Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

[Mike]

I was at a garage sale this weekend and found some camping gear that included a tent and a couple of sleeping bags. All of it had a putrid stink of cigarettes. I asked the lady selling the stuff and she said, "ya, my boyfriend is a smoker". She told me that he smoked INSIDE the tent.

She said that she was not a smoker but she would be in the tent when he smoked. Oh God almighty. I can't even imagine. Of course, she was no prize princess, so she probably tolerated more than most women would and certainly more than she should have

I was surprised. I didn't think anybody would smoke inside a tent. Maybe I am too removed from the smokers' circles

Is this normal in today's world? I could imagine it in 1960, but in 2013!? People what do you know? Any smokers on the forums with the inside scoop about camp smoking etiquette and safety norms?

[hwc1954]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

Smokers can't smell it. I had to quit to find out what stale cigarette smoke in clothes and stuff smells like.

[dave wyath]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

i agree hwc1954. i smoked for 18yrs and quit last year. smokers can't smell much of anything, i used to smoke in a tent. a lot of tents are somewhat fire resistant so it's no more dangerous than smoking at home.

mike now that i'm a non smoker i realize how bad they stink...i'll bet that gear was just disgusting.

[Bigdog57]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

My mother smoked most of her life - she now has severe emphysema and breathing difficulties. I recall her 1971 Olds Cutlass car with it's blue interior, and the brown stains on the dash, the stench of smoking in it. Nasty stuff! I would imagine that tent had the same if one looked closely. It would take more tha a spray of Febreeze to take care of that problem! If you looked closely, you'd likely find some small burn holes too. I would NOT be in a tent with someone smoking - the safety issues alone......
Myself, I have never smoked - thank goodness it's one bad habit I never picked up. Got enough others. ;-)

[James.]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

I wouldn't know. I still scratch my head when I see a teenager smoking. I get the guy that has been smoking for 15+ years but how anyone, at any age, can start smoking knowing the problem with it is beyond me.

[Hikenhunter]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

[QUOTE=Mike;29916] Oh God almighty. I can't even imagine. Of course, she was no prize princess, so she probably tolerated more than most women would and certainly more than she should have
I was a smoker for 40 years. Just quit a couple of months ago. In my younger days I would sit in the doorway of the tent when I was backpacking, as did my buddy that I usually went with and have a smoke every now and then but we usually didn't crawl in the tent unless we were sleeping any way. Even in my own tent I never smoked while any one else was sharing it with me. I am ,however surprised that you would judge a woman publicly the way you have judged this woman. I guess you must be a God send for all to admire.

[Mike]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

[QUOTE=Hikenhunter;29930]

You must be a God send for all to admire.

Thank you! I am flattered.

[Mike]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

i agree hwc1954. i smoked for 18yrs and quit last year. smokers can't smell much of anything, i used to smoke in a tent. a lot of tents are somewhat fire resistant so it's no more dangerous than smoking at home.

mike now that i'm a non smoker i realize how bad they stink...i'll bet that gear was just disgusting.

I figured that must be the case. if smokers could smell the stink they surely could not bear to smoke. The truly great mystery is how/why anybody starts in the first place because everybody starts out as a non-smoker and can smell the stink, but they fight through that in order to smoke. Crazy, man.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn't buy the tent. My guess is that the rest of the stuff they were trying to sell stunk too and might have been hard to sell.

[tplife]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

We've come upon a topic never before discussed on this forum. Is this progress, or what?

[hwc1954]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

The truly great mystery is how/why anybody starts in the first place because everybody starts out as a non-smoker and can smell the stink, but they fight through that in order to smoke. Crazy, man.

It's not that mysterious. Nicotine drug addiction is a very, very powerful drug addiction. By a quirk of nature, nicotine binds to the brain receptors that release dopamine. It's the reward center of the brain and our brains teach us to do things that release dopamine. Nicotine hijacks the receptors and they become desensitized so nothing else produces the reward. Classic drug addiction, just like heroin.

Of course, teenagers know that they will never get addicted and they can quit anytime they want. Then, all the sudden, they are trapped by the drug addiction and will live their lives, all day, every day, for the next hit -- until they quit or it kills them....

[Mike]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

Thanks for the scientific explaination, hwc1954. I never smoked, but my son did. He was a nationally ranked swimmer, martial artist, and fifteen years old.

I remember hearing his him cough violently every day for about ten days. We did not know it was because he was starting to smoke. We even brought him to the doctor who prescribed cough syrup.

His young and healthy body violently rejected the toxic cigarette chemicals he was putting into his lungs, but he apparently forced himself through nearly two weeks of violent coughing attacks until the addiction finally set in and he could smoke without coughing.

In retrospect, I think it was more than the addiction, because he was not addicted in the beginning as his lungs coughed up blood spots. I suppose that he so desparately wanted to fit into his peer group of smokers that he was willing to suffer through the coughing and the foul taste and horrible odor until his body finally succumed to the addiction. Peer pressure is such a powerful thing.

I have to wonder if tobacco is, indeed a stronger addiction than it used to be. I remember a decade or more ago, women smokers would stop smoking when pregnant. My son's young female friends continue to smoke through pregnancy even in today's modern world of knowledge. They say that doctors today tell them that the intense stress from quiting tobacco can lead to miscarriage, so they might as well smoke. Has anybody else heard of that?

[Moss]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

@Mike, I've never heard of that, so when the baby comes out it automatically gets put onto the patch? I think the stress of withdrawal on the baby once out of the womb could be pretty intense as well!

I've never smoked a cigarette, I do partake in the occasional cigar. I bet any item you bought at the rummage sale would have had the smell of smoke on it. Smoking a joint is more acceptable to most people over a cigarette, which I find totally bizarre. I have a few friends who smoke cigarettes, they are not allowed to smoke in my truck. At $10 a pack in Massachusetts I don't understand how high school age kids can afford the habit. Here is Massachusetts smoking is pretty much outlawed everywhere, besides private social clubs. I think if an owner of an establishment wants to allow smoking they should have that right, I bet some bars would allow it and others would ban it, and their clients would choose what environment they wanted. Sadly big brother made the decision for us in Massachusetts. :cool:

[tplife]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

Nicotine gets in, looking like an invited party guest! It's so close a match to the brain's own neurotransmitter acetylcholine that once released it can directly or indirectly control the flow of over two hundred neurochemicals, dopamine being the most significant. It satisfies the same craving pathways that tell you you're full, or hungry. After two or three hours the receptors become active again due to sheer number, and the smoker craves another cigarette. That's the addiction pathway more or less. I agree with Mike that businesses should make their own decisions, since the gov't is basing secondhand smoke risks on dated studies and using baseless theories to generate statistical data. That said, I think smokers should be given medals for paying outrageous gov't taxes that pay for children's health programs. Laughably, marijuana is treated as a safer alternative, ignoring its greater carcinogenic effect when smoked. I always encourage anyone I know who smokes pot to use a vaporizer and spare their lungs the reversible damage.

[James.]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

@Mike, I've never heard of that, so when the baby comes out it automatically gets put onto the patch? I think the stress of withdrawal on the baby once out of the womb could be pretty intense as well!

I've never smoked a cigarette, I do partake in the occasional cigar. I bet any item you bought at the rummage sale would have had the smell of smoke on it. Smoking a joint is more acceptable to most people over a cigarette, which I find totally bizarre. I have a few friends who smoke cigarettes, they are not allowed to smoke in my truck. At $10 a pack in Massachusetts I don't understand how high school age kids can afford the habit. Here is Massachusetts smoking is pretty much outlawed everywhere, besides private social clubs. I think if an owner of an establishment wants to allow smoking they should have that right, I bet some bars would allow it and others would ban it, and their clients would choose what environment they wanted. Sadly big brother made the decision for us in Massachusetts. :cool:

I believe that the governments motto should be educate, don't legislate. Educate people on the dangers of nicotine, driving without a seat belt, fatty foods, motorcycle helmets, etc. Leave the laws for things that are in the public safety realm like drunk driving. When one person does it it is a hazard to others.

Im done with my soapbox now if anyone else needs to use it.

[MacGyver]

Re: Smoking inside a tent????!!!!

I believe that the governments motto should be educate, don't legislate. Educate people on the dangers of nicotine, driving without a seat belt, fatty foods, motorcycle helmets, etc. Leave the laws for things that are in the public safety realm like drunk driving. When one person does it it is a hazard to others.

Im done with my soapbox now if anyone else needs to use it.

Well said. I've been on that soapbox for years. Somewhere along the line the U.S. Government decided to ignore why and what we fought to gain our independence.