# Why are there so many 20-30 year old smokers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 26, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768 "2011-04-26T14:24:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/61 "2011-04-26T21:28:53Z")
So as not to fuel rachelellogram’s Kreskin delusion. I’ll summarize the submitted responses so far: rebellion social affiliation (opposite sex, friends, bosses) denial of harmful effects (I can live forever syndrome) like the taste, especially with alcohol employment benefits in restaurants stupidity Is that it? Anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/62 "2011-04-26T21:30:47Z")
I started smoking because my parents smoked and then my friends smoked. I kept smoking because I like the drug. Nicotine is great, it’s an upper and a downer at the same time. You can smoke a cigarette to get going in the morning and smoke a cigarette to wind down at night. I’m an addict, I make no bones about it. I drink too, which certainly exacerbates my smoking and there’s lots of reasons that people might have those first couple, but there’s only one reason that they keep doing it: nicotine is an appitite suppressing mood elevator and it feels good man. Why do young people keep smoking? Because some of us use drugs to get through life in place of coping skills. If you don’t need any drugs to get through your day, good for you. I personally need nicotine and alcohol and I’m not alone that’s not anything that’s generational. ---
**Author:** ![RainGrowsBrite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@RainGrowsBrite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RainGrowsBrite)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/63 "2011-04-26T21:34:55Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Do you really think every individual smoker incurs that much in end-of-life healthcare costs? Plenty of them will drop dead of heart attacks. Some will incur an ambulance ride, maybe a few revival attempts. Others will incur nothing but an official death declaration. > > Why did you make this thread? You didn’t really want to know WHY 20-30 year olds are smoking. You wanted smokers to post so you could berate them for it. The title of your thread isn’t appropriate. this ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/64 "2011-04-26T21:36:17Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > I started smoking because my parents smoked and then my friends smoked. I kept smoking because I like the drug. Nicotine is great, it’s an upper and a downer at the same time. You can smoke a cigarette to get going in the morning and smoke a cigarette to wind down at night. I’m an addict, I make no bones about it. I drink too, which certainly exacerbates my smoking and there’s lots of reasons that people might have those first couple, but there’s only one reason that they keep doing it: nicotine is an appitite suppressing mood elevator and it feels good man. > > Why do young people keep smoking? Because some of us use drugs to get through life in place of coping skills. If you don’t need any drugs to get through your day, good for you. I personally need nicotine and alcohol and I’m not alone that’s not anything that’s generational. Nothing like forthrightness. Own it. But I would expect that the majority of the 20-25% of 20-30 year olds that are smokers didn’t start smoking and become addicted to smoking with the same mindset as you. I may be completely delusional and wrong on that assumption, however. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/65 "2011-04-26T21:43:56Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > In the US alone, it kills over 400,000 people per year and costs our economy about $100 billion a year. What’s to like about it? This is a fallacy. Smokers actually end up saving the economy money–any losses they incur are more than made up by the fact they die 10 years younger. If your argument is hinged on economics, then you should be advocating everyone become a smoker. Cite: [http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html](http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html) > [@](#): > > However, smokers die some 10 years earlier than nonsmokers, according to the CDC, and those premature deaths provide a savings to Medicare, Social Security, private pensions and other programs. > > Vanderbilt University economist Kip Viscusi studied the net costs of smoking-related spending and savings and found that **for every pack of cigarettes smoked, the country reaps a net cost savings of 32 cents.** > > “It looks unpleasant or ghoulish to look at the cost savings as well as the cost increases and it’s not a good thing that smoking kills people,” Viscusi said in an interview. “But if you’re going to follow this health-cost train all the way, you have to take into account all the effects, not just the ones you like in terms of getting your bill passed.” ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/66 "2011-04-26T21:48:54Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > This is a fallacy. Smokers actually end up saving the economy money–any losses they incur are more than made up by the fact they die 10 years younger. If your argument is hinged on economics, then you should be advocating everyone become a smoker. > > Cite: [http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html](http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html) That’s only if you consider social security and medicare benefits and unchangable entitlement. We’re all going to face soon enough that that is not the case. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/67 "2011-04-26T21:50:06Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > That’s only if you consider social security and medicare benefits and unchangable entitlement. We’re all going to face soon enough that that is not the case. I thought we were discussing the present and not the hypothetical future. Bottom line: smokers have been saving the country money for decades. It’ll take a long while to make up for that, regardless of what changes are made. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/68 "2011-04-26T21:51:58Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Nothing like forthrightness. Own it. > > But I would expect that the majority of the 20-25% of 20-30 year olds that are smokers didn’t start smoking and become addicted to smoking with the same mindset as you. I may be completely delusional and wrong on that assumption, however. Sure they did. Of course I was 12 or 13 and I did it to fit in and look cool and be rebellious and all that fancy jazz. But I stuck with it because I like the drug. All smokers, even former smokers, like the drug. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/69 "2011-04-27T00:27:27Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Yet, when that smoker is lying in the hospital suffering from emphysema, or hooked up to the chemo treatment, and those costs are being covered by insurance or medicare or medicaid. It is the rest of us that are paying for your treatment, through higher insurance premiums or taxes, to the tune of about $100 billion a year. > > How about you refuse treatment when your time comes and die like that lion in the desert? This is completely wrong. Smokers die younger, saving the government money. Red Barchetta explains why. How stupid do you have to be to not understand that if smokers don’t die from smoking related causes, they tend to die from other illnesses, and that those illnesses also cost money to treat? > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > This is a fallacy. Smokers actually end up saving the economy money–any losses they incur are more than made up by the fact they die 10 years younger. If your argument is hinged on economics, then you should be advocating everyone become a smoker. > > Cite: [http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html](http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html) ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/70 "2011-04-27T00:28:38Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > That’s only if you consider social security and medicare benefits and unchangable entitlement. We’re all going to face soon enough that that is not the case. If you believe this, then why all the uproar about money that smokers are going to cost the government? ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/71 "2011-04-27T00:32:10Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Why did you make this thread? You didn’t really want to know WHY 20-30 year olds are smoking. You wanted smokers to post so you could berate them for it. The title of your thread isn’t appropriate. Agreed. > [@Cluricaun](#): > > I started smoking because my parents smoked and then my friends smoked. I kept smoking because I like the drug. Nicotine is great, it’s an upper and a downer at the same time. You can smoke a cigarette to get going in the morning and smoke a cigarette to wind down at night. I’m an addict, I make no bones about it. I drink too, which certainly exacerbates my smoking and there’s lots of reasons that people might have those first couple, but there’s only one reason that they keep doing it: nicotine is an appitite suppressing mood elevator and it feels good man. > > Why do young people keep smoking? Because some of us use drugs to get through life in place of coping skills. If you don’t need any drugs to get through your day, good for you. I personally need nicotine and alcohol and I’m not alone that’s not anything that’s generational. > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > But I would expect that the majority of the 20-25% of 20-30 year olds that are smokers didn’t start smoking and become addicted to smoking with the same mindset as you. I may be completely delusional and wrong on that assumption, however. You are completely delusional and wrong. What Cluricaun described is how most smokers feel. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/72 "2011-04-27T00:46:00Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > But I would expect that the majority of the 20-25% of 20-30 year olds that are smokers didn’t start smoking and become addicted to smoking with the same mindset as you. I may be completely delusional and wrong on that assumption, however. You start smoking for a myriad of reasons. I personally did not start to look cool. I hid it from all my friends and my family. Whatever the reason, once you start smoking, you are addicted. Smoking is so nice. I miss it SO much. I honestly miss the feeling of my lungs being worn out from smoking. I miss the taste. I miss the fact that everything in my house just smelled like smoke instead of whatever real life smells like now (it STINKS). Yesterday I noticed that the drive from the grocery store had like SEVEN stop lights and I got stopped at ALL of them. This never used to bother me because it gave me a chance to have a post-shopping cigarette. You non-smokers just…WAIT? Argh. I went to a concert the other day and was SO FUCKING BORED during the breaks. Seriously - non-smokers just stand around and wait for the next band. WTF? I went outside just to go outside. But I didn’t get to talk to anyone or meet anyone new because I wasn’t smoking. When you smoke you come up with a million reasons why you don’t want to quit just yet. They all make sense to you. “You might die early and it could be gruesome” is sort of a “meh” compared to all of the reasons why SMOKING ROOOOOCCCCKKKKSSSS! Then as you get older you try to quit, and you can’t, and you try again and again. I tried for about 5 years. Eventually you do manage to quit, or you don’t and if you don’t die from something else, you get to be one of those people with a trach tube or a oxygen tank or a chronic cough that can serve as useless poster child for why you shouldn’t smoke. I say useless because your story might be an inspiration for a handful of loved ones to not smoke, but to everyone else…meh. Anyway, _smoking is addicting_ and people in their 20s and 30s don’t think about dying because it’s so far away, and we can always quit and whatever. I don’t know why this is so unimaginable to you, but it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/73 "2011-04-27T01:50:17Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > > [@rachelellogram](#): > > > > Why did you make this thread? You didn’t really want to know WHY 20-30 year olds are smoking. You wanted smokers to post so you could berate them for it. The title of your thread isn’t appropriate. > > A bit defensive, much? Contrary to your allusions of omniscient mind readings of other posters you think you have, I seriously desire to know what motivates the majority of young people to start smoking in the first place, with the knowledge of its harmful effects. If we as a society could understand that, then maybe we could find ways to curb it. Eh, from where I’m standing, she seems to have a point. The only response you’ve praised is the one where **Cluricaun** basically admits to less than sensible reasons for starting. Everything else, you’ve pretty much just attacked as stupid. So from this third party’s POV you seem far from agenda-less. Just sayin’ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gomi5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@Gomi5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gomi5)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/74 "2011-04-27T02:22:12Z")
Yes, exactly everything that ZipperJJ said. Young people smoke because dying is an old person’s problem. And because it’s awesome. I quit when I was 35, New Years Day 2010. I’m glad I quit, and (not but) I miss it every day. But enjoy your high horse, OP. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/75 "2011-04-27T04:07:23Z")
Confirmation bias? ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/76 "2011-04-27T04:29:04Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > This was me. I was a social smoker in my teen years. In college I quit for a while then picked it back up and became a social smoker again. After college I became a more dedicated social smoker who could quit any time I wanted, but still smoked a pack a day. When I started smoking 2 packs a day is when I admitted to myself that I was really a smoker and that I was addicted and needed to quit. 4 years later I managed to quit. > > Smoking creeps up on you like that. This is a pretty typical story. Teenagers start smoking a few cigarettes a day and it takes years for them to work their way up to a pack a day. The conversion from social smoker to full time smoker is why you’ll see people smoking a lot in their 20s and 30s. Then it takes a number of tries for people to quit, but eventually some smokers win that battle, reducing the number of smokers in their 50s and 60s. Malcolm Gladwell presents an interesting theory regarding similarities between teenage suicide and smoking and a novel approach to reducing young adult smoking in [Tipping Point](http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_Tipping_Point#Chapter_7:_Case_Study:_Suicide.2C_Smoking.2C_and_the_Search_for_the_Unsticky_Cigarette). ---
**Author:** ![elninost0rm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@elninost0rm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elninost0rm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/77 "2011-04-27T11:43:07Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Is it that obvious? :rolleyes: Not what I would call a _hidden_ agenda. > > In the US alone, it kills over 400,000 people per year and costs our economy about $100 billion a year. What’s to like about it? Aye, I was being needlessly sarcastic. Apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/78 "2011-04-27T13:09:48Z")
I don’t think I’ve said there wasn’t an agenda to my OP. In fact I’ve stated that I don’t like smoking. [GASP!!!] Those of you that see my questioning of reasonings for why someone would start smoking as bashing are just being overly defensive. Get over yourselves. Red Barchetta makes a good point about societal savings for people that die younger from smoking. But the costs wasn’t the only negative thing that I pointed out…the other was the 400,000 people in the US that die annualy from smoking related illnesses. I have family members and friends that have died from smoking related illnesses, that I would rather not see expire early. And almost everyone I know, can say the same thing. I guess if you consider smoking as “living like a lion” and a badge of honor to die early…then knock yourself out. Seems like a pretty senseless way to kill yourself to me. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/79 "2011-04-27T13:31:35Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > I have family members and friends that have died from smoking related illnesses, that I would rather not see expire early. And almost everyone I know, can say the same thing. That’s the bizarre\* thing about free will and bodily autonomy. Adult humans are 100% free to poison themselves into an early grave, regardless of how you judge them or would like to see otherwise. \*good ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768/80 "2011-04-27T13:46:03Z")
Last time I checked, trying to stop someone from killing themselves was still a pretty noble thing to do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-so-many-20-30-year-old-smokers/579768.md?page=5)