What’s it going to take to quit?
In Idaho, smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined. Yet people continue to smoke. Tell us what you think it will take to get smokers to put down tobacco.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:26 pm Zip:
You can never force someone to quit. You can educate and try to convince the public to quit, but when it comes down to it you can’t make anyone quit. I have been using smokeless tobacco for 6 years (I’m 21). So I guess my point is that unless the United States is now a communist country people will smoke/chew if they want, no matter what TV commercial is aired.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:18 pm Zip:
Here’s my idea to get more people to quit. Show smokers, especially young smokers, what it will do to their physical appearance. They don’t really relate to what they can’t see (damage inside) so, show them the damage they can see. Especially the teeth (gums receding) and premature aging. There are examples all around. Show a non smoker and how nice their smile is, then flash to a smoker. I think you will reach some. Thanks for reading this. Debra
February 5th, 2009 at 9:09 pm Zip:
I love to smoke. Human beings have conditioned themselves over thousands of years to enjoy smoking, much as they have consuming alcohol. The threat of death is not enough to scare people out of being free and making their own choices. I will continue to smoke for my entire life, regardless of the pitiful effort of the fascists at Project Filter, just as I will continue to drink. If you truly are concerned about health and freedom, focus your efforts on decriminalizing and eventually legalizing marijuana. Nothing on this Earth will get me to quit smoking tobacco, short of readily available and affordable marijuana. I’ve tried your gum, your patches, and even alternative tobacco products only to find that the act of smoking is what I am drawn to. Let me smoke a marijuana cigarette when I have a craving to put smoke in my lungs, and I will never again feel a “nicotine” craving. This country and this state are long overdue to remedy such a silly law at any rate. **** all though, I’ll get left out. I’m used to it. I’m a stoner druggy who’s opinion doesn’t even matter. If only you could put everyone like me in a jail…
I’d really like to quit smoking but doing so makes me a criminal, something that I otherwise am not.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:49 pm Zip:
I promised myself I would stop before I was 40 to save the skin on my face from getting wrinkled.
At 40, an older smoker laughed at me and said “I thought you were going to quit by 40 to save your skin?”
I looked at her, her face, the look in her eyes, the red spider lines all over her skin.
Then she coughed for some time and looked at me again, waiting for an answer.
I gave them up the following week. Yes it was hard, I had temper tantrumns, wanted a smoke every few seconds and even today, I still would love to be smoking.
But my skin is healthier, it gets oxygen now to live. So do I.
February 22nd, 2009 at 11:23 pm Zip:
I have an idea. Mind your own ******* business. This is America, and people have the freedom to make decisions without others forcing their opinions their throats. The same goes for abortion and drug use and prostitution. Anything you feel is unhealthy or immoral, you don’t have to partake in. But you don’t have the ******* right to take away the freedom of others, regardless of how self righteous you feel. Prick.
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm Zip:
Hey, Bruce the Terrible, No one cares if you smoke from a moral standpoint. I, as non-smoking taxpayer don’t appreciate paying higher insurance premiums to offset smokers nor do I as a non-smoking taxpayer appreciate paying for the cost of caring for smokers in their old age through higher medicaid and medicare costs. As soon as you are willing to pay for every cent of your own health care and can spare everyone around you who doesn’t want to breath your smoke (talk about minding one’s own business … I’d love nothing better for your smoke to figure out how to mind ITS own business) you won’t have to read on a website about the dangers of your drug habit (apparently being a drug addict has made you quite aggressive). Also, please explain how offering free services to people who want to quit smoking is cramming an opinion down your throat. You weren’t forced to visit this website and you weren’t forced to comment … so who’s the *****?
February 25th, 2009 at 5:21 pm Zip:
I just saw your commercial, and really I think it may be a matter of looking at it from the friend’s and families’ point of view as they watch their loved one slowly kill themselves by using these incredibly harmful substances day after day. Yes, this is America, and because it is legal, smokers have a right to smoke as long as it does not infringe on anyone else’s rights, which it inevitably, purposefully or not, almost always does. The decision to quit smoking has to be for unselfish reasons as well as for the smoker’s own self. I know it is tough, and I feel for those who want to quit and can’t. I feel worse for their families, having been there.
February 28th, 2009 at 11:11 pm Zip:
I have tried to quit before. I was able to quit for a month using the Nic patches. It seemed to be harder than I thought it was going to be. I was unable to keep the habit kicked. I just recently quit again. This time I’m doing it “cold turkey.” It is actually a lot easier than I had imaged it was going to be. I think the only way to reach the populace as a whole on quitting is to raise the taxes on all tobacco products. If the Nations lowest prices for a pack of cigarettes was $10.00. Not only do I think the minority of the smokers would not bring themselves to buy a pack at that rate but would not be able to afford to. I am a strong be leaver that if you really want to quit something all you have to do is STOP doing what ever it is that you are doing. As repetitive as it dose sound you just have to put your mind to it to get it done.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:44 pm Zip:
I hate these commercial, they drive me insane, especially the ones that say “What is it going to take to get smokers to quit?” They were a waste of money, there is no incentive, who cares what it costs Idahoans? That is no reason to want to quit, make it more personal. But the bottom line is people quit when they are ready, not when a bunch of Californicating Idahoans try to get us to jump on the wagon. This is America, let freedom ring. People need to get a life, I have no problem with smokers, I enjoy the evening at a bar that is smokeless but I also enjoy being with my friends that smoke. I just don’t understand why others try to force others into complying with their thought process, freedom means accomodating all types.
March 10th, 2009 at 7:10 pm Zip:
to bruce the moron,i smoked for 28 years and finally was able to stop after many attempts.my idea is to illegalize all forms of tobacco.it is the only way to convince the majority to quit.we will save trillions each year in both the private sector and government level.as for those that will refuse to obey the law and find a way to continue smoking like bruce the moron,let them.they will die a slow painful death but it wont cost us any money.now the reality is that big tobacco is giving out to much money to those in a position to really help keeping them fat and happy and im sure smoke free(in order to live long enough to spend all the blood money)so illegalization will most probly never happen.the next best thing is to impose a tax,say 10.00 bucks a pack.that should help alot of people quit.
April 5th, 2009 at 8:40 am Zip:
I challenge anyone to tell me what data is used to determine that a person died from smoking. Are the various statistics agenda driven e.g. if a person dies, and it is determined that he/she smoked, does this automatically mean he/she died from smoking? If so, this is juke science and statistical manipulation.