Kinda like mountain climbing. A zen thing. But fuck it's hard.

Although I have to say I have noticed some nice side-effects. Breathe much easier at night already. Nasal inflammation on wane.

This morning, I got out of bed without fear. Last few days...I would wake up and be afraid to get out of bed because I didn't have any smokes in the house. I still had that "gee, a smoke would be nice with a cup of coffee" but it lasted only a moment, and I made breakfast instead.

Fucking brutal man. Lol. Thanks for the replies. It helps actually. I can see how group therapy is helpful to addicts.