*Facepalm*. Where do you find the time to write this...I agree?

Ahhh.... I've finally finished reading that wall of text. Took me some time and know my eyes sore.

In many restaurants (specially fancy ones) they have wine and alcoholic drinks available. So the point: Some food tastes REALLY FREAKINGLY AWESOMELY EPICLY GOOD! when you combine it with some wine or tea. Drinking alcohol makes you chill, that's right. With that being stated, yes, in SOME (NOT ALL) situations, drinking alcohol makes you forget the present problems and makes you relax and feel happy for a period of time. But I believe that drinking, because mostly it's cold, icy, which really makes it a really fantastic drink on hot, summer days.

To the smoking. Smoking, due to it's high temperature, is very soothing and comfortable for most people during the winter. I won't go far on this topic, but there are chemicals that you breathe in which makes you feel relaxed, too. Most people get rid of this habit because of their STRONG LOVE FOR THEIR FAMILY UNITS! Sorry for making such a self point-of-view statement, but it sounds really awesome when you think about it. People start smoking because of probably peer pressure (when all your friends are doing it, in order to maintain friendship, popularity and avoid looking like a fool or an idiot of some kind) or because they just tried it and really like it. After you start smoking, it becomes a really strong addiction which is very hard to quit. It might take many years to completely stop smoking, but even if you pass many years after those previous many years, if you smoke a little of it, all those "many years" will be wasted and you will start again, with the addiction as strong as it's peak.
Dangerous indeed. Don't smoke.

Maybe you should try it before you criticize it. Instead of wallowing in your own despair, you should try and quit because you're wasting your time and your good health for a tube of pesticides and plant leaves.


Just because I made good choices means I have it all figured out? Well, I'd like to think that I do, but to hear it from someone else is much more satisfying. Furthermore, people quit because they want to drop the habit, not because they're being forced to. You'd think after 20 years of being off "drug X" that they wouldn't want it anymore.


What I mean by energy drinks is caffiene. Caffiene, unlike tobacco, can actually kill you if you take too much at one time, so I consider it as dangerous as tobacco if not more. Also, "just don't smoke" is not what I said. I said reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke by 1 per week and eventually you'll have no addicition anymore. Of course going cold turkey isn't going to work, you're still addcited, you have to take small steps.


No it doesn't, and yes I do. No I haven't, and no it's not. And in case you haven't noticed, people are fucking morons, they continually get drunk because it's "fun", and it's not an addiction, they choose to go to parties and wake up passed out on the floor not knowing what the fuck happened the night before, or worse. It's not some biological craving like you say it is; as long as you have a sliver of willpower, I find no reason why drugs and alcohol can't cease to be used by someone.

Tiger not to be rude, but I think that when someone asks you to summarize your ideas, I'm pretty sure that that word drops dead out of the sky for you...

Anyways, Wannin I agree most restaurants have wine and alcohol available on their menus, which makes it even harder for people who are alcoholics to resist the temptation to drink. That fact is made even worse when your waiter asks you if you want it. I can't remember how many times I've gone out to dinner with my family, and had to tell my dad not to drink since he's driving, made worse since he was once an alcoholic. Admittedly most teenagers who start drinking don't drink because they like the taste. They start since they believe that drinking makes them appear cool, and advertisements on T.V. don't help, what with lying and deception. Most drinkers on T.V. appear to have the best time when their drinking and then when their sober, they appear to be completely in the dumps. True story by the way, a girl in my school came into class hammered out of her mind, smelling like vodka. The only reason our teacher didn't notice that was because A) She's been like that everyday getting hammered during lunch and B) Our teacher didn't smell the vodka since his sense of smell is almost gone. Then she vomits on the floor, falls asleep, falls into her vomit and gets suspended... I'm just glad that it wasn't one of my friends.

On the topic of smoking, I have a friend whose dad quit smoking 25 years ago. Every time he walks past someone who's smoking he has the urge to grab the cigarette out of his hands. This is due to the fact that inside nicotine, the main chemical of cigarettes, the companies insert thousands of highly addictive and dangerous chemicals, just to get you hooked faster, and make you pay more in medical fees. In fact if they didn't add any chemicals to it, most likely half the population of America wouldn't be hooked. It doesn't help that the way they make it is 10 times as addictive as pretty much every kind of drug you can think of put together. TRichard, quitting smoking is definitively harder then getting off of anything else. Don't feel so down about it, it's not entirely your fault, you may have made the decisions to smoke when you were younger, but if companies didn't put all of that crap into cigarettes, chances are you wouldn't be addicted. As long as you try to get off of them, that's what counts, not the fact that you are. It takes an incredible amount of willpower to get off.

I just realized as I finished this, I wrote too much...

@wannin: I doubt drinking has much to with the current temperature in all of the countries on the planet. People drink everywhere on the globe. Even if you were correct, that would mean that nobody would drink during a cold winter, which is not the case

About your smoking thing, you're right about the peer pressure. However, in my eyes that is no excuse. The very act of letting other people influence what you will become and how you would act and behave is tantamount to suicide to me. A person should decide what they are for themselves. If I was surrounded by idiots, I would not want to become one just to fit in. That is a fool's notion, and that of a weak person. When you start sacrificing your individuality in order to cater to another group of people, you're basically changing yourself to better meet other people's expectations. Starting smoking to remain or become popular or "cool" seems so utterly moronic to me I can't find the words to express it properly. That's the way I've always been ... I'd rather be the one sane person even if everyone else was crazy. But like I said before, I believe people should be allowed to do whatever the hell they want to do(including being addicted to whatever they want), as long as does not bother anyone but themselves.

@SilentAssassin: Well you can't exactly expect everyone to abide by your rules. I'm not saying it would be bad, but you can't expect it. Like I mentioned in my post, not everyone gets wasted when they drink alcohol. None of my friends do that, and they always remember what happened during the night. Hey, if they enjoy it and it helps them relax, who am I to stop them? As long as they don't force me or anyone else to indulge in it, let them have their fun. However, I've seen other cases, and I agree with you that waking up extremely hungover with vomit all over your hair lying next to a person you've never met and not remembering what the hell happened the night before seems like a moronic thing to experience. However, getting all preachy and judgmental about it(like you and I occasionally do) doesn't really help. We obviously can't put ourselves in their shoes, we're very different from them. And it's okay if they don't bother anyone. Unless of course someone ties you up in a smoked-up room and proceeds to force you to drink alcohol and do drugs. And that's unlikely.

@Dscigs: Hah, I've explained why I write so much before. I could summarize, but in the process I would be forced to cut a lot of details, and that would ultimately make my reasoning less well argumented. When you have a lot to say about a complex subject and your complex views on it, you really can't afford to simplify it to the point where your reasoning becomes unclear. I'd rather spell out in detail what I think and why I think it, than say something vague and risk having my thoughts misinterpreted. Glad to see you're participating in the forums

This isn't school. LT doesn't summarise here. No need :P.

That's true Anaklusmos, just saying that might be true.

I'm always trying to be active on the forums, In fact my friend figured out how to bypass the security filters at our school, so I can go on for like an hour during Buissness . Anyways, most people actually don't drink because they want to get hammered, although some people do. A lot of people that I know drink a bit of expensive wine every now and then for health. Maybe once every three months my mother lets me drink a bit of wine with dinner, not to get drunk but since wine can actually be good for your health. Some people who actually drink cheap beer to get drunk have a variety of reasons for why they do, some are good however some are stupid. Drinking because they like to get drunk, which is obviously not a valid reason. Some people that you see drink, for better reasons. Sometimes they can be depressed due to loss of a loved one, or a divorce. I happen to know that these things can take a huge toll on your life since it feels like a part of you is missing. When my grandfather from my father's side passed away, my dad almost became an alcoholic again. When that happened, for 4 months he drank every day. In times like that the only thing that can help a person is time.

For smoking, I have to say that smoking takes a bigger affect on people's lives then drinking. For one thing the second-hand smoke from cigarettes damages the lungs of people who are around you. Today I learned that in one puff of the average legal cigarette contains 20,000 chemicals. By doing some quick math the average cigarette takes about 6-7 puffs for a person to completely use it, so therefore one complete cigarette inserts 12,000-14,000 chemicals. For a pack a day habit, theirs 20 cigarettes in each pack, so that's approximately 240,000-280,000 chemicals each day. Also the majority of people smoke either because they were pressured into doing it by their "friends", although that seems to be the only reason, other then doing it to be cool. If people chose of their free will, after having been educated about the extreme dangers of smoking then it seems that maybe 100,000/1,000,000,000 would smoke given that people today aren't retarded... I like participating in serious discussions

My dad drinks at least one beer a day, that is mostly at dinner. This may be because beer is a big part of German culture but he's used to it and often drink like 3 bottles of beer in the evening and does not really get drunk. He just likes beer that’s all. My mothers more of a wine person but drinks beer too but only like a one bottle if she does.
I do drink with friends but not to get drunk just to have a good time, and its only beer, never vodka mixed with orange juice or other stuff which many kids at my school drink just to get drunk.
The theirs smoking, no one in my family including me smokes. I heard that my parents smoked when they were teenagers but only because everyone smoked at that time. They say that at the time they were kids no one really new the dangers of smoking and everyone smoked. Apparently the numbers of kids smoking has gone down, at least in Germany.

Im happy we discuss stuff like this, cause no other clan I know has conversations like we do. This makes us a unique clan don’t u guys think?

These conversations indeed make us unique

Drinking a beer with dinner isn't bad, just as long as it isn't those ones that are like 60% alcohol. I agree with your point kids make random drinks (vodka+rum+cranberry juice+apple juice=What the fuck?) if it's a little bit, and it's not strong I completely understand that.
I feel like I have exhausted all of my points on smoking for now. That and my arms hurt from all the exercise from gym class. I hate lifting weights. I am too tired to write a longer explanation. Gym+3 hours of dance=Dead.

Yes, my dad does not drink those types of beers. I havent looked at the amount of alcohol in it but it cant be too much, otherwise he would get drunk.