An Anti Experiment (again!) Hi,
I've been a smoker since I was a teenager. I'm a rather heavy smoker, and proud of it. One of the things that I really like about this whole things is how the addiction works. Addiction is wonderfully dangerous. I love it when I see how people who never wanted to smoke end up being hopelesly addicted just because they tried once. The slow but inevitable progression from smoking for the first time to a full time smoker is a great journey. The overconfidence of the new smoker ("I'm never going to become addicted"), the denial ("I just smoke when I want to"), the new limits that are constantly broken....
A couple of years ago, a frequent poster here (ThatGuyJason, shoutout to him!) posted about being and anti smoker and doing an experiment of smoking for a couple of months just to prove he could get addicted and then quit (he obviously failed). Ever since them, I've been wanting to try something like that.
To get to the point, I have a friend who has never ever smoked. He is against smoking, he's 100% anti (although not in an anoying way), he teases me about my smoking... and I've been teasing him back, telling him that he should try smoking. I've talked to him about the "Anti-Experiment" and said that I was sure he would not succeed either. Obviously, he is proud enough to say that he could start smoking and then quit. This has been going on for a while, and although it started as a joke, we've been talking about it more and more frequently, and it seems that he could be ready to try it.
So, why am I posting this?
The answer is not that simple.
On one hand, I want to hear what you guys think. Obviously, I do want my friend to fail, and to become a smoker. But at the same time, I'm aware that maybe I shouldn't want that. Is it ok for me to make him try this, being fully aware that he might become hooked forever?
(on the other hand, he's fully aware of my intentions, so if he decides to do it, it will be his own decision).
Also, if you like the idea and would like to be informed about his progress, I would like to ask you what the challenge should be, exactly. Should I set up a number of packs? A number of days? Both? How much/how many? I'm thinking about it...
Lastly, he would be willing to post about this experiment over here, for those who are interested (just to be clear, I've talked to him about this site and he's been reading the forums, and he knows I'm writing about him, and he's OK with that). So, I just want to know if any of you would be interested in reading about his "anti experiment".
Cheers!
J |