Why do people smoke, when they know it's so bad for their health?

Because each cig has about 4,000 chemicals and more than one of them are highly addictive.

This is because smoking is highly addictive.

There are a lot of reasons- peer pressure, stress but most of all it is clever advertising.

“Advertising techniques are one of the main reasons that people begin to smoke. Cigarette companies claim not to target young kids, but that is very untrue. Have you ever seen a billboard with normal, middle aged person smoking? Do they show people with stained teeth, wrinkled faces, and a large cloud of smoke hovering over their heads- the direct results of smoking. No.”

“When you teach teenagers the dangers of smoking, it has a limited effect. They already know it’s bad for them. Peer influence seems to play an important role in smoking. Teenagers who have close friends who smoke are more likely to be smokers themselves. Smoking may be viewed as a forbidden adult behavior, or even an act of defiance to authority figures.” Source

I hate the smell, I hate the idea of it, I hate standing outside in the cold, I hate the way it makes my throat feel in the morning, but I can’t quit for good. Everytime I get pissed, happy, sad, or drink I want one and thats what I hate most of all. They are just addictive plain and simple.

Why do people continue to drink when they know they do stuff they regret when intoxicated? Why do people eat fatty, sugary foods that clog arteries and make them gain weight? Why do people play sports when they destroy their bodies doing so?

Because it feels good.

People are looking to relax. Cigarettes at first seem like an easy way to do so. I think peer pressure is a myth. There’s peer-influence, but no pressure.

Do you only do things that are good for you? I highly fucking doubt it.

Because everyone else does?~

katawagrey U was just about to say the same

We like to keep the population down.

@cheebdragon Who’s this “we” you speak of? Are you alien? wtf?

Same reason people smoke crack or drink alcohol. Because they want to and then they become addicted.

People are dumb…Doesn’t that pretty much answer everything? I live by Occams Razor

@jonsblond We the sheeple….~ who do you think?

The real question is not why do people smoke, but why do they ever decide to start smoking. Once you are a smoker you are in the grips of a terrible addiction that combines traditional addiction with habitual usage, so you have to overcome both your body and your mind to stop. But even with smokers bemoaning how hard it is to quit and all sorts of folks talking about all the bad things cigarettes do to your body, some folks persist in starting.

Of course, my son decided it would make him look grown up and his friends were pushing him to do it, so he tried smoking. However, I caught him ASAP because I am allergic to tobacco smoke. He discovered that it was much safer to tell his friends that his mom would kill him and take away his video games than it was to keep on smoking.

His friend is the one I really wonder about, because his father was a smoker who died two years ago from lung cancer. You would think that would bring it home to him, but I guess there is no good making assumptions where teenage boys are involved.

@cheebdragon I’ve got my eye on you pretty one. Sheeple/alien are all the same… ;)

@cheebdragon harsh. you dropped the f bomb “in i highly fucking doubt it” whats thats all about?

@cheebdragon – Serious lurve for “sheeple”!!!!

@iputthexintexas Shhhh… She’s alien. Watch your back!

The most important question and most mind boggling is why don’t they quit? They are killing themselves and those around them and wasting their money.

@Bri_L – Apparently you are not a smoker or you would know why so few manage to quit. Cigarette smoking is both physically addicting and habituating, and it is one of the hardest addictions to give up. My mother tried to quit for fifty years before finally succeeding.

Can’t link on the iPhone, so I’ll repeat in brief what I have stated in other threads: getting breaks during work, having a small amount of control over how I feel physically and mentally, the social benefits.

As has been so eloquently stated here, many smokers would love to quit. I am one of those people. I have smoked since I was 14. I am now 49. (Damn, it’s scary to type that high of a number when referring to my age). I have tried quitting countless times. It is the hardest fucking thing to do. Harder than anything, trust me. Even knowing all the bad press about it, and watching loved ones die of lung cancer and emphysema and other smoking related illnesses, the addiction is just really fucking hard to quit.

Unless you’ve smoked for a long time, I don’t expect you to understand. Sort of how I don’t understand why people have children. The thought of caring for the little monsters for at least 18 years scares the crap out of me.

Most smokers have tried a million times to quit and they’ll probably continue to try. Unfortionatly, the addiction is stronger in most cases. They know its bad for them but there’s only so much they can do. I’m not a smoker but I’ve seen all the shit people go through trying to quit. Cut them some slack man, its not easy for them.

@kheredia ^Thanks for the empathy :) ^ I keep trying though

@Darwin – your right I am not a smoker, and I never claimed it was easy. My sister is though and you’ve told me nothing she hasn’t.

I can’t think of any other situation where people rationalize their way into acceptance of death, killing others and wasting money like smoking.

Is it just that it happens slowly?

No matter what I have respect for every smoker out there who keeps trying whether it’s for 2 months or 50 years. If they succeed or don’t. Keep it up.

It’s because addiction happens so quickly. Someone starts smoking and before they realize it they have both an addiction and a habit to overcome. And it is a very difficult thing to stop doing. Beyond the physical addiction making it hard to stop, the stress relief that smoking provides is a very strong encouragement to keep smoking.

@Darwin – lurve. good points Darwin.

Just as an interesting story. I worked with a lady, 72 years old. She smoked since she was 14. Decided to quite one day and never touched a cigarette again. Never had trouble. Never got cranky. Nothing. I asked her if there were any side effects and she lifted her wig off, laughed and said “yeah my hair fell out.” Obviously not the norm.

I have been smoking since I was 14, and I have had a hell of a time quitting, and still unsuccessful. So I talked to a lady the other day, and I asked her how she quit. She said that she was ready, and just put it down. I’ve also been told that when you’re trying to quit, and you’re stressed out, the first thing that you reach for is a cigarette because the body doesn’t know how to handle the stress and pressure without it.

@Bri_L, I can’t think of any other situation where people rationalize their way into acceptance of death, killing others and wasting money like smoking. People waste money on lots of things. How about the folks that collect useless crap? I mean, who really needs four hundred salt and pepper shaker sets?

As for rationalization into the acceptance of death, everybody dies, buddy. Even your healthy yoga-prancing vegetarian ‘happy face’ individual will die, and sometimes by things that you’d never expect.

As for the link between second hand smoke and the death of others, there is no verifiable incontrovertible link between the two. The scientific evidence between second hand smoke and cancer deaths by nonsmokers used by the American Cancer Association is based on a study of a very small group of people, and they crunched the numbers to get the results they wanted, unfortunately.

I just can’t understand how my smoking for 30+ years doesn’t kill me immediately, yet someone who wanders by and inhales my secondhand smoke for a couple of minutes is going to fall over dead. It’s not logical. You want cancer-causing secondhand smoke? Start your car.

@evelyns_pet_zebra -

No one ever killed them selves or others with those items. They also have resale value, even if it is only part of what was paid.

Nice attempt at creative sarcasm but you avoid the point. Not everyone pays a ton of money to speed up the process. Rationalization of death. Thanks for proving my point.

Link between second hand smoke and cancer. That’s a lot of cooperative effort there. I think it is a little easier to see that the cigarette companies can use statistics in an attempt to twist their message.

Because the poisons are outside the car. They dissipate rapidly into the air in areas where most people don’t linger like roads and highways.

@Bri_L: Where do you live? Do you drink alcohol? Do you eat processed meat? Do you drink coffee? How do you get to work? Do you eat sugar? Do you handle money? Do you interact with other people?

Guess what, life is unhealthy. People do a lot of things that are very unhealthy for them. The only reason why you’re ragging on smokers is because it has become socially acceptable to do so. You can say you’re speaking out against smokers because smoking is unhealthy until you’re blue in the face but the truth is you’re only doing it because it’s okay to do so.

@Bri_L fine, but the stuff that comes out of your car, ever heard of smog? Ever heard of pollution alerts? Ever seen LA or any city of 1,000,000 people or more from the mountains or outskirts? The shit coming out of your car cools quickly, and hovers close to the ground. Diesel smoke contains carcenogenic particulates that once they get in your lungs, they NEVER come back out. No one is taxing the fuck out of the oil companies yet.

As for links, read this one, And as @KatawaGrey, relates above, it is socially acceptable to rag on smokers. The government makes tons of $$$ by taxing tobaccco. They figure if they make ciggies too expensive to afford, then people will quit. If everyone quits smoking, where are they going to get the taxes they put on tobacco? That source of tax income will dry up.

In my opinion, they should also tax people who have babies, because of the number of soiled plastic diapers going into the landfills. Plastic is nonbiodegradeable, and baby shit, well baby shit should be declared a hazardous substance.

I think people having more than two children are creating an unnecessary drain on the earth’s natural resources, and if you don’t want me to smoke around you, then please keep your “Petri dishes with legs” away from me. Because of the filthy hands of a toddler last year, my wife nearly died from a common bacterial infection. That child is forever banned from entering my house until it is at least 18 yrs old, and I am still meeting any kids at my door with a big can of Lysol and a garden hose.

But no one is taxing or banning children yet. I would, if I was in charge. =)

And if a shelf full of ceramic cats falls over and kills the collector, does that mean we have tax people who collect useless bits of crap?

You can despise smokers all you want, but until you know of the other pollutants in the air, you really don’t have a leg to stand on. Mercury comes from burning coal, and it is EVERYWHERE. Coal is the number one source of electricity in the US. It is cheap, plentiful, and won’t be going away anytime soon.

There are more BTUS of coal in the state of IL than there are BTUs of oil in all of Saudi Arabia. Go here for proof of this proven fact.

Life is about choices, your results may vary.

@evelyns_pet_zebra: I’m glad you brought up the children thing. Where we differ on our opinions I love children and plan on popping out a bunch but I agree that kids are germ magnets. If you have kids in different schools, that’s a whole bunch of different sets of germs. I used to know this family with four kids in three different schools and when one of them got sick, they all got sick. The point is that life is unhealthy. Cigarettes don’t kill people, life does!

Of course, people always seem to ignore the fact that cigarettes alone don’t cause problems. there are a huge number of genetic factors. My mother has zero health problems from smoking. In fact, cigarettes have saved lives. I’m sure she would have killed my grandmother by now if she couldn’t light up. :)

@evelyns_pet_zebra When the revenue from taxing cigarettes dries up because they’ve over-done the whole “cigarettes are evil” thing, that’s when we’ll finally see marijuana get legalized. Huge tax revenues there.

[mod says] Personal attacks are not permitted and have been removed.

@augustlan Thank you.

@augustlan – I am sorry for my part in it.

Thank you, gentlemen. Now behave yourselves. :)

I feel maybe I should apologize too. Sorry auggie.

I just wanted to chime in and say that it is totally possible for some people to quit cold turkey – I have quit numerous times cold turkey and started years later just because I wanted to to smoke…because I liked it…but I wasn’t ever physically addicted…I do know that not everyone’s body chemistry works the same way and that it isn’t addictive to certain individuals

For about 18 months, I was smoking a pack-a-day of GPC Cigarettes. Sometimes a little more than a pack.

I gave it all up one day while ingesting a certain substance discovered by Dr. Albert Hofmann.

That was more than a decade ago, and I still haven’t smoked a cigarette since then.