Stackerlee: You know, nicotine is a depressant (and a stimulant, too, depending on dosage), meaning that it RELAXES you.

Oh, yeah, I felt really relaxed after I tried it.

Maybe you're confusing "relaxed" with "temporarily took the monkey off".

I feel really good if I take off a pair of shoes which is hurting me but that doesn't mean I walk around in tight shoes just so I can take them off and go "aaaah".

Can you imagine a situation where a bunch of smokers are pinned down for 48 hours and they forgot to bring extra smokes? Is that what the army needs, a bunch of people in withdrawal on the front line?

The army already bans smoking out on patrols because it lets the enemy know you're coming from hundreds of yards away. Do smokers enjoy being on patrol and not allowed to smoke? Maybe some of them are tempted to sneak one in when they're on guard duty - nobody will know, right?

They may be all big grown up men out there (most of 'em) but from an army logistics point of view ... smoking is bad.

Sgt Otter: "Up for three days and powered by nicotine and Saudi Arabian Mountain Dew" Donut approves.

I want a Saudi Arabian Mountain Dew.

Can troops ship shiat back? Someone should be importing stupid little trinkets like that. The ThinkGeek crowd would eat it up.

/can use the profits to buy more cigarettes

I don't know if it has been mentioned but every active duty member went through basic training. Eight weeks of supposed detox. An eight week stop smoking program and tobacco use is still at 36%.

/You want to make something happen, light a smoke.

Thunderpipes: This is just all part of the liberal commies control machine. Alot of Farkers agree with most control, but where does it end? Think of all the things you are not allowed to do/own now as opposed to even 10 years ago. Liberals Communists are all about controlling every single action you do as long as it is their agenda. Smoking, what's next, playing poker? Emailing home? Masturbating? You call me a troll because I am pissed about the sissy car laws, how would you like it if they took away Palin bashing or Bush jokes or $4.00 a bottle Farker she-man beer?

50 years later it's the same BS argument.

Bob16: Well you guys are big and tough. Seems like you ought to have no problem dealing with a liberal like me.

You sound like fun, wanna have a beer? I have to warn you, you are going to need to bring the booze.

/probably more liberal than you.
//so liberal that my oxygenated blood is blue.

Joce678: Can you imagine a situation where a bunch of smokers are pinned down for 48 hours and they forgot to bring extra smokes? Is that what the army needs, a bunch of people in withdrawal on the front line?

Medals have been awarded for actions with a lot less motivation.

Until I enlisted I had never been around that percentage of smokers. Didn't hang around with the smokers in HS and back then (mid 80's) smoking in college was oh-so uncool (as opposed to now, can't believe how many smoke at my alma mater). Anyway, tobacco products were dirt cheap/heavily subsidized when I was in after college. In Germany I had to sign to the effect that I wouldn't be re-selling my cigarette ration to the Germans.

/and I hated picking picking up butts on police call...

izen: holy cow. just Wiki'ed this guy.
just.... wow.... jesus.

this only deepens my love of military pilots. they rate up there with chaplins and, well.... i was gonna say medics, but that's what i am, so....

Agreed - that is a hero. And it's so sad how people reacted to what he did.

TheMutineer: Until I enlisted I had never been around that percentage of smokers. Didn't hang around with the smokers in HS and back then (mid 80's) smoking in college was oh-so uncool (as opposed to now, can't believe how many smoke at my alma mater). Anyway, tobacco products were dirt cheap/heavily subsidized when I was in after college. In Germany I had to sign to the effect that I wouldn't be re-selling my cigarette ration to the Germans.

/and I hated picking picking up butts on police call...

word. since i quit i HATE those police calls and i feel bad for all the people who had to pick up my butts before i finally quit. the rations thing applies to liquor too, and it still goes on today. i'm stationed in Germany right now, where were you stationed, out of curiosity?

dipdunk:

At first I didn't really have much of a problem with the idea of 18-20 yr old service members being allowed to drink, but then I realized that they can and will do stupid shiat just like the rest of the population their age who get out into the world on their own. I don't want them on my roads, and I don't want to see them get hurt.

strife: dipdunk:

At first I didn't really have much of a problem with the idea of 18-20 yr old service members being allowed to drink, but then I realized that they can and will do stupid shiat just like the rest of the population their age who get out into the world on their own. I don't want them on my roads, and I don't want to see them get hurt.

and go on the roads they do.
three DUI's in the first four days of being back from Iraq (last month), and that's just in our Batallion, which is support (non-infantry). ...don't think i want to know how many grunts in the brigade got DUI's.

izen: TheMutineer: Until I enlisted I had never been around that percentage of smokers. Didn't hang around with the smokers in HS and back then (mid 80's) smoking in college was oh-so uncool (as opposed to now, can't believe how many smoke at my alma mater). Anyway, tobacco products were dirt cheap/heavily subsidized when I was in after college. In Germany I had to sign to the effect that I wouldn't be re-selling my cigarette ration to the Germans.

/and I hated picking picking up butts on police call...

word. since i quit i HATE those police calls and i feel bad for all the people who had to pick up my butts before i finally quit. the rations thing applies to liquor too, and it still goes on today. i'm stationed in Germany right now, where were you stationed, out of curiosity?

108th in Wildflecken. I don't think it's a US post anymore. As I was ETSing the unit was being moved back west closer to Division HQ in BK. They used to fire just about any piece of arty in the Army armory there...stuff that would rattle my windows from 2 miles off.

OgreMagi: Is that what the army needs, a bunch of people in withdrawal on the front line?

Medals have been awarded for actions with a lot less motivation.

Yeah, we could have a special medal for "going without nicotine above and beyond the call of duty".

Thunderpipes: Either you are for personal freedom or you are not. You are either for governmental control or you are not.

Thunderpipes, you're being excessively simplistic here. A person can be for personal freedom without being for every personal freedom, and a person can be for some governmental control without being for all governmental control.

Someone can be for the personal freedom to walk around in public in a bathing suit and flip flops, but draw the line at allowing people to walk around naked in public. Someone can be against government control over artistic expression in general, but in favor of the government banning actors under the age of 18 from appearing in pornography.

What you're saying is equivalent to saying you can be either an anarchist or a totalitarian, and that anything in between is at best hypocritical and at worst impossible. That's just flat out nuts.

I hate cigarettes as much as any man alive, but the artcle has a basic mistake built in: smokers consume LESS social services, because they die sooner than non-smokers.

In addition, having "been there and done that," I can assure you there is only one medication which will quell the withdrawal poangs to the point where the average person just might make it to the end of the day.

That medication is hemp, in 250-500 mg. doses every 2-4 hours. There is no indication that more would do any good, not that I think that would stop any of you.

This medicine is also effective in treating binge drinking, aqs has been proven across the nation: When "pot" was ghe drug of choice on campus, off-campus gin mills went broke all across the nation, only to resurrect in the 70s when a new generation of drunken college students snubbed their seniors with their declasse' marijuana, and resumed drinking by the boatload.

If you do not smoke and drink, you not only pay less in taxes, you also live longer, to collect more benefits.

If that is obvious to me, it is certainly obvious to the people who collect taxes, so now you know why marijuana is really illegal!

olddinosaur: When I went through nicotine withdrawal after 3 packs of non-filters a day for over 35 years, I suffered mood swings, fits of age, psycotic reactions---all the wonderful things you see in the movies, except it is real---and it lasts for 90+ days, as opposed to 72 hours for "coke": and "smack" and all that baby-stuff.

To understand what it feels like, first stay awake 48 hours so you feel like sh*t warmed over, then eat about 20 no-doz on an empty stomach, wash it down with plenty of black coffee and then hit about 4 sheets of really bad blotter acid, one after the other every 30 minutes or so.

Then crash for 8 hours, and do it again, about 20 times in all.

Or just smoke a hell of a lot of cigarettes and quit, and you will know why I say: Nicotine is what "smack" wants to be when it grows up.

5290 days of liberation from the slavery of nicotine addiction as of today.

Daaaaammm... I had it easy... but then I quit a 2 pack a day ultra-lights habit (should have just smoked paper).

/Started in the Navy
//Quit cold turkey 15 years later, the day my son was born.

merreborn: You can smoke all you want... as long as you foot the bill yourself when your blackened, shriveled lungs give out on you.

You can ski/snowboard all you want...as long as you foot the bill for your broken limbs
You can eat all the bacon you want...as long as you foot the bill for your clogged arteries
You can do less than the approved amount of daily exercise...as long as you foot the bill for your extended care

What do YOU like to do? I'll bet some govt/hospital bean counter will think its dangerous.

Great idea on paper -- it will save the taxpayers untold millions in later decades, as the VA slowly stops having to pay for the result of a lifetime of smoking. Bad idea in practice -- let the people who volunteer to stand up and take a bullet for you have a few perks.

izen: strife: dipdunk:

At first I didn't really have much of a problem with the idea of 18-20 yr old service members being allowed to drink, but then I realized that they can and will do stupid shiat just like the rest of the population their age who get out into the world on their own. I don't want them on my roads, and I don't want to see them get hurt.

I just found Wildflecken on Bing-maps (yes, I'm giving MSFT a look). The over head view was exactly as I remembered the maps but then it struck me...not a single parked vehicle, it's definitely turned back over to the germans. I still thank my lucky star that the closest my unit came to Iraq in 91 was pulling guard duty at Rein Mein.

Stay safe

Great Justice: There is a major difference between a military smoking ban and encouraging the troops not to smoke. The first is retarded and the second makes perfect sense.

/nonsmokers run faster longer
//faster soldiers live longer

No soldier can outrun a bullet.

I Said: ummmm . . .

How about, since these men and women get stationed in often god awful places and face the risk of getting killed or captured by others who viciously hate them, and we already regulate alcohol which I'm sure is something many don't like (although for good reason for that substance), we just let them smoke and stop trying to be massive pains in the asses about how others deal with their own health?

You sound like an unenlightened mouth-breathing tea bagger. The government knows what is best for you. Why not let it watch over you from cradle to grave like a good citizen?

Bob16: Well this probably explains why the US military can't beat a bunch of third world farmers.

It's kind of ridiculous to consider yourself to be a big tough soldier if you can't do something like give up cigarettes.

You sound like the product of our public schools. You blind hatred is almost as pronounced as your ignorance. You are a spoiled little Gameboy child who probably lacks a true father figure in your life.

Joce678: OgreMagi: Is that what the army needs, a bunch of people in withdrawal on the front line?

Medals have been awarded for actions with a lot less motivation.

Yeah, we could have a special medal for "going without nicotine above and beyond the call of duty".

You missed my point. A few soldiers pinned down by the enemy. Then they run out of smokes. A few hours later one will snap, "fark this, I'm getting out of this cluster-fark!" He shoots his way through 50 taliban, finishes off the last dozen with his knife because he's out of ammo. Not to be a hero. He just wants a farking smoke right damn now!

Really prime, well aged, Bull Shiat like this is the real reason they invented hand grenades and automatic weapons. "No Sir, I respectfully refuse to tell them they can't smoke while they are holding loaded guns."

chairborne: I just thought of something that would save the VA a whole hell of a lot of medical bills. We should just sterilize everyone when they join the military. It's so simple, and no more paying for those expensive dependents...

Actually, didn't a General recommend banning marriages for younger enlisted a few years back? Not quite the same idea, but very close.
[satire ON]
I actually think mandatory sterilization at birth is a good idea. Force people to get Parenting Licenses by taking classes and passing a test before getting it reversed. For that matter, I also support Turing tests in the voting booth. No pass, no vote, but no indication + lollipop for participating.
[satire OFF]

izen: the Army hands out Wellbutrin like candy to soldiers interested in quitting

And thank God for that. Martial Medical takes PM (preventive medicine) far more seriously than civilian HMOs. Never understood that, personally...

/Desert Storm Vet
//Quit smoking in BT
///Restarted first night in AIT
////Still cussing self for that one

Whatever you eat, drink, smoke, or chew...
The Health Police are coming for you.

There are more government employees than enlisted military. Thus, there is an even greater cost for healthcare of government employee smokers. How bout this- The ONLY government employees who can smoke are enlisted in the military !Everyone else employed by government has to quit. Shoot that one across the bow and see how quickly this idea dies.

olddinosaur: I hate cigarettes as much as any man alive, but the artcle has a basic mistake built in: smokers consume LESS social services, because they die sooner than non-smokers.

In addition, having "been there and done that," I can assure you there is only one medication which will quell the withdrawal poangs to the point where the average person just might make it to the end of the day.

That medication is hemp, in 250-500 mg. doses every 2-4 hours. There is no indication that more would do any good, not that I think that would stop any of you.

This medicine is also effective in treating binge drinking, aqs has been proven across the nation: When "pot" was ghe drug of choice on campus, off-campus gin mills went broke all across the nation, only to resurrect in the 70s when a new generation of drunken college students snubbed their seniors with their declasse' marijuana, and resumed drinking by the boatload.

If you do not smoke and drink, you not only pay less in taxes, you also live longer, to collect more benefits.

If that is obvious to me, it is certainly obvious to the people who collect taxes, so now you know why marijuana is really illegal!

except... if it was legal, They would simply tax marijuana more and if they catch you growing pot in your house they will simply beat the shiat out of and charge you with tax evasion. So it won't really improve.

There are a lot of people in the military who will never face the stresses of combat (as in, the majority). I say institute the ban on everyone except those who are deploying to a combat zone. I mean, they control every other aspect of our lives, why not this one??

I'm pretty sure we would have lost half my team to blue/blue combat if they had taken away the copenhagen in Iraq.

mediablitz: Bio-nic: Live with the fact that people make risky choices with their lives, and leave em the hell alone.

Um, WTF dos that have to do with them VOLUNTEERING to join the service and VOLUNTARILY agreeing to follow the UCMJ and all other rules?

I spent 6 years in the military. I understood there were a lot of things I couldn't do because I was in the military. WHY is this different?

"Drinking causes a definite and immediate impairment to your ability to rationally function and think. Smoking does not. "

Yeah. Uh huh. Nicotine isn't one of the most dangerous addictive drugs on the planet. It doesn't immediately affect heart rate at all.

Make all the risky choices you want when you are a civilian. Join the military? Abide by their rules. Pretty farking simple.

Fark You.

I've been in the Army for 15 years (12 active and 3 reserve). This isn't about some lowly private - it will affect the NCOs and Officers as well.

Put this in your pipe and smoke it:
"We trust your leadership will bring our sons and daughters home safe and sound. We don't trust you with a pack of Camels. Have a nice deployment."

Let's review...Fark You.

I'm five years from retirement, so let them pass this ban. I'll dump half a can of Copenhagen into my cheek, work up a mouth of chewspit, hawk it on the CSM's boots, and walk away from this career smiling.

And so, in conclusion, Fark You.

/smoke 'em if you got 'em

izen: after our PT run this morning the smokers all stood watching a non-smoker gasping and retching, simply because he was out of shape.

Heh.. Reminds me of when I used to smoke Marb Reds at Keesler AFB in Mississippi. After the run, we (the smokers) would all sit around in the little gazebo, watching quite a few of the non smokers vomit and stop to hydrate trying to finish the last lap.

wage0048: I Said: ummmm . . .

How about, since these men and women get stationed in often god awful places and face the risk of getting killed or captured by others who viciously hate them, and we already regulate alcohol which I'm sure is something many don't like (although for good reason for that substance), we just let them smoke and stop trying to be massive pains in the asses about how others deal with their own health?

Because one of the essential duties of a person in the military is to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to an emergency situation. It's kind of hard to do that when you're wheezing every time you lift your backpack.

This is one of those opinions that really annoys me as a smoking athlete. It just shows that people can't discern between two smokers. Yes the guy who smokes two packs a day and ignores every other aspect of his health isn't going to be doing so well. Take out the smoking for most of these people and they aren't going to be much better off. Then you have the people that eat well, exercise, and enjoy a cigarette when they slow down. These people are better off than most people. In competition I count smoking as one of my advantages. I can go smoke, calm my nerves and get my head back in the game.
It's the same with alcohol. People understand there's a difference between someone who enjoys a few beers after work and someone who drinks a bottle of jack every day. I can't understand why people can't grasp the distinction.

My best buddy died from smoking.
He got started in boot camp when he found out that smokers could take a smoke break and sit on the grass, while the non-smokers had to stand at parade rest.

What kind of retarded shiat is this? Yeesh. Hell, I don't even smoke cigarettes, and I can objectively say this is beyond stupid.

/Last year, my company instituted a smoking ban on the entire property.
//You can't even smoke in the parking lot.
///Having hundreds of pissed-off machinists going through nicotene withdrawals is never a good idea.

FTFA:

Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.


What's next....banning the sale of alcohol on military property?

/And Kenneth Kizer is a cocksucking douchebag.

President Obama, he says, could set an example for the military by ending his own smoking habit once and for all. Last month, Obama said he is "95% cured" but "there are times when I mess up" and smoke.

For God's sake, let the man smoke! He controls the button anyhow and I'd hate him to get all jonesed out, needing a cigarette when arguing with the Russians!! Besides, he has to put up with legislators trying to sneak things past him every minute of the day!

The way I look at it, if some soldier out there on the front lines wants to smoke between dodging bullets, IEDs, Joe-average-citizens with a bug up their arses against infidels and owning AK-47s and news groups from home assuring them that they're only there for the oil -- let them smoke.

Besides, they have some really big guns.

On a side note, I'm watching all of this antismoking stuff with interest. The massive media campaign, lawsuits, psychologically designed antismoking advertisements, exaggerated research results and the politically correct movement followed by carefully cultivated hate against smokers can, quite easily, be turned against any form of legal pleasure we use.

That means booze. Just remove tobacco from the script and substitute it with booze and you drinkers will find that $1.25 can of beer at the store costing $5.00 and folks scowling at you for buying it.

Coffee can be next.

Just wait for it.

mediablitz
Stackerlee: You know, nicotine is a depressant (and a stimulant, too, depending on dosage), meaning that it RELAXES you.

Tell me how being impaired EITHER WAY is a good thing as it pertains to the military. Also, the link between nicotine and depression is well established. So it is good to put people in high stress situations, then let them take a drug that either stimulates them (as cigarettes usually do) or depress them (as long term usage does)?

It we were talking about meth, no one would bat an eye agreeing they shouldn't be taking it. But somehow saying "cigarettes" instead of nicotine makes it okay.

And quit pretending: People smoke because they are ADDICTED. No one smokes their first cigarette and feels relaxed. Over time, yes, it can be a depressant. But people smoke because nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet.

Did you know that being in a stressful environment, such as a war zone, also alters the mind? Caffeine- found in coffee, tea and mt. dew- is a stimulant that can lead to ulcers, indigestion and heartburn. Plastics contain artificial estrogen that may cause birth defects and prostate cancer. Meat has saturated fat, little debbie snack cakes (and everything else) contain hfcs which acts differently from other sweetners in that it blocks a chemical telling you you've had enough. Everything you do and take in alters your brain and will, most likely, kill you. Should we deny of these to the armed forces?

If you're in a war situation, you're going to be impaired in some way psychologically. A farking cigarette at least gives a person a minimal amount of feeling in control of their environment.

I know it's not cool/correct to say it, but I love cigarettes. Obviously, I'm aware that part of the reason why is the nicotine addiction, but to reduce it entirely to just the addiction aspect is about the same as reducing love for another person to a purely chemical reaction; there's just more to it.

I leave for Navy bootcamp in a week and a half, and I'm going to miss cigarettes, and I don't want to die prematurely/ have a robot throat voice just because I liked tobacco. But seriously, wtf? Why do they have to talk about these stupid bans right before I start my 6 years.

chairborne: The first time I ever smoked was in a foxhole in a tiny fob in Afghanistan, I was having trouble staying awake and didn't want to dip like everyone else, so I bummed a cigar off of a warrant officer. Don't inhale, still run fast, still smoke cigars.

I was Sir Dipsalot until I got out, sort of tapered off in college (except for finals) and quit right after.

Nicotine does help you stay up longer than otherwise. And it doesn't give you the godawful headache you get if you shave a little off a claymore for a substitute dip (a VERY little between your cheek and gum...)

And yet they always fail to mention that smokers cost on average about 100,000 dollars less to medicare and social security due to the fact that they die earlier than non-smokers. But that's depressing to think about, so let's ignore it.

sexy-fetus:
It's the same with alcohol. People understand there's a difference between someone who enjoys a few beers after work and someone who drinks a bottle of jack every day. I can't understand why people can't grasp the distinction.

Ummm ... lots of people can have a couple of beers on a Friday/Saturday night (it's maybe the majority of drinkers). Very few people can smoke for just one or two days a week. Nicotine is addictive and causes withdrawal.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nobody under 25 has a valid opinion of his/her own personal smoking habit. At that age you think the anti-smokers are exaggerating everything, that you're in control, that you'll be the one to get away with it. In ten years you'll be smoking a whole lot more, getting angry when you can't get your fix and regretting every single one because you can feel how much it's farking up your body.

The only sensible option is to quit ... and the sooner you do it, the easier it will be.

Marpiddycity: If you're in a war situation, you're going to be impaired in some way psychologically. A farking cigarette at least gives a person a minimal amount of feeling in control of their environment.

Um, only if you're a smoker.

I know it's not cool/correct to say it, but I love cigarettes. ...I leave for Navy bootcamp in a week and a half

Oh, look. Another youngster who thinks he knows everything about smoking.

Rik01: let them smoke.

The army needs efficient pieces of meat. They have no problem lining people up and injecting them will all sorts of shiat, telling them exactly how much water they will drink per day and how many times they should be shiatting every day. What's different about telling them whether they can smoke or not?

Besides, they have some really big guns.

can, quite easily, be turned against any form of legal pleasure we use. That means booze. Just remove tobacco from the script and substitute it with booze

If the army was banning alcoholics would you have a problem. I guess not.

Coffee can be next. Just wait for it.

Oh, sure. Everything is either totally evil or 100% wholesome. Absolutely nothing can be in between.

The Army has a right to demand whatever it likes from soldiers and should ban anything which can impair people, because other non-impaired people's asses depends on it.

Smokers will immediately leap up and shout "well smoking unimpairs me". Um, maybe, but that's not what the Army is banning. The army is banning the behavior which appears when you're climbing the wall because you haven't got any smokes.

erewhon: Nicotine does help you stay up longer than otherwise. And it doesn't give you the godawful headache you get if you shave a little off a claymore for a substitute dip (a VERY little between your cheek and gum...)

You see the kind of things smoker-soldiers get up to when they can't get their fix...? THAT's what the Army is banning, not the times when you're off duty and relaxing.

I find it funny that the military seems so worried about smoking and yet does nothing about these KBR burn pits that fill bases with toxic smoke.

Lawmakers seeks details of burn pit data

Oh and I'm sure removing tobacco from the PXs and a blanket ban on smoking will help the Army and Marine Corps' issue with suicide/homicide in theater.

/Currently in Iraq
//Almost had a munity on his base when the PX ran out of dip

chronotron: I find it funny that the military seems so worried about smoking and yet does nothing about these KBR burn pits that fill bases with toxic smoke.

Lawmakers seeks details of burn pit data

Oh and I'm sure removing tobacco from the PXs and a blanket ban on smoking will help the Army and Marine Corps' issue with suicide/homicide in theater.

/Currently in Iraq
//Almost had a munity on his base when the PX ran out of dip

fark those burn-pits. i got lucky and barely even had to do that detail but just walking by was bad enough.

Joce678: sexy-fetus:
It's the same with alcohol. People understand there's a difference between someone who enjoys a few beers after work and someone who drinks a bottle of jack every day. I can't understand why people can't grasp the distinction.

Ummm ... lots of people can have a couple of beers on a Friday/Saturday night (it's maybe the majority of drinkers). Very few people can smoke for just one or two days a week. Nicotine is addictive and causes withdrawal.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nobody under 25 has a valid opinion of his/her own personal smoking habit. At that age you think the anti-smokers are exaggerating everything, that you're in control, that you'll be the one to get away with it. In ten years you'll be smoking a whole lot more, getting angry when you can't get your fix and regretting every single one because you can feel how much it's farking up your body.

The only sensible option is to quit ... and the sooner you do it, the easier it will be.

That was a close one. I almost went for it.
7.5/10

sexy-fetus:
That was a close one. I almost went for it.
7.5/10

You think I got the truth/hyperbole ratio wrong?

RichieLaw: 1) Smoking is bad.
2) Its costing the VA lots of money in smoking related costs.
3) The previous two points don't mean fark all when you think about the stress-relief available to persons who smoke who have no other outlet. Why cause additional stress to an already stressful situation. This is bureaucratic bull shiat of the nth degree.

1> Yeah, we know this. We've known it for 30+ farkin' years. Some people CHOOSE to smoke, as it is less expensive, and definitely more treatable on the side effects as most stress-relieving drugs on the market.
2> VA is a joke and a half when it comes to treatment. It's easier to just go elsewhere afterwords. I feel pain for those that have to use that system.
3> This to the Nth degree!!!!

Based on how many of the republican guard were spotted hiding in the desert because they decided to light up combined with the improved FLIR systems, it makes sense to ban smoking in combat.