SMOKING is HARDER to stop than HEROIN!?!?!?!?!

[beta1]

I know what you mean. I didn't mean to say it was objectively harder to quit. I was just saying for ME, smoking is definitely harder to quit.

Then I'm with you on that, my inexperience smoking means I can only intelligently speak on the subject objectively.

Also, I love how people who never smoked are saying which is harder to quit. No offense meant by that, of course, but come on...

Hey, I had a disclaimer

Then again, I've never smoked cancer sticks, I only know what quitting dope is like. Therefore my opinion actually means jackshit next to yours .

 

[sixpartseven]

lol I know, man, you weren't the only one who did it though. You were, however, the only one with a disclaimer, so it wasn't directed at you.

 

[dankstersauce]

The reasons that quitting smoking is harder than quitting heroin are:
1.) You can borrow a cigarette from a complete stranger
2.) You can buy cigarettes anywhere
3.) even though it's looked down upon by society, it's still socially acceptable.
4.) can you ask your boss for a "heroin break"?

So i understand why people think cigarettes are so hard to quit. If you're clean from dope, you have to go somewhere (probably somewhere shady) to cop but if you're "clean" from nicotine, you can "cop" or "relapse" ANYWHERE...shit you could even "cop" a cigarette from a complete stranger if you feel the urge to smoke.

IME quitting cigarettes is NOTHING compared to quitting heroin. I remember a cop pulled me over while i was trying to buy dope in the ghetto. He said some shit like "well i quit smoking cigarettes and that's harder to quit than heroin, so you should just stop." And i was very dopesick while he's tellin me this BS since I hadn't copped yet and i just wanted to punch this prick in the face.

It may be hard mentally to quit cigarettes, but heroin has horrible mental AND psychical symptoms of withdrawal. IME the only psychical symptom of nicotine withdrawal is irritability. To anyone who thinks quitting cigarettes is harder, get a real heavy heroin habit (or if you feel lucky, try methadone) use daily for several years and then quit cold turkey and compare to quitting cigarettes.

when you're sweating on the floor, covered in your own piss/vomit/shit, shaking from being cold just be glad at least your aren't withdrawing from nicotine.

 

[Jabberwocky]

For example, if there are 50 million total smokers, and 10 million tried to quit, while only 5% were successful. And if there are 1 million total Heroin addicts, and all of them tried to quit, while 5% were successful. That means 500,000 smokers successfully quit smoking, while 50,000 successfully quit heroin.

You could use those stats to claim that since more people quit smoking than quit heroin in a given period it is easier to quit heroin.

While this is a fictitious example, and Heroin is much harder to quit than smoking, statistics should always be taken with a grain of salt since they can be easily manipulated and are used as propaganda. When these national "drug councils" uncover statistics that are opposite their agenda, they are never released or publicized.

i could easily see the government justifying that by one bullshit way or another.

this is in an interesting discussions guys. i've never done heroin but am dependent on opiates and smoke; quitting several times and taking it back up so ill have something to add to this later today.

carry one

 

[Jabberwocky]

I know what you mean. I didn't mean to say it was objectively harder to quit. I was just saying for ME, smoking is definitely harder to quit.

It's sort of along the same lines as eating disorders (which are addictions). Those of you who say heroin is harder to quit than smoking, what would you say about an eating disorder like bulimia versus heroin? If you still say heroin, look at it like this...

Availability: food is everywhere. heroin is not.
Social Acceptability: who, besides anorexics, has anything against eating? Who DOESN'T have something against heroin?
Necessity: the most important. You HAVE to eat. You don't have to do heroin to survive, although it may feel like it.

Eating disorder wins as the harder thing to quit and stay away from.

Now look at smoking.

Availability: everywhere you go, you can buy cigarettes. You can't walk into a gas station and buy heroin, unless that gas station is in Detroit, of course.
Social Acceptability: Most people won't give a shit if you smoke around them. You'll probably get quite the reaction if you tried to slam dope in front of them, though.
Necessity: draw. neither is needed for survival.

Smoking wins, as well.

At least, that's how I see it.

good points, bro

 

[dwg52378]

I don't see how one could even attempt to compare nicotine withdrawals to being dope sick. Even weaker opioids than heroin are harder to quit than smoking.

 

[sixpartseven]

Again, withdrawals are not the only part of quitting. Read my post a few posts back.

Do you honestly think that once you make it through withdrawals it's all over? You're free? If you do, I hope for your sake you never become addicted to anything.

 

[Jabberwocky]

dwg ^we're not comparing withdrawals, we're comparing which is harder to quit for different people and reasons associated

 

[sixpartseven]

In fact, withdrawals really have nothing to do with quitting. They may prevent some from quitting, but quitting means never using again, so after the withdrawals is when the battle actually starts.

 

[dwg52378]

True, I do understand that leftwing.
Sixpartseven - I am addicted to opioids and cigs... but haven't been able to quit either.

 

[dwg52378]

In fact, withdrawals really have nothing to do with quitting. They may prevent some from quitting, but quitting means never using again, so after the withdrawals is when the battle actually starts.

The cravings are what leads me to fail. Everytime. I was just missing the point. I do understand what is involved in quiting.

 

[sixpartseven]

^ I gotcha. Have you tried quitting either? What has your experience been?

 

[dwg52378]

^^ Right now I am addicted and dependant on Hydrocodone & Morphine mostly but whatever I can get. Fentanyl last week, Hydromorphone also. I don't have a huge habit, but its getting worse. I am taking more risks to get money for drugs. When I am high, I talk about quiting once my supply is gone but the second I am out of drugs, all I can think about is getting more. I keep thinking I am about to quit but it doesn't happen. I don't feel I have made a very good effort though.

 

[dwg52378]

and the cost of these pharms is killing me, H is looking good. But I am getting off topic from the thread I suppose.

 

[Khadijah]

^ Fatal mistake. Quitting any drug is not all about the withdrawals. Keep reading...



I know what you mean. I didn't mean to say it was objectively harder to quit. I was just saying for ME, smoking is definitely harder to quit.

It's sort of along the same lines as eating disorders (which are addictions). Those of you who say heroin is harder to quit than smoking, what would you say about an eating disorder like bulimia versus heroin? If you still say heroin, look at it like this...

Availability: food is everywhere. heroin is not.
Social Acceptability: who, besides anorexics, has anything against eating? Who DOESN'T have something against heroin?
Necessity: the most important. You HAVE to eat. You don't have to do heroin to survive, although it may feel like it.

Eating disorder wins as the harder thing to quit and stay away from.

Now look at smoking.

Availability: everywhere you go, you can buy cigarettes. You can't walk into a gas station and buy heroin, unless that gas station is in Detroit, of course.
Social Acceptability: Most people won't give a shit if you smoke around them. You'll probably get quite the reaction if you tried to slam dope in front of them, though.
Necessity: draw. neither is needed for survival.

Smoking wins, as well.

At least, that's how I see it.

I went through a period when I was 14-15 years old where I was considered extremely anorexic. I dont ever talk about it cuz its pretty wack. it aint somethin im proud of, and especially cuz its somethin thats usuaully associated with upper class, white females, i feel like its really something that dont fit with who i am as a person. i wasnt all obsessed with bein thin or pretty, i didnt want to be a model, I just really felt mentally shitty and lost all effort to eat. I really wanted to die and thought i could starve my self to death. so i felt like if i stopped my self from eating i could just kinda shrivel up and die and then i wouldnt have to worry no more about all the shit that was gettin to me in my life.

I am 5'6 and 130 lbs and im a thin, slim girl even at that weight the way my body holds weight Im just petite. At my lowest point, i was 92 lbs, fuckin skeletal. They wanted to put me in a inpatient hospital program for eating disorders. So im just saying this to show the severity of it, that it matches the severity of my heroin addiction. I didnt want ppl to think that maybe i didnt get deep enough into it to understand how hard it is to recover, cuz i was fuckin deep.

And after that experience, and my life as a heroin feen? I can still say with alll certainty....

Heroin has been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY harder to quit than it ever was to quit doing the destructive behavior that was causin that. So as a person that has been addicted to smoking, had a eating disorder, and been a heroin addict, i can still speak on it that out of all 3 of these heroin is 100% harder to quit.

 

[sarsXdave]

Now, I'm not making this next statement as a theory or logical argument or whatever, this is just something that comes to mind when this debate comes up (it did in a basic psych class and a biopsych class):

Think of how shitty the nicotine buzz is and think of how many people among those who have had a moderate habit still keep smoking. Now think of how awesome opiates are, and think of how many of those people who've dosed daily still keep dropping/sniffing/shooting.

Again, I realize availability is a huge thing, since cigarettes become available to you before even alcohol, I could see how someone could attain an addiction before they even have a chance to buy alternatives for themselves. Tons of other factors. I can't say which one is harder than the other, because it varies so fucking much person-to-person.

tl;dr: What I am saying is that cigarettes are addictive as shit for what they are. Opiates are addictive because they're fucking fantastic

 

[belfort]

sixpartseven-ok, you said that withdrawals have nothing to do with quitting, and that the after affects is what really keeps people using..well, as far as i know, nicotine withdrawal is finished after 2 months tops but with opiate addiction you PAWS which can last the rest of your life basically..so, this would be a vote for opiate addiction being harder to quit...

also sixpartseven, going by your logic, CAFFEINE is harder to quit than heroin as well..i mean, i quit heroin years ago but still cannot for the life of me stop taking caffeine..i really want to but i always start back up again...

 

[zrawdog]

i have never had to quit heroin, but i quit smoking a few times, and it's never that bad. the physical symptoms are nothing really and as long as you're strong willed for a few days, it gets pretty easy to resist the infrequent cravings. i've read about quitting heroin and it is definitely a much worse process physically, and it lasts twice as long or more to get it out of your system. it seems like the cravings would be stronger too, and there is definitely more likelihood of significant anxiety or depression for a while after you quit.

 

[dwg52378]

My interpretation of what sixpartseven said is that withdrawal is only one stage of the whole process and that it doesn't have anything to do with quiting LONG TERM because by that time you have passed the W/D stage and might have depression, anxiety, insomnia, cravings, ect...

 

[Eight0Eight]

I could accept that it takes less cigarettes than shots of H to get addicted, sure.

But the actual addiction and withdrawal is nothing like H.