Some people smoke because they think it’s cool and they eventually get addicted. Some smoke because it’s a way to destress and they are heavily reliant on it.
Not judging by the people I’ve known. Those who have smoked, drank, driven fast, eaten well, and all the various other things that are bad for our health have had clean quick deaths. Not a bad thing at all especially compared to my mother (who never did any of that) and has been basically a home-bound/bed-bound lump for 15 years and some of the other health nuts I’ve known who have gone the same route. Everyone is welcome to their own choices; mine fit me pretty well.
I smoke weed, not tobacco (although an occasional cigar is nice) and drink like a fish. I am 60; never thought I’d live this long, and never really wanted to.
I enjoy each day. When the negatives outweigh the positives, I’ll take a bow and exit, stage right.
Non-smokers have no idea how pernicious nicotine addiction is to a heavy smoker. The cravings come on fast and hard after just a few hours after the last cigarette. Relief comes on seconds after the first puff, and not much feels better than the first one in the morning. When you’re in this situation, you don’t ponder the way you will feel twenty years from now- now matters so much more. No, slow suicide isn’t in most smoker’s minds at all.
On a side note, some say marijuana is a gateway drug to worse things. For many, the worse things are cigarettes.
That’s what my Dad always said when I was a kid. Don’t smoke pot, because it’ll get you hooked on the really bad stuff, like tobacco.
And I was a pack a day smoker for the better part of a decade (just to ward off those who might say I dont know what it’s like).
I quoted this line to a couple of our E.R. docs (who see their share of COPD exacerbations and repeated heart failure episodes related to smoking) and they did indeed die quick clean deaths (the E.R. docs that is, from uncontrollable laughter).
May I ask what you find so strongly objectionable about it? Maybe in your case it wasn’t (and I’m not a smoker so I can’t claim any personal experience) but if many people say that nicotine was the toughest thing for them to kick, more so than any other drug, what do you object to about that statement?
Luckily most of my family has died suddenly at home bypassing the ER; and bypasses for that matter. Again, to each their own but to be gone well before the ambulance arrives doesn’t sound bad at all.
*"Smokers are four times more likely than non-smokers to become frequent visitors of emergency rooms.
That is one of the findings uncovered by a preliminary study led by Jessica Castner, a University at Buffalo emergency room utilization researcher…“People aren’t replacing their doctor; they are sicker, have more chronic diseases and are using everything more.”*
Smokers far more often become chronically ill and repeat users of medical facilities (as opposed to suddenly dropping dead at home after a healthy life).
Thats true, but I wonder to what degree that is due to lower education.
Meaning people who take up smoking tend to on average have lower human capital than people who do not smoke (as reflected in their lower education level).
So it is more that people who are prone to making bad decisions are also more likely to smoke.
I’m sure that, in this era, nearly every smoker knows full well what smoking does to the body. It’s just that the urge is highly potent anyway.
Or, could be that people just like to smoke. While it’s true that tobacco companies have enhanced their product to make it more addictive, the thing is, we’ve been doing this for far longer than that has occurred. Also, unless the Chinese companies do the same thing (including the pirate Chinese companies), it’s hard for me to buy that this is the sole reason people still smoke.
I smoke cigars. Afaik, Big Tobacco doesn’t generally adulterate them with extra addictive juju. And I’m not on some suicide kick. I just, you know, enjoy smoking. I enjoy cheese burgers too, and my WAG is that those are going to be what do me in at the end. But the irony of me living longer than some vegetarian runner type is what will put a last smile on my face as I shuffle off this mortal coil. 
I suspect the odds of developing emphysema, heart disease and other chronic smoking-related disorders correlate far better with pack-years than education level.
The point was that smokers by and large do not live healthy nicotine-drenched lives and then drop dead suddenly, snickering at the health nuts wasting away in nursing homes.