5 Minute Coffee Break - Roll up, Roll up: Quit not Switch!

Published at 19 April, 2021.

With the cost of branded cigarettes ranging from £9 to over £13, have you found yourself buying and rolling your own tobacco instead?  Can you hear yourself saying that you only smoke roll your own tobacco so it isn't as bad as manufactured cigarettes?   Rolling your own may appear to be a better and cheaper alternative to buying expensive branded cigarettes or ready-made generics, but the real cost to your health could be far more than you thought. Grab a coffee, read on and be inspired to Quit Not Switch and start saving your pounds and start saving your health at the same time

You may be surprised to read that hand rolling tobacco is just as harmful as the tobacco in branded, manufactured cigarettes and sometimes even more harmful. Rolling tobacco often contains high levels of nicotine but also high levels of the toxic chemicals that are cancer causing. The amount of tar in hand rolled cigarettes is often much higher than most manufactured brands. Rolling your own cigarettes can therefore be just as likely to cause cancers such as mouth cancers, throat cancers and lung cancers, not to mention other risks to our health such as heart disease and emphysema.

You may think you take less puffs per hand rolled cigarette and therefore smoke less tobacco, but in actual fact the opposite is true as you may find yourself smoking more roll your own cigarettes in the long run. The reality is that smokers often change their routine and smoking habits to smoke more and inhale harder when smoking roll your own tobacco.  Whether you use a filter or not the risks are still evident.

A great way to get motivated to quit not switch is to calculate the cost of your tobacco per day and put that money aside every day that you stay smoke free. You will be amazed how much you have saved. You could choose a charity that is close to your heart and donate some of the money you have saved. This will give you inspiration and motivation knowing that your efforts to quit are helping not only you but other people too! Having something to do with your hands is very important for people who roll your own tobacco as your hands need to keep busy and not be thinking about rolling up that tobacco. How about a squeezy ball counting down the seconds when you have a craving by squeezing the ball on every count until the craving has passed. It gets easier every time. Hand puzzles can help too and our favourite puzzle the Rubik`s cube, invented in 1974 and still available! How about matchstick models, make your own jewellery, knitting or crochet. You could even make your own greetings cards. Draw, paint, write or take up calligraphy.  Whatever keeps you motivated, busy and challenged will bring the most success and rewards of being smoke free and your hands may have even created a masterpiece in the process

Remember you are not a different kind of smoker if you roll your own cigarettes, you are still a smoker and a cigarette is still a cigarette whether it is  rolled or manufactured. There is no such thing as a “safer” cigarette so make the safer decision today to Quit Not Switch!