- Mar 6, 2004
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About two years ago, I started smoking hookah with my classmates (beginning of HS senior year). Then last year, before I started college, I picked up cigarettes. Last week, I kicked both habits, for good this time.
Smoking hookah, I can't rationalize by any means. The more I smoked cigarettes, the less I smoked hookah.
1. No fucking nicotine. Seriously. A whole packet of hookah tobacco has about as much nicotine as a few cigarettes. Compound that with hookah smoke being just as harmful for you as cigarette smoke........well, I'd rather smoke two Camels in 10 minutes and get 3 mg of nicotine than smoke hookah for an entire hour, abuse my lungs as if I'd just choked down a pack in an hour, and still only get two cigarettes' worth of nicotine.
2. It's not "cool." The older Arab dudes in there smoking zaghlool (unflavored, almost roasted tobacco, tastes like shit, will make even a 2 pack a day smoker woozy; a friend of mine that smokes weed thought I was high after I had one), unfazed by the nicotine and oxygen deprivation that shit causes, coughing up a lung, and playing cards, do not look cool. Cute college chicks sitting in there destroying their bodies are butt fucking ugly when they're chimneys. Which brings me to my next point.
3. I don't understand why so many college kids do it to be "social." I did, only because my bum ass friends would go to the hookah lounge by default to figure out what else to do to waste time. What I don't understand even more are the "trendy" hookah lounges. To date, every single "trendy" hookah lounge I've been to; I'm talkin the place you see all those beret wearing, Apple Store loving, son of a bitches sitting, have atrocious hookah. I don't know if any of you are hookah smokers, but if you've ever heard of Layalina tobacco, you know what I mean. Industrial size tubs of this shit, the size that can cost $20-30 for other brands, are $1. $1. These places charge a $10 cover, you get in, get a hookah per two guests at your table, and get to change out the head every half an hour. The Arab place up the road has tobacco that's $20 a tin, and charges $7.50 a hookah. But it doesn't taste like water. Then again, the inside of the place doesn't look like the fucking Apple Store either.
4. It's expensive as fuck. Hookah around here is $5-7.50. That's a lot of fucking money. Plus, if you're in a hookah lounge, chances are you're going to get thirsty, and buy a soda for $2. Fuck that.
5. If I'm gonna smoke something in a damn bong (basically) ever again it's going to be weed.
So I started smoking cigarettes more. For a while it got as bad as a pack a day. Then I realized I needed to back off. Then, this winter, I went on a vacation with my family to Cali. I was with them for a little more than two weeks, and none of them knew I smoked. Can't smoke around them, so I quit it for 2 weeks. And I felt fine. Then I saw someone light up when I got back home, and bummed a cigarette off them. Never got back up to a pack a day, but a pack a week. A cig with breakfast, one with lunch, etc.
After seeing a few snus threads on here, and looking it up online, I decided to try Swedish snus. This stuff isn't half bad. I already don't feel like smoking, the smell of cigarettes is just as nasty to me now as it was to me as a child. My parents (cardiologist and dentist [not practicing], can you believe it?) picked up smoking in college and smoked until I was about 7 or 8 years old. I don't know how frequently they used to smoke, but they used to buy cartons, not packs. Which kinda reinforces something a friend of mine told me: unless someone in your immediate family was ever a smoker or smokes, you can't pick up cigarettes. One puff out of a cigarette will make this guy woozy, and nauseous for the rest of the day. His parents and siblings never smoked. My family's full of smokers, I guess it was inevitable before I'd try one and get sucked in.
I don't see myself snusing for too long. Once I get away from the urge to smoke, not for the nicotine, but for the actual lighting up and taking a puff, I'm going to put this shit down too. Now if only I could break my caffeine addiction...
Smoking hookah, I can't rationalize by any means. The more I smoked cigarettes, the less I smoked hookah.
1. No fucking nicotine. Seriously. A whole packet of hookah tobacco has about as much nicotine as a few cigarettes. Compound that with hookah smoke being just as harmful for you as cigarette smoke........well, I'd rather smoke two Camels in 10 minutes and get 3 mg of nicotine than smoke hookah for an entire hour, abuse my lungs as if I'd just choked down a pack in an hour, and still only get two cigarettes' worth of nicotine.
2. It's not "cool." The older Arab dudes in there smoking zaghlool (unflavored, almost roasted tobacco, tastes like shit, will make even a 2 pack a day smoker woozy; a friend of mine that smokes weed thought I was high after I had one), unfazed by the nicotine and oxygen deprivation that shit causes, coughing up a lung, and playing cards, do not look cool. Cute college chicks sitting in there destroying their bodies are butt fucking ugly when they're chimneys. Which brings me to my next point.
3. I don't understand why so many college kids do it to be "social." I did, only because my bum ass friends would go to the hookah lounge by default to figure out what else to do to waste time. What I don't understand even more are the "trendy" hookah lounges. To date, every single "trendy" hookah lounge I've been to; I'm talkin the place you see all those beret wearing, Apple Store loving, son of a bitches sitting, have atrocious hookah. I don't know if any of you are hookah smokers, but if you've ever heard of Layalina tobacco, you know what I mean. Industrial size tubs of this shit, the size that can cost $20-30 for other brands, are $1. $1. These places charge a $10 cover, you get in, get a hookah per two guests at your table, and get to change out the head every half an hour. The Arab place up the road has tobacco that's $20 a tin, and charges $7.50 a hookah. But it doesn't taste like water. Then again, the inside of the place doesn't look like the fucking Apple Store either.
4. It's expensive as fuck. Hookah around here is $5-7.50. That's a lot of fucking money. Plus, if you're in a hookah lounge, chances are you're going to get thirsty, and buy a soda for $2. Fuck that.
5. If I'm gonna smoke something in a damn bong (basically) ever again it's going to be weed.
So I started smoking cigarettes more. For a while it got as bad as a pack a day. Then I realized I needed to back off. Then, this winter, I went on a vacation with my family to Cali. I was with them for a little more than two weeks, and none of them knew I smoked. Can't smoke around them, so I quit it for 2 weeks. And I felt fine. Then I saw someone light up when I got back home, and bummed a cigarette off them. Never got back up to a pack a day, but a pack a week. A cig with breakfast, one with lunch, etc.
After seeing a few snus threads on here, and looking it up online, I decided to try Swedish snus. This stuff isn't half bad. I already don't feel like smoking, the smell of cigarettes is just as nasty to me now as it was to me as a child. My parents (cardiologist and dentist [not practicing], can you believe it?) picked up smoking in college and smoked until I was about 7 or 8 years old. I don't know how frequently they used to smoke, but they used to buy cartons, not packs. Which kinda reinforces something a friend of mine told me: unless someone in your immediate family was ever a smoker or smokes, you can't pick up cigarettes. One puff out of a cigarette will make this guy woozy, and nauseous for the rest of the day. His parents and siblings never smoked. My family's full of smokers, I guess it was inevitable before I'd try one and get sucked in.
I don't see myself snusing for too long. Once I get away from the urge to smoke, not for the nicotine, but for the actual lighting up and taking a puff, I'm going to put this shit down too. Now if only I could break my caffeine addiction...
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