Smoking Is a Dying Habit. Not in Germany.
Health experts think low tobacco prices, a general tolerance of smoking and changes brought by the pandemic may explain the uptick in cigarette use.
Health experts think low tobacco prices, a general tolerance of smoking and changes brought by the pandemic may explain the uptick in cigarette use.
I met this 18 yo girl who smoked not so long ago. Like really? How does one even get started these days?
It's pretty easy. Smoking never really stopped in Germany. Vending machines are everywhere. They require age verification, which is not hard to bypass.
We got rid of indoor smoking, but we still accept that people smoke.
18 is good. In my previous neighbourhood I lived next to a school. A bunch of 14 year olds with smoke under the supervision of their teachers just outside the gates during recess.
There's no culture of smoking suppression in Germany. You'll see behaviours treated as normal that would trigger an emergency meeting elsewhere.
You hear constant propaganda about how something's bad for you, you try it to rebel a bit, you get a buzz, you get addicted.
Some people simply aren't as attached to life as you are.
I got started because my parents were careless and thought itd be funny to force me to smoke cigs when I was 7, they got me hooked on tobacco, weed, and alcohol which ruined basically my entire childhood and teenage years.
I'm a firm believer that a lot of the time kids get started because of abuse or neglect from the parents. Please blame the parents and not the kids. I promise you they dont know any better.
That's not careless, that's child abuse.
Why would anybody possibly blame the kids, or you? That's fucked up.
its pretty common to have school kids 15+ start smoking. and it's easy for them. cigarettes are presented in vending machines everywhere or sold by unbothered vendors.
Single use vapes seem to be everywhere these days here in Germany. Plus they have been advertised by influencers at the beginning of the pandemic, directly to underage children. Glad they forbid that at the beginning of 2021.
I don't follow them, so can't give the names. The problem continues because now they just use them in a stylish way without directly advertising them. Here is a article about swiss influencers. In Switzerland is is still legal it seems.
Smoking is such as disgusting habit and I could never imagine having a smoker as my partner.
So sad seeing more and more young people smoking around here rather than less as should be expected.
I have one. Don't marry a smoker if you aren't one. They might quit for a while but will resent you for it. It was easier just to let her start again, and rig up some exhaust fans and smart switches to protect myself.
Personally I wonder if switching from the term 'smoker' to something more accurately describing the experience for people around them, maybe something like 'stinker' and 'horrible stinker' instead of 'heavy smoker' might help reduce the appeal.
The exact opposite has happened, because "smoking" was a bad term, now it is "vaping" and that sounds cool, doesn't it. That's also the way smoking made a comeback with young people, vaping and tabak tabacco with sweet tastes and nice scent and shisha bars.
This is just anectodal evidence, but I feel like more people have started to smoke again during the last ~10 years or so.
A few years ago, aggressive marketing rules were introduced here in Germany which resulted in very disgusting pictures on cigarette boxes displaying the consequences of lung cancer etc.
The thing is, when those rules were introduced, cigarette boxes were still prominently displayed everywhere. You just had them lying around en masse at the counter or checkout in any shop, so even as a non-smoker you always had to see the consequences of destroying your own body when you inhale toxic substances. And during that time, I was rarely seeing people smoking at all. It just got really, really uncool to do it.
Nowadays you don't really see those boxes anymore. You have to ask the lady at the counter for them or you go to one of those neutral-looking vending machines we have on the streets. I'm not sure if this is what causes people to start smoking again, maybe it's also the rise of vaping influencers.
I believe there was a study done 1 or 2 years ago that came to the conclusion that especially younger people have started smoking again. I wonder why? Is it just that typical phase of being different than the older generation?
I would love if people would just go back and stop smoking again. Especially those arseholes that are smoking while waiting at a red light. These people deserve a special kind of hell. The second group is smokers selling stuff on eBay and omitting that detail in the description.
Think about it, smoking is as green as it gets. Think of how much waste every human makes every year and how many animals have to die just to sustain the average human for a year. Think of how much plastic waste the average human makes. If every human lived 20 fewer years, that's mountains of garbage and billions of creatures saved from extinction.
Now that's a hot take
Only if you're cremated.
So, if I'm speeding with my car in a school zone...?
You deserve a discount on your taxes, yes.
But then we have to pay for lung cancer treatments and these don't go cheap...
It is dying here because they are $50 a pack..
As a German living in Australia I can ensure you, smoking is still just as prevalent, it's just people here being addicted to vapes instead of traditional cigarettes.
Disposable vapes are also dangerously cheap (2000 puff vapes are equivalent to about 10 packs of cigarettes, while only costing about $20) and despite efforts to ban them, easily available at any TSG/Ezymart without age verification.
As a German living in Australia I can ensure you, smoking is still just as prevalent, it’s just people here being addicted to vapes instead of traditional cigarettes.
Sure, but those are almost certainly less harmful. Obviously still bad, but a step towards a lesser evil is a step in the right direction.
I remember when my parents would get them at $12 a carton. Dad quit when a carton of Marlboro was $21 or so.
I quit when the special blend was $3 a pack.
maybe it's the overall economic situation that drives people to smoking as a "fuck it all, alter" gesture
Hardly. It may be less expensive than in other countries, but smoking is expensive in Germany. Hence smoking it going up is a sign that the effects of inflation and stagnating growth are limited. Not every problem is related to current economics.
The main reason for the recent development (and that was seen everywhere, not just in Germany) was the pandemic. Social isolation and drug use are connected.
Dim long-term prospects (climate change etc) might play a role, but I'd go with what the article says: Other countries implement a variety of measures to reduce smoking. Germany doesn't. Hence it doesn't go down. I mean, the stuff is addictive and profitable? Who in their right mind would assume it will go away if there's no government action?
Which region are you referring to? Alter is dead and replaced in modern German with Wallah.
"Die Renten sind sicher". (pensions are safe)
Weird way to go about it, but it might work.
I enjoy vaping. But I mix my own liquids, always without nicotine. But as much as i enjoy it, i dispise vapes. I think vaping is the major factor for increasing cigarette sales in the past two years. It is incredibly easy to get a vape stick just about everywhere. On top, many kiosk cashiers aren't to serious about age verification. And it is tempting to get one. They smell nice, they taste good, they look stylish and are somehow "cool". I'll admit that if they weren't such a ecological nightmare I'd probably try it aswell.
It's a harmful activity that's about to go extinct. Almost all smokers started because it's "cool", and now it's no cooler for anyone.
You are detached. Its still cool for many groups of adolescents, at least here in Germany. Can't comprehend it, but it's real.
I mean it's only going extinct because people are vaping instead, which is definitely healthier than smoking cigarettes but the nicotine addicts are still out there.
about to
In geological terms, sure. But for humans the century or so that it will take is quite long.
All smokers die eventually, but they'll reproduce before this happens. I won't count on extinction.
Keine Kinder kriegen und rauchen um schneller zu verenden dann sich über die Einwanderer aufregen und von "Ersatztheorie" spinnen. Deutschland 👌
Nah, we just think its better to live your life how you want instead of "living healthy" and working till 70...
Who is we?
Not that this take was not true, but it's not a very German approach to life. I've heard we are known as Körnerfresser in France, because we consume full grains for braekfast instead of a coffee and a cigarette.