Smoking is... good?

[dant]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I bought a wooden pipe and am currently trying to master the art of smoking from one and keeping it lit - which I've discovered isn't always easy (btw, if anybody has any tips, let me know!).

Hi RyanX,

Here are 3 tips that might help keeping you pipe lit :
- dry your tobacco by keeping the bag open (but it might get less tasty)
- use a pipe with a tick air conduit (between your mouth and the tobacco)
- lit your pipe in two steps : first lit, then pack the tobacco (not too much), then lit your pipe again (while packing the fire usually dies).

Have a good smoke!

I might add:

- Keep the fire going by drawing in the smoke every
once in awhile, otherwise it will burn out, requiring
another light. Over time, ashes builds up, so every
once in awhile, tamp it down so that it ensures good
air draw and also easier to light as ashes are a good
heat insulator making it harder to light.

- Get yourself a good quality piezoelectric refillable
butane pipe-lighter with a tamper/poker/scooper built
in. It is well worth the expense. Avoid the cheap ones,
as I have gone through several kinds before I found
the right one for me. Also, avoid the torch ones as
they can burn out your pipe to a crisp or cause them
to crack and make sure your pipe does not get too
hot and do NOT wash in water either, as it can crack
your pipe! Clean your pipe often especially the airways
as tar builds up rather quickly depending on how much
you smoke.

- As for selecting a pipe, make sure that it is of good quality,
has a big bowl in it, and has very good air draw as many
have tiny airways and it often plugs up faster and incurs
high heat, damaging the pipe. Make sure that the plastic to
wood connection is a tapered connection and will always
ensure a tight fit, as over time the plastic shrinks and you
will start using tissue paper just to get the two pieces to
remain connected or worse, the pipe turns over on its own
and dumps the contents on your lap. Not a fun experience!

As always, keep your pipe cleaned and often by scraping away
the tar and gunk that builds up.

Do not let your pipe get too hot. It it does, then you may have
a plugged pipe or the tobacco was shoved in too tightly and you
may get a bitter tasting tobacco. If it is hot, take out the tobacco
and let the pipe cool and grab another pipe. Many serious pipe
smokers have more than one pipe, sometimes for different tobacco
blends as it is not recommended to mix blends in the same pipe.

If you get a strong bitter taste, use the 'poker' to fluff up then
lightly tamp down the burning tobacco to ensure that air gets
into the mix for easier draw and a better tasting smoke.

I think that about covers it...

 

[theos]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.


That was really thorough! :P

 

[dant]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

That was really thorough! :P

You are most welcome! Enjoy the experience. I have yet to
try a `hooka' (sp?), the water pipe! That should be an interesting
experience as well!

 

[RyanX]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

Wow, thanks for the tips Belibaste and Dant!

Belibaste: I will try the lighting then packing technique tonight and see how that works. That thought never crossed my mind, but it makes sense, especially given fire's natural tenancy to want to burn from bottom to top.

Dant: I too have noticed that there is a happy middle ground between packing it too tight and too loose. If I pack it too tight, air draw becomes a problem and I usually have to resort to poking it around to get it to draw. You're right, the pipe does heat up more than usually if I pack it too tight and sometimes it does get plugged. Likewise, if I pack it too loose, it tend to have to keep lighting it. Right now I'm just lighting it with match sticks, but I can see your point about using the piezo lighters. I will see if I can find a good one.

Thanks again,
Ryan

 

[dant]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

The brand of pipe lighter that I have is:
_http://www.lucienne.com/4936.html

Very nice!

My pipe is a Bjarne pipe, sandblasted, natural
wood-brown, and curved. I looked everywhere and I
cannot find the exact match but this is the closest
I could find is:
_http://www.thetobaccoshop.com/Pipes/pics/1152_3.jpg

The difference is, it is natural, rough, not lacquered, and
is sculpted with different "scoops" on the outside, not
smooth looking and signed by a name I could not identify.

I would avoid "straight" pipes as they put more weight
on the teeth, and juts right into my eyes and I'd prefer
to have the bowl below my mouth & eye-sight and it's
easier to see in the bowl when you light up. But this
is perhaps subjective, but it's just my preference!

 

[seek10]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I am planning to start smoking for the first time in this 40 yrs life.

I was little confused about a specific silly laughable 'conflict of thoughts' I am facing, due to smoking startup. I am not sure it is my predator's trick or my own ignorance. I am planning to take life insurance and I need to write whether I am a smoker or not and the entire process of medical test etc takes a month.
Am I lying by saying I am not a smoker ,( which is true as of now ) , which carries any karmic balance ?.

This is rather ridiculous thought due to nature of spiritually costly mechanical lies ( useful, useless, lies to self etc. ) to which I am accustomed to and I am still struggling with them with out much success. None the less, I want to ask this question to avoid the mental bugging that goes when I am not sure.

 

[dant]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.


Keep in mind, that if you state that you are not
a smoker on insurance, and when your 'other'
attempts to collect on your insurance, the insurance
company will deny the claims. It's a simple test to
see if there is nicotine in your blood, dead or alive
and the nic "hangs around" a long time before it is
"flushed out".

Yeah, I know it is more expensive, but why bother
if you lie to yourself just to save more money when
your 'other' loses it anyway? Seems kinda silly, huh?

Did you ever hear the phrase: "A bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush"? :D

FWIW,
Dan

 

[anart]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

On the other hand, what if he tries smoking and it doesn't 'take' - then, he will not be a smoker, as he has never been a smoker, and his insurance company will have on record infinitely that he is/was a smoker if he answers the question in the affirmative despite a lifetime of not smoking. I'd err on the side of 'no' - as in you are not a smoker - but that's just me. If a problem develops later, he can always say that he started smoking in late 2009 - and be telling the truth.

 

[RyanX]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I was little confused about a specific silly laughable 'conflict of thoughts' I am facing, due to smoking startup. I am not sure it is my predator's trick or my own ignorance. I am planning to take life insurance and I need to write whether I am a smoker or not and the entire process of medical test etc takes a month.
Am I lying by saying I am not a smoker ,( which is true as of now ) , which carries any karmic balance ?.

This is rather ridiculous thought due to nature of spiritually costly mechanical lies ( useful, useless, lies to self etc. ) to which I am accustomed to and I am still struggling with them with out much success. None the less, I want to ask this question to avoid the mental bugging that goes when I am not sure.

This is an interesting situation and one I was faced with myself recently. I was asked if I smoked tobacco during my annual health assessment for work. At the time I answered "No". At that moment that would have been a lie, although technically saying "no" has been a lie all along since I have smoked a small number of cigarettes in my lifetime. I can't say I've "never" smoked. I guess it depends on your definition of what behavior constitutes a smoker. Is a smoker who has smoked any amount of tobacco in their life, or is a smoker a "habitual" user of tobacco? If that is the case, than what constitutes "habitual", one cigarette per day, more than one? The context here is probably important. The question asked was in regards to health. I'm not convinced that tobacco, if clean and used in moderation, has the serious health consequences that authorities claim. In any case, I don't feel I've smoked enough tobacco yet to amount to a hill of beans either way.

Ironically, my blood pressure was the lowest it's ever been since I've started smoking this one pipeful per night. So it can't be all bad. :P

I'm not even certain I will continue smoking after I get through this first canister of tobacco, but so far so good. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that lying doesn't matter in this case? It is somewhat of a predicament.

I would caution lying on any form that has legal or financial ramifications, although Anart is right, since you are new to smoking and are just "testing the waters" so to say, maybe it would be good to allot yourself a "no" period until you are certain it is something you want to stick with.

 

[domi]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

It's a simple test to
see if there is nicotine in your blood, dead or alive
and the nic "hangs around" a long time before it is
"flushed out".

Some insurance companies will actually require that one is swabbed the inside of the cheek to determine nicotine use.

 

[3DStudent]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I've been thinking about picking up smoking too after reading some of the threads here about it. I'm looking more towards cigars and pipes than cigarettes. Though if I did go to cigarettes, I'd go with American Spirits. I've always thought of smoking "evil" from school programming. My parents smoked too, but didn't condone it, so I have the negative introject that it's bad. Having quit themselves, their response was expected when I mentioned I was considering it.

I was wondering if cigars check out as (relatively) healthy. I know you can put the American Spirit RYO tobacco in a pipe, but I think the new American tax on RYO tobacco is expensive. So are regular pipe tobaccos good to smoke? I want to do this to try out all of the different flavors and types :P, as well as reap the benefits of nicotine. It seems to be a pleasurable and relaxing activity. I've read most of the smoking threads here, so I'm pretty up to date on the information. Any advice or comments are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[dant]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

Well, in my case, the ins. agent wanted to draw my blood,
which is why I quoted it. The agent pointed out very clearly,
that if there is any presence of nic that I had actually smoked
right after declaring I didn't, no matter how little, my policy will
be null and void, and cannot be collected. He said to make very
sure, that I declare 'Yes' if I planned to smoke later on, no matter
how little. It sounded to me like a zero-tolerance, anti-smoking policy.
I signed this policy more than 5 years ago.

I have never had my cheeks swabbed for tobacco but that was
more than 5 years ago and maybe it is different now.

If you are concerned about the potential of losing your policy,
I would seek (legal) advice or simply upgrade the policy to a
smoker policy and be done with it. From what I understood,
the insurance companies rarely loses when a contract/policy is
clearly spelled out, the i's dotted and the t's crossed, and signed
by your hand...

 

[seek10]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

Keep in mind, that if you state that you are not
a smoker on insurance, and when your 'other'
attempts to collect on your insurance, the insurance
company will deny the claims. It's a simple test to
see if there is nicotine in your blood, dead or alive
and the nic "hangs around" a long time before it is
"flushed out".

Yeah, I know it is more expensive, but why bother
if you lie to yourself just to save more money when
your 'other' loses it anyway? Seems kinda silly, huh?

FWIW,
Dan

thank you for raising very interesting points which I haven't considered.

For me , it is going to be blood test. since I decided to go with smoking, I should pay extra as if it is towards smoking cost. since this is term life insurance , it is not too costly. It is true that insurance companies looks for every possible loop holes to avoid pay out. so it is risky.

Other choice is to postpone the starting of smoking until blood test ( may be another month ) is complete and then start. If i stick to smoking , upgrade it to smoker , otherwise let it be non smoker policy.
first I will found out how much is the cost difference?. any way I am not yet obligated to buy the policy from them until blood test results are disclosed.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[seek10]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I am feeling dizzy yesterday while having cigarette, as some of you mentioned. the reasons , I found from the internet raised some interesting questions, dont know which is right or wrong. today I had one , slowly and didn't felt the dizzyness like that . i haven't done detailed search.

some of the smokers opinions _http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081020232524AA1rExj . many are mainstream explanations, not sure which is correct.

1. What happened is this- smoking restricts you blood vessels, all over your body. It is also at least part of the reason you got so frikkin dizzy.
2. And nicotine isn't a calm me down as many think, it's acually a stimulant, and with the other things that happen to your body when you smoke, the dizzyness you had is from inhailing too fast and/or too much.
3. The same thing happens to me, but only when i smoke rolled cigerettes. Maybe it was the kind you were smoking. Maybe switch to lights.
4. Yeah you're not supposed to inhale so deeply.
5. When you smoke, you deprive yourself of oxygen to the brain. That's why you feel dizzy.
6. LACK of Oxygen. This is what cigarettes do to you in the short term.
7. It's normal. everyone feels dizzy when they first start to inhale. eventually it will stop but at that point you might be addicted
8. You're still getting the hang of it. Nicotine effects the inner ear and you aren't yet accustomed to it so inhaling a whole cigarette was too much for you. The side effects go away rapidly as you gain tolerance and learn to control the dose. The idea isn't to smoke such and such an amount, but to smoke enough to make you feel good and for someone who isn't a confirmed smoker a few puffs can be enough.
Whoever said that nicotine is a stimulant was right, but it nevertheless has a calming effect, perhaps because it causes the brain to release natural opiates.

some even call it a CO effect.
so what could be the reason?. we know nicotine stimulates.
is it true Nicotine effects the inner ear to create balance issue ?
is it true it constricts the cells with lack of oxygen, even to the brain ?.
some even say , it is the point of addiction. which I don't agree.

 

[mkrnhr]

Re: new to smoking :what are the healthy guidelines.

I felt dizzy two weeks ago while smoking my pipe. I usually smoke pipe and occasionally cigars. But this was the first time I felt that. Usually when I lack oxygen (for example while exercising and not drinking sufficiently) I also feel some muscular weakness and a strong sleepiness. The tobacco dizziness was a little different and it took some time to disappear, with no sleepiness and no fatigue. In this case I suspect a bad preparation of the pipe, leading to a CO intoxication.