Musings on smoking

Why do people smoke? What I use to rationalize people smoking in my head is to imagine that someone they are close to smoked near them at some point before high school graduation. Parents or friends I guess. And then they continue smoking because of the addiction... both chemical and psychological.



I find myself trying to apply logic to smoking, but it doesn't work well. Theoretically, no one would choose to smoke. It makes no sense to smoke. And it makes a lot of sense to not smoke. But in practice... well... lots of people smoke. Looks like in 2006 the CDC estimated that about 20% of the 18+ year old population in the United States smokes (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5644a2.htm). So one in five adults. I'd be curious to see how it spreads across age groups, gender, and geographic location (among others), but really my curiosity is based on the personal experiences near people who smoke, and an un-scientific observation that physically attractive women in bars, pubs, and clubs seem to all smoke. But that will get way too involved if I try to get in depth on that one. So I'm going to go back to the basics. The pros and cons of smoking.



The Pros...

- once you're addicted, smoking a cigarette satisfies the addiction causing a feeling of relaxation.
- it's rebelious?



The Cons...

- It costs money.
- It kills you slowly and with horrible painful conditions.
- It kills the people around you with horrible painful conditions.
- It smells bad. Really bad.
- It leaves a film of some awful material on everything you smoke near.
- The stench clings so even when you're not smoking it can be smelled.
- Did I mention the horrible health effects yet?

Here we go... a better set of information than I could put together. More CDC numbers: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/factsheets/cig_smoking_mort.htm

Apparently over 400,000 people a year die from cigarette smoking. That's pretty nasty. So at this point I'm adding one more reason smoking people might use: they just don't care. They started smoking, and don't care enough to stop. They smell bad, they are spending hundreds of dollars they don't need to, they're ruining thier own health, and they're hurting the health of those around them. I don't get it. Logic says to me that anyone in their right mind would stop smoking... and go through anything to stop. Oh well. I guess smokers don't care.