...

I put 'don't know'. It appears that your poll is unbalanced, Mercat. The choice here is getting drunk every day or having two cigarettes a day.

IMO if the choice was more balanced. Alchohol, if moderately used, is fine to drink. Cigarettes, how many are being smoked, are going to have a negative effect on your body and everybody elses.

Again, my opinion . . .

Same thoughts here....One against the other...cigarettes are the worst easily....they're bad for you AND  people that have to put up with the second hand crap :P

In the scenario described, I 'd say that alcohol would be worse.

As far as the two go generally, it's a bit of a difficult one. Nicotine is bad because of the health implications to the smoker & those around them, alcohol is bad because of health & behavioural implications to users & society. My girlfriend is a drug & alcohol mental health nurse, she states that immediate withdrawal from alcohol (cold turkey) is well known to produce a far higher instance of convulsions than most other drugs, including heroin & crack cocaine. In the UK we are currently making moves to reduce the harm nicotine does by banning smoking in public places, but we have a real problem with alcohol abuse- our towns are a wasteland of drunken revellers at weekends, with alcohol-related public order offences & hospital entries being very commonplace. Our government is currently trying to introduce 24-hour alcohol sales in the UK, which I am hoping will have the desired effect of reducing the 'binge drinking' mentality our previously limited pub opening hours have created.

Whilst acknowledging the comments about getting drunk v 2 cigarettes, etc, which is a tad lopsided

I say alcohol is much worse, because it turns some people into obnoxious a-holes  :(  In some cases, they don't need any help.    ;D

Whilst acknowledging the comments about getting drunk v 2 cigarettes, etc, which is a tad lopsided

I say alcohol is much worse, because it turns some people into obnoxious a-holes  :(  In some cases, they don't need any help.    ;D

I'd agree with both of those. We seem to have this mentality in the UK which is the exact opposite of the 'Drink responsibly' mentality our government is (half-heartedly) trying to engender in us; people don't seem to want to stop at drinking until they're sociable, they want to get completely 'out of it', to the point where they're vomiting, fighting, eating dodgy kebabs etc. It seems to me that people drink as much as possible, in order to get the maximum effect whilst the pubs & clubs are open; hopefully, once people become aware that they don't have to cram their drinking into the few hours before 11pm/ 2am, then they'll stop drinking as fast as they can, and become more aware of the state they get themselves into- this could lead to people stopping drinking when they feel like they've had enough, rather than just carrying on because there's still an hour of drinking time left.
I do enjoy drinking myself, but rarely venture into town on a Friday or Saturday night, just because of my compatriot's lack of decorum when drunk. It is also noticeable that the women seem to be more 'mad for it' than the men, when I go out in a group- blokes seem to just drink at a steady pace, whereas women I know tend to go for drinks with a higher alcohol content, often mixed with caffiene, frequently with shots of spirits in between 'long' drinks. Us blokes just drink beer, and watch the ladies become incoherent two hours into the evening...in my circle of friends it's got to the point where blokes are asking for Rohypnol to put in their own drinks by mid-evening, just so we're on a similar wavelength to the crazy laydeez... ;D

I'm still not convinced that any change in the law re: closing hours would have any affect on the way many British people drink.  Many bars and pubs are open until 2 a.m. now but it still hasn't stopped people being slaughtered by 11.00 (or earlier)

For whatever reason there is a different culture here.  There isn't the 'cafe culture' of mainland Europe and changing to 24 hour opening won't create one IMHO.

Yep, I'm not convinced it'll work immediately, Karen, but I'm holding out hope. I think a lot of the current excess drinking problem is due to the 'time restriction' mentality; we've only got a short weekend to cram our drunken release into, and within that only a few evening hours where people of a similar mentality amass. (This 'trying to get the most out of a short time' concept explains some of the 'Brits abroad' phenomenon too, I think). Quite often the people who engage in this binge drinking don't drink at any other time, so have little idea of how alcohol affects them; what I'm trying to say is that currently it seems people only heed what time they have left for drinking, rather than how drunk they actually are. If the government were to change the focus of their alcohol strategy to make people more conscious of their own state, then I think people may gradually focus on that, once the time restriction is removed- if everyone 'knew their limits' a bit better, there might not be so much trouble...

I think the whole British attitude is wrong.  Many people go out with the aim of getting slaughtered and consider the evening a failure if they haven't spewed up and woke up with a serious headache.  Lots of people don't know how to have one or two social drinks and I'm not sure that the time the bar is open has anything to do with it.  Maybe I've been mixing with students too long  :-\\ but that's how things seem to me.

It's like choosing the lesser of two evils. I picked both.

Tanya

Cigarettes cause cancer, damage lung and teeth, have a bad smell, drain money from your pocket, and have second hand effects.

Alcohol is ok in moderation, but getting drunk is overkill, not mention it turns people into jerks.

I would go with both.

what, if someone drinking alcohol without being drunk & smoking minimum 7-8 cigarettes/day?? in this case, i think alcohol is better coz having too much alcohol will make the nerves weaker but nicotine will damage ones heart gradually.   

I remember this poll!  It's over four years old, and I still can't answer it because it still makes no sense!
:D

I accidentally voted for the first "don't know."  I was actually leaning more towards the second one.  ;)

FYI: There was a glitch in the system and old polls were effected. So, now old polls have 2 of the same answers and one of the answers disappeared. You can look at any old poll on the boards and you will see ALL of them are like that. I'm not too sure when the glitch happened so I don't know how old the poll had to be to have been effected.




Cat