AIBU to wonder the future of smoking

[GloGirl]

I come from a 'smokey' family and know lots of people who've smoked - tried to quit, quit entirely, or never stopped. Happy to say I quit a few years back and will never take it up again now, my lungs wouldn't let me.

I remember having an argument with someone a couple of years ago that in our lifetime (So another 50 years) we will see the banning of smoking entirely in the UK. I think the governments have done a great job banning smoking in work environments, raising the prices etc and I can see the effects of those policies reducing smokers.

I just wondered what you saw the future of smoking to be now? Would it ever be banned? Are there any more measures to take which could reduce the future further?

If you want to smoke smoke but I wonder if smokers realise how bad the smell is to non smokers . I mean when workers come back to work from smoke break can smell smoke horrible smell . I grew up with parents who openly smoked in front of me & siblings it was the 80s it was the norm but can't stand the smell now . I always wonder why young people smoke it's expensive and it's a lot more socially unacceptable than years ago when I was growing up.

why young people smoke it's expensive and it's a lot more socially unacceptable than years ago when I was growing up.

I think you've answered your own question with the last sentence, because passing round a soggy Benson and Hedge between five of you just outside the school gates makes you look impossibly cool and really sticks it to your teachers and parents if your parents are vehemently anti smoking it makes it all the more seductive.

Prohibition will be counterproductive
I think it will just continue to decline particularly since there are less harmful ways to get a nicotine hit if nicotine is your thing

@thenewaveragebear1983 I’m afraid that I don’t have those statistics, but our government has just increased our already very steep taxes to try and make smoking even less attractive. We already have the most expensive cigarettes in the world. I am a passionate anti-smoker, so have no issue with it. There is some talk at times of bringing in a welfare card instead of a payment into a bank account so that people can’t spend it on cigarettes instead of food for their children. Some say that is against their human rights. I’m neither here nor there.

That's probably because there's a strong association with social class and smoking.
Yes I totally agree. I’m not sure my kids have ever been in the company of anyone smoking, it’s totally alien to them. That doesn’t mean they won’t try it at some point but it’s not the norm for them at all

Me and DH we're talking about this today, because I walked past some boys smoking outside a shop and said it's been a while since I've walked through a cloud of smoke, and how little you see it these days. We remembered night clubs being so smoky and you'd always get burnt by fags on the dance floor or at the bar, and would wake up telling of fags. It's hard to imagine that that was the norm only 11 years ago, I think by the time I'm an old fogey it will be few and far between. But I think it will naturally die out rather than be banned. They couldn't, and shouldn't, ban it

I'm always a bit sad at how many of the 20 somethings at work will be smoking at the pub after work. But I think for a lot more people it is more of a social drinking thing. You don't really get the 40 a day smoker any more.

If you want to smoke smoke but I wonder if smokers realise how bad the smell is to non smokers

They don't. Or they don't care. I grew up with parents who smoked. Our towels always stank of smoke. I can’t stay over at my mum’s now because of the stench of smoke. She is oblivious.

Nah.

I was amazed at how many people still smoked in the UK. Smokers seemed to be everywhere.

You scarcely see people smoking here in Australia now. It is banned just about everywhere, making it next to impossible for people to smoke in public. But we have had the most consistent and hard-hitting anti-smoking campaign in the Western world for decades now, so it's hardly surprising. I do think it will continue to decline in popularity and eventually die a near death, but it'll likely never completely die out, nor will it ever be completely banned.

I'm amazed at the (social?) Differences on the thread. I know virtually noone who smokes everyday, I can think of literally one person in my wider social circle who does. Ds (14) has no friends who smoke. He says there a couple in the year (that's out of 150). Other people saying they know loads and loads of teenagers too.

had some BAT shares and I sold them when they had to make a huge settlement in U.S. in 1988. It was appealed and I lost track. Believed smoking would really decrease but again as other posters say,see it everywhere .BAT have pushed it in other markets particularly Asia . Government and big business need to keep people hooked.

anitagreen do you not worry about your partner’s health?

Smoking is such an awful physical and psychology addiction. When my mum was on a lung ward there was a lady in to have a her second leg amputated due to a smoking related illness and despite being in oxygen too her family were wheeling her out to have a fag. The addition is so strong.

My mum is very ill, COPD and heart failure due to smoking. I would never want to put my family through that. As a child she used to smoke in the house, when I became pregnant (mum had given up by then and I had long moved out) I became so angry that she could risk our health and that we have an increased risk of cancer because of her selfish actions.

There is definitely a social class issue to smoking. I never see people smoking in our area but in the town few miles down I see many people smoking on the street while pushing a buggy.

Generally teenagers are drinking less and smoking less than previous generations.

I'm convinced more people smoke now than 5+ years ago. There was a definite reduction after the smoking ban, but walking through London every day I have to hold my breath every couple of minutes because someone has a cigarette, or I see the cloud of smoke from an e-cig.

I suspect it's stress-related - insecure jobs, long working hours, lack of societal support etc.

I think it will be banned in public places in the future but it won't be banned outright.

There are a number of changes at play which are gradually edging out smoking.

The price, packaging and display controls in shops are all making entry to smoking less appealing.

Rental agreements, work place and public space bans all force smokers outside to grimy smoke shelters. These places are even less appealing when it's raining/cold. Only the committed smokers will still go out for a smoke. Social smoking as a result declines steadily year by year as fewer people want to make the great trek.

I can see cigarette smoking going the way of pipe smoking.

Attitudes to vaping from non-smokers are interesting. Many are just happy for their friends & relatives to not be smoking. There are a vocal few ones who are anti-vaping, who just dont seem to like the idea that people can manage their nictine addiction in a struggle free way. It is almost as though those people want nicotine addicts to be forced to suffer.

90% of my friends smoke either regularly or occasionally (I never have). I can't see it dying out.

thatmustbenigelwiththebrie

Is that because those that don’t smoke don’t tend to hang around with those that do.

As I said above there is a social class definition to those that smoke. Especially among those in their 20s and 30s

For those brought up in the 1960s and 70s and 80s it was a perfectly acceptable.
I was the only person in my year at school to never smoke.

I think there is a difference the children are taught the dangers of smoking from primary school age .

I have seen less smokers over the past 8 years walking past secondary school. However it is the Sam groups of kids the misfits and the cool kids.

I was reading the British American tobacco annual report

They seem to working in the assumption to diversify into vapes . As for sure the amount of smokers will decline - but in some regions the slow down is way way less marked. In ironically developing countries and the Middle East however it’s still very smoky ! But yes must be hard to get a CEO in board .

Presumablybthe tobacco crop fields will be used for something else to meet the growing population growth . And the rise in Veganism .

I don’t think the cool kids actually smoke. I know in my dds year the group that smoked were somewhat pitied because they were trying too hard to look cool when they weren’t.

I know that particular group did get left out of parties and hanging out because they smoked and if they went anywhere they would spend a portion of the evening outside smoking, getting smelly and adding nothing to the evening.

I think you see more smokers now because most rental agreements ban smoking inside. Also the majority of smokers I know smoke outside even if they own their own home.

I've seen the number of smokers drop dramatically in my lifetime - i'm mid 40s. Out of my family and friends, I know one smoker - FIL who is well into his 70s and has been smoking for decades.

When I was a student in the early 90s, loads smoked. Most have stopped. I remember smoking on planes and in pubs and restaurants - unthinkable these days.

I really hope it does fizzle out and become one of those habits which future generations look on with total bemusement.

As a smoker who would fucking love to stop (tried all sorts of methods over the years), I'd actually welcome the banning of cigarettes.

I wondered if, as prices of cigarettes continue to rise, that the counterfeit ones would increase. As the amount of smokers drops, the revenue from the few who are paying fair taxes on them would no longer cover the horrific expenses on the NHS?

I had assumed there would be a tipping point?

Just went through my social group to consider who I know who still smoked and realised that I don't know anyone socially who smokes - but as said in my OP, I have a fairly smokey family.

I still think smoking is a class issue which accounts for those who know people and those who know no one. Anecdotally I've always found fewer people who smoked among the middle class - and working and upper class more likely to smoke.

Eventually marijuana will be legalised here, in line with the way things are going in the states and other places, and I'd imagine that will be handled similarly to tobacco, regarding licencing, regulation, age restrictions and heavy rates of tax.

As for young people vaping, several of the late teens/very early twenties friends of my DC vape zero nicotine stuff, apparently a lot do, lots of different flavours, some with CBD or valerian for sleep. It all has that weird, heavy, sweet smell though. I wonder what the long term effects of that will be, I read something a while back about it maybe causing something called popcorn lung, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.