What do you mean by “those were the rules”?
I was being facetious. In a rock band … you had to smoke … because everybody in rock bands smoked.
Because nicotine is poison no matter what form it’s in.
It is poison, agreed. But (and this should probably go into General Questions) is it anywhere near as harmful as tobacco smoke?
Categorically Yes. It is. My father, a 3-pk/day smoker since 18, at age 40 had bladder cancer, and at age 50 couldn’t walk due to massive plaque in his arteries to his legs, both due to plaque caused by nicotine. Eventually he died young due to scarring from surgery for plaque to arteries in his legs.
See my previous post #46, about my own cancer from smoking + second-hand smoking.
Ignorance fought, thanks.
I was about thirteen,I did it because if you were "hard"thats what you did.
I lied to my friends that I’d been smoking for longer then I had actually had been,my first cigarette in a mates bedroom made me feel sick and I’m sure that I went very pale.
It took me a long while to actually get to enjoy smoking but of course once you get hooked thats it…
Smoked for much of my life but am cured now thank god.
I resisted peer pressure to smoke all my youth up untill 18, which was easier then it sounds, because I wasn’t around peers all that much.
At 19, I wanted to start smoking because I thought it would look elegant and because I thought it would help me to stay thin. Also, I wanted to do something self destructive that would be visible, yet still reversible. Lastly, I thought packets of cigarettes were just plain pretty. I blame those old cigarette billboards from the fourties for that.
I tried smoking a packet of Benson and Hedges, which was the most elegant cig in the most elegant box I could find. But it tasted so awful I gave up after two cigarettes. I have never had much willpower to do something I didn’t like doing, and in this case, that worked out fine. 
I was 14 and acquired a 15 year old girlfriend. She smoked, and within a week after hooking up with her, I smoked too. Good ol’ Marilynne!
50 years later, with the help of the miracle drug Chantix, I finally quit. Better late than never.
Tried my first when I was 8. Going pretty frequently by 11 or 12, definitely full-blown hooked by 13 or 14. It was just really appealing to me for some reason. All the “cool” kids did it, and in my mind I always imagined them tasting delicious, even though they were gross when I had one. I figured I’d acquire the taste. I quit almost 3 years ago with a brief relapse early last year.
Cigarettes as a teenager for the usual reasons (didn’t like them). Cigars because I liked the taste.
The first time I tried “smoking” I had a couple of puffs of a cig I stole from my father, with an older friend when I was 9. It was not a good experience (I puked) and that was that.
Next time at 14, I pretended to smoke, 4 girls one fag, hiding behind the gym. It wasn’t about nicotine just about being rebels.
At 17, my father told me that “he would never ALLOW me to smoke” (and I actually had no desire to!) his declaration meant I was about to become a smoker!
From the first packet I smoked, purely to annoy my father, I was hooked.
THE STUPIDITY OF YOUTH!
[wonderlust]
Categorically Yes. It is. My father, a 3-pk/day smoker since 18, at age 40 had bladder cancer, and at age 50 couldn’t walk due to massive plaque in his arteries to his legs, both due to plaque caused by nicotine. Eventually he died young due to scarring from surgery for plaque to arteries in his legs.
See my previous post #46, about my own cancer from smoking + second-hand smoking.
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Categorically No. Nicotine is certainly bad for you, no argument there. But if you had to choose between Marlboros & nicotine gum (assuming that, for some reason, cold turkey was not an option), you’d be a fool to stick with the Marlboros. For one thing, the link between tobacco and lung cancer, emphysema etc… is well known. With nicotine supplements, not so much.
I only say this because I have recently just stopped smoking (27 days clean. Recognise!) and I really don’t think I could have gotten through that first week without my nicorette inhalator. I don’t use it now but it was invaluable in getting over that first hump. While, ideally, you shouldn’t be ingesting any nicotine, don’t be put off using nicotine supplements as a temporary crutch while you quit the cigs. Even if you stay on them forever it’s better than continuing to smoke.