Dumb smoking question?

Question

First, no one talk about this being a dumb question, I know it's silly!

I hear people talking about how some people don't actually inhale when they smoke. Then what's the difference between someone saying they didn't inhale versus someone saying they did inhale? I mean you breathe it in, and it has to be inhaled, right?

Answer 1

It's not a dumb question, really.

Not inhaling means you just take the smoke into your mouth, not breathe it deep into your lungs.

Many women did it when 'everyone' smoked - actors who don't smoke do it when they have to play a part where they have to act as someone who smokes for a role.

(Think of it like the difference between drinking a coke and gargling. The coke you 'inhale'/swallow - the mouthwash you don't.)

Answer 2

Inhaled means into the lungs.  Not inhaled means holding the smoke in your mouth and then blowing it out.  My advice is to have more respect for your body.  It doesn't like smoke, in the lungs or the mouth!

Answer 3

After you take a puff of a cig, it's in your mouth, which is why people take a small breath right after so it goes into their lungs. That's call inhaling.

Answer 4

If you don't inhale, you just take it into your mouth, hold it there, and blow it out. If you do inhale, you take it into your mouth and then suck it into your lungs -- frequently after waiting a moment for the smoke to cool -- and then blow it out. You can get high from both -- the nicotine can be absorbed by the lining of your mouth -- but you get higher from taking it into your lungs. Pipe and cigar smoke is less alkaline than cigarette smoke, so it's usually too harsh to inhale, but more tobacco is smoked which makes up for the difference.