I didn't think you were, and I understand you reason for being sensitive to it. I am in no way saying we shouldn't prepare for the worst. I am prepared.

I have personally been at ground zero of five natural disasters and some man made ones if you count war. Hell, I was three years old in the middle of Iran's revolution in 79. I have also been through many survival courses to include multiple SERE courses, tracking, hunting, foraging, and urban, jungle and desert warfare training. So, I know my experience with disasters and knowledge of it isn't worthless.

Every disaster I have been to seemed to play out fairly the same way. For the first week or so, people team up and helped each other despite their differences. Within a few weeks supplies start dwindling. People start hiding things from each other. Within a month, theft, rape and other forms of desperation and evil start to appear including pandemics like tetanus (tetanus isn't something we have to worry about in the U.S. since even the poor get vaccinated, but we would see some form of pandemic if our infrastructure shut down for a month or more).

My suggestion about tobacco and alcohol is for the immediate week or so after the SHTF. If I only had my bag with me, I may not have been able to bring much more than a week or so of food. I am likely to run into someone during that time who has food and is hurting for a smoke in the next town where his house still stands. I have seen this done to survive with my own two eyes.

I watched a couple of boys hiding near our base camp in the Philippines. They had a little tarp in some bushes. We decided to go check them out for security reasons. They were eating from a couple cans of food when we got there. They offered us some food. We declined and asked them why they were there. They said being near the U.S. military is the safest place for them to hide their cigarettes. Neither smoked, and neither had more than a few cans of food and some fruit at a time, but they both had fresh food every day until we left three months later and the country had started to turn the corner to recovery.

That said, I know that is an extreme example, but I am not saying stash an entire box full of cartons of cigarettes. Hell, you don't even have to stash cigarettes at all. Seeds would work fine in the long haul. Candy may work fine in the immediate time after the "event."

My point is, it is always good to have something you don't mind trading away (cigarettes in my case) for something you may need to refilling on.

I do admit though. I have a flask of Jack in my bag for me. Moral is a valuable commodity and a little luxury like a few swigs off a bottle of Jack can go a long way in getting it for you if you are in the middle of a $%#@ storm. This too, I've seen and experienced with my own eyes.