Smoking in a post SHTF World

[bettersafethansorry]

So this was always my biggest fear... because i was a 30 a day confirmed smoker and we all know that in all the PA films these become like gold dust the longer time goes on...

For this reason ive always had visions of desperation and an unquenchable craving overpowering me.

Anyone else with this I cannot stress enough that I had tried Nicoteen replacement... e-cigs.... cold turkey.... cut down.... etc etc and always failed to quit.

Then for secret santa from work i got a book "the easy way" to stop smoking by Allen Carr (not the comedian) The ultimate skeptic i only started to read when we got a power cut and after that i could not put down... at the end of the book i extinguished my last cigarette... and my cravings have been very very minor not even noticable. I am not 14 days in and am a confirmed (non-Smoker) I couldn't even dream of putting one in my mouth now.

I dont wanna preach like typical ex-smokers but seriously THIS WAS MY BEST PREP EVER!

Feel free to ask me anything about it im happy to answer any and all questions

-M

[Plymtom]

Good luck with your non smoking drive, I once quit for 6 years and started again, I'm 18 years into my current effort, I went cold turkey both times, got to say it was far easier second time around not having to be around others who smoked.

No matter how valuable a commodity they may be one day, I'd say don't even think of having the little demons around the place for a few years.

[jeebus]

Congratulations on your progress and good luck with it in the future. I can also recommend that book as after reading it I went cold turkey and haven't had a cigarette since 8th July, 2013.

If there's one bit of advice from that book that helped me the most, it was to 'take each day one day at a time'. Just concentrate on getting through the next 5 minutes/hour/day and not smoking. Before you know it you will have been a month without smoking, and then a year.

Plus you can spend the cash you save on prepping toys

[sethorly]

Nice one bettersafe, you just levelled up

[bettersafethansorry]

its a bit difficult as the mrs is still choking away but she tried not to in front of me... tbh im really not bothered tho i know i wont go back as there is no point.

The money is being directly invested in my dream prepper Land Rover.... (the mrs doesn't know yet shhhhhh)

But im feeling great and thank you all for the support

-M

[katilea]

I don't smoke but I like a drink and being housebound for much of the last 10 years I've got into the habit of drinking at home and getting booze delivered with my food shop My worry would be if economic disasters meant we couldn't access money in banks and didn't have enough cash in the house, would I get the effects of going 'cold turkey' if I only have a small drink but almost daily if I suddenly can't have a drink at all for weeks or months on end.

I usually always have some alcohol in the house but have been fine if ran out a week before shopping was due, I should really try and and cut it out all together as even if there's never a major apocalypse in my lifetime the cost of food etc is going to rise so could do without feeling I needed to have some drink in the house just in case I needed one! I'm a spirits drinker so it's not just a case of a can of cider will do and I don't like beer or wine.

[MBJ]

I don't smoke and have never smoked so I don't know how much truth there is in this, but one thing smokers have always told me (usually on planes when going abroad), is that if they know they can't smoke then it doesn't bother them. So if things really did go downhill that bad, it might not even bother you. Of course, they could have been lying through their teeth

[jansman]

Old chap I knew when I had my first allotment 30 odd years ago,grew tobacco on 1 of his 2 plots. There was a tax free allowance ( I don't remember how much- does it still exist?) and at harvest he sent it away for curing and shredding for smoking ( in his pipe) to a co operative.

I am sure that curing and shredding could be done at home.Worth a thought for smokers perhaps?

[Arzosah]

bettersafe, thats amazing! Congratulations - there must be something really special about that book, its written a long time ago now. Good for jeebus too.

As for doing your own - I know that the Eden Project in Cornwall grow a few tobacco plants, as part of their exhibit on plants that humans use, so I know it can be grown in a greenhouse in the UK. And there's endless videos on youtube about smoking, hot and cold. Be a lot of effort to do it, though.

And I also remember staying on my cousin's tobacco farm in Zimbabwe before everything went pear shaped, and between the poisons in the soil (cyanide!) and the agrochemicals, I'm sure the nicotine isn't the worst problem in cheap cigarettes.

I'm very lucky that I tried smoking briefly when I was about 12, when I still had childhood catarrh, and couldn't breathe at all so never took it up. And equally lucky that I scared myself with alcohol-caused shakes in my 20s, and never drank as heavily as that again. There by the grace of god ...

[ukpreppergrrl]

Although I've never smoked (cigarettes) I have grown tobacco, just because I wanted to see if I could! I got the idea from my lodger who said that her great uncle and aunt, who were heavy smokers, grew it during the war instead of growing vegetables in their garden, as to them it was a more valuable crop! It's really, really easy. It grows quite happily in the garden so no greenhouse required. The seeds are teeny tiny yet the plants are big and beefy (about 5 foot high with broad, foot long leaves), the whole plant shaped like a Christmas tree! I started them off like I start tomato/chilli plants (warm indoors, under lights - but if you have any experience growing things from seeds you'll be fine starting them off any way I'm sure). They grow fast. Different varieties are available, I grew Virginia and Havana (I think that was the second one). Basically, I assumed that the former would be the tobacco that made stuff like Golden Virginia and the later would be the stuff that made cigars (or Old Holborn as to me it smells the same!). At the time my lodger smoked Golden Virginia (hate the smell) and I had the odd cigar (love the smell!!). Providing you don't grow them where they could cross-pollinate with ordinary garden nicotiana plants, the seeds are saveable for future crops. They're bigger and beefier than ordinary nicotiana plants, and the flowers are a dark pink rather than cream.

Have some photos somewhere as for a year I joined a tobacco growing forum to learn how to do it....aha...here they are at day 36 being hardened off outside and day 57 before being planted out. Sadly can't find the one of them in the garden fully grown. The 2p is for size comparison in the first picture. That's a 12 inch bucket in the second picture. They're big plants!


You can get the equipment for shredding leaves, but people on the forum just used ordinary kitchen choppers. I will just mention as a disclaimer that nicotine is very poisonous, so be careful with the sap and all!!! Wear gloves. To dry you just hang them up under a roof: a garage or car port would be perfect. You chop them after drying, in fact it's best to chop as you need it and store them whole dry. You can rehydrate them a little by sprinkling with water if they get too dry - think humidor. You have to pay the duty on any tobacco grown and processed, the tax is by weight of tobacco. But am guessing post-TEOTWAWKI your mileage may vary on how pernicious the Inland Revenue may be about this

I do still have a few seeds around, not sure how viable they are, and I do sometimes idly contemplate in a TEOTWAWKI scenario I could start up a little sideline for bartering purposes...