"Light" Cigs - Smoke More, Less, the Same?

[Vocalek]

This is a question for those who have smoked both "full flavor" and "light" types of tobacco cigarettes. If you switched from one to the other type, how did that affect your smoking?

Note: In general the "full flavor" tend to contain higher levels of nicotine. Lights are theoretically lower in both tar and nicotine.

The former FDA head, David Kessler, believes that reducing nicotine levels by 90% will make them "less addictive". My experience was that when, following the advice of the Surgeon General, I switched to "lights" in the early 1980's, my intake went from 20 cigs per day to 50 cigs per day.

When I finally figured out what was going on, I searched for the highest nicotine yield and switched to those. I managed to get down to 10 cigs per day.

 

[satoshi]

I've always smoked lights

 

[Thyestean]

On the rare occasions that I smoked lights or even mediums I would smoke at least twice as much.

 

[MaxUT]

If the tools were at hand, I'd cut about 1/2" off the filter and smoke it that way. Otherwise I'd go through about 50% more lights than regulars.

 

[0smitty]

If the tools were at hand, I'd cut about 1/2" off the filter and smoke it that way. Otherwise I'd go through about 50% more lights than regulars.

Interestingly, I used to do the same thing with ultra-lights and 100's. I think it was more the taste, though...That extra filter totally killed it.

 

[sherid]

I remember going from Kools to light menthols. For the first couple of weeks, I might have smoked more, but once I made an adjustment, I smoked the lights the same way I smoked the Kools. Every once in awhile, I would buy a pack of Kools until finally, they were just too strong. I think everyone is different, but I never saw a change in how many I smoked or how I smoked them once I got past the first couple of weeks.

 

[rosesense]

I didn't increase either. In fact, I dropped at first cause I hated the lights. Eventually, I was right back at my pack a day habit.

 

[yvilla]

What a scam! Switching to lights doubled my cigarette usage as well.

 

[JerryRM]

I'm the one who is different than most, I guess. I started with unfiltered Lucky Strikes, a pack and a half a day. When I quit, I was smoking 3/4 pack of Ultra Lights, inhaling the same way as with the Lucky Strikes.

Maybe I should have clicked the "fewer lights than full box", but I cut down intentionally and over a long period of time, so I thought that if I clicked that box, it might be misleading.

 

[rothenbj]

Not sure if I answered this survey correctly, but perhaps I did. Initially, I saw no change in my smoking habits so I answered that way. However, when I made the switch, I was at around a pack a day. When I quite some 20 years later, I was two to three. Was that due to the ultra lights that I smoked at the end? I don't know.

What I do know is that I was consciously aware of an uptake in consumption each time I went through a quit attempt. My last attempt was with Zyban in the late 90's where I lasted almost three months and was smoking a little less than a pack and a half a day. After Zyban, I never got under two.

When I started e cigs, I had intention of quiting smoking, just cutting back. Then I found snus and smoking was history. So easy.

 

[four2109]

I didn't vote. I only ever bought lights by mistake. Then I would keep the scissors handy to cut the filters off at the perforation. Just never understood sucking air! It felt like having holes in a drinking straw.

 

[Vocalek]

I'm going to bump this because the FDA is in the process right now of considering lowering nicotine levels in analogs to "barely there." I think that will do a lot of damage to the health of smokers. What say you?

 

[BCB]

It will do damage to smokers' physical and financial health because they will have to smoke more cigarettes to get what they want. I guess that's a logical next step to shore up the finances of the government, though. Just think, they'll get the same per-pack tax on cigarettes but there will be many, many more packs. The consumer gets to inhale many, many more cigarettes to achieve the same physiological effect, so takes in more tars, etc.

I remember when I smoked and bummed a cigarette from someone else. If it was a Camel or Pall Mall non-filter I'd inhale in a shallow way and couldn't finish it. When borrowing some ultra-light I'd take VERY deep inhales, quickly, then immediately have another one. I think we naturally self-titrated to fulfill our needs and our bodies definitely knew the difference! Sad to say, I think the people who work in this field (scientists, developers, accountants, etc.) know this all too well.

 

[sherid]

I'm curious about this for a different reason. Wasn't the "deceptive practice of marketing light cigarettes" and decreasing nicotine yield the basis of the racketeering charge and ruling against BT? How is the FDA doing the same thing different from what BT did?

 

[Uma]

Full flavor marlboro smoker, 1 pack a day for 20 years...
switched over to Light Marlboros on advice from the General Surgeon, and ended up doubling and almost tripleing the amount. Went from 1 pack a day to 2.5.
I then switched back to Full Flavor Marlboros and Camels and couldn't cut back! I was stuck at 2.5 packs a day for another 20 years...
until i discovered the e-Cig.
Bliss finally.
I regulate according to my body's needs. From 0nic to 24mg with the avg being 12mg.
Been using the eCig for almost a year now, and I'm cutting BACK the nic use as well as the hand to mouth use, instead of increasing like I did with the analogs.

 

[Katya]

No change whatsoever. One pack a day; full flavor, switched to light, then ultra lights.

 

[James Wall]

Like 42109, I only ever smoked lights purchased by mistake or when bumming off others (c'mon, you know we've all done it when we ran out! ). When this happened I always smoked more or just ripped the filter off.

 

[CaptJay]

I checked option 2 - because I used to cover the vent holes in the filter to inhale harder on my ultralights. I smoked the same amount though, but those vent holes are placed so covering them with fingers is really easy - and without it I couldn;t smoke them.

 

[firefox335]

No change between lights and full flavor. But I switched to Ultra Lights for a short time and smoked twice as many.

 

[BCB]

Bump for more responses.