# Why do people take up tobacco smoking? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328 "2016-08-10T11:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/21 "2016-08-10T21:37:31Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Trying to hijack _another_ thread, doc? Isnt that what this thread is about? **Why do people take up smoking?** Do you deny the power of media? And there is no doubt that that is what Big Tobacco did do, that is well documented. How is this a hijack to suggest media personification of smoking as cool has lead to people smoking? > **[We know it can kill us: Why people still smoke | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/11/health/still-smoking/)** > > Smoking can kill you. We’ve known that for at least 50 years and yet millions of us are still lighting up. Why? _In addition, tobacco marketing strategies can be persuasive. Several studies show the marketing and advertising works, and increases the likelihood that youth will start smoking. In 2011, cigarette companies spent $8.37 billion on ads and promotional expenses in the United States alone – even with tight federal regulations on advertising, according to the CDC. That breaks down to about $23 million a day or $27 for every American per year._ However, that article shows an even better reason: _“Smokers typically start smoking as adolescents or young adults, with initial smoking occurring in social situations,” said Sherry McKee, the director of the Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Lab. “Most young smokers believe that they can easily quit at any time and nearly all believe that they won’t be long-term smokers.”_ [https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Smoking-and-the-Media.aspx](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Smoking-and-the-Media.aspx) \*Many young people know smoking is not healthy but still think it’s cool. A big reason for this is the media. Tobacco and e-cigarette companies spend billions of dollars every year promoting their products at stores, in magazines, and online. Most ads show smokers as healthy, energetic, sexy, and successful. There are also many TV, video game, and and movie scenes showing people smoking. These scenes promote the idea that lots of people smoke and rarely show the bad consequences of smoking like trouble breathing, cancer, complications with other diseases, or even death.\* > **[Cool Personified: Smokey Allure of the Big Screen : Society: Mirroring...](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-11-op-12048-story.html)** > > The recent decision by the City Council to ban smoking in all Los Angeles restaurants is just the latest pull in a centuries-long tug of war. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/22 "2016-08-10T21:38:02Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Trying to hijack _another_ thread, doc? Truth is truth. Tobacco has always been portrayed as manly and cool, both in advertising and in film. I started smoking because it was “cool” to do so. I had no idea that it was addictive and poisonous, as those conclusions had not yet been reached in the early 60s. By the time you’re past the “cool” phase, the addiction is there, and it’s easier to just continue with the habit than to quit. I finally was able to kick it when I was about 34, which was 35 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/23 "2016-08-10T22:04:05Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Isnt that what this thread is about? **Why do people take up smoking?** Do you deny the power of media? > > And there is no doubt that that is what Big Tobacco did do, that is well documented. > > How is this a hijack to suggest media personification of smoking as cool has lead to people smoking? No, once again you’re trotting out the notion of Big Tobacco shills as leading people to smoke and [you already had that thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=787184). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/24 "2016-08-10T22:08:53Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > No, once again you’re masquerading the notion of Big Tobacco shills as leading people to smoke and [you already had that thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=787184). They _are_ one reason, that is indisputable. I just gave three cites proving this. Do you need more? and so? I can’t hold the same opinion in two threads? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/25 "2016-08-10T22:13:39Z")
[_Two?_](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19354611#post19354611) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/26 "2016-08-10T23:18:32Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Tobacco has always been portrayed as manly and cool, both in advertising and in film. I started smoking because it was “cool” to do so. I had no idea that it was addictive and poisonous, as those conclusions had not yet been reached in the early 60s. . I also started smoking because it was cool. But it had nothing to do how cigs were portrayed in ads and film. I did it because it was\* bad.\* I was warned over and over not to do it. We joked about the warnings on the packs. It’s what the bad and tough kids did. And I _enjoyed_ it. I _knew_ it was addictive _and_ poisonous. That did not deter me. Nor did it deter me from drinking, weed, coke, pills, acid or huffing paint or having sex with _questionable_ partners. I probably woulda started some other shit too if I had thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/27 "2016-08-10T23:42:17Z")
I started smoking when I started working at age 15 in the late 1980’s (there wasn’t a smoking age in Louisiana at the time). I knew perfectly well it was bad for me but it was something to do during breaks and learning to inhale was a challenge that I embraced. Cigarettes didn’t cost much back (generics were less than two dollars a pack) so that wasn’t an issue either. I did it at first because I wanted to fit in and not ever be bored and it gave me that. Tobacco is technically a stimulant but that is misleading because the primary effect for most people is relaxation. There are a number of theories about the mechanism of that but one of the leading ones is that nicotine withdrawal is extremely unpleasant and the main thing you are doing when smoking is setting yourself up for mild withdrawal and then pulling yourself out of it by smoking another. That effect is very fast (seconds) and that sustains a very powerful psychological feedback loop that is difficult to break. I quit smoking when I was 19 but I picked it up again briefly a couple of times and had to quit again although I didn’t do it long enough for the other minor stretches to become entrenched. I don’t smoke now and have no desire to but I understand perfectly well why people start and can’t manage to quit even with repeated attempts. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/28 "2016-08-11T00:04:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Isnt that what this thread is about? **Why do people take up smoking?** Do you deny the power of media? > > And there is no doubt that that is what Big Tobacco did do, that is well documented. > > How is this a hijack to suggest media personification of smoking as cool has lead to people smoking? > > [http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/11/health/still-smoking/](http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/11/health/still-smoking/) > _In addition, tobacco marketing strategies can be persuasive. Several studies show the marketing and advertising works, and increases the likelihood that youth will start smoking. > In 2011, cigarette companies spent $8.37 billion on ads and promotional expenses in the United States alone – even with tight federal regulations on advertising, according to the CDC. That breaks down to about $23 million a day or $27 for every American per year._ > > However, that article shows an even better reason: _“Smokers typically start smoking as adolescents or young adults, with initial smoking occurring in social situations,” said Sherry McKee, the director of the Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Lab. “Most young smokers believe that they can easily quit at any time and nearly all believe that they won’t be long-term smokers.”_ > [https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Smoking-and-the-Media.aspx](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Smoking-and-the-Media.aspx) > \*Many young people know smoking is not healthy but still think it’s cool. A big reason for this is the media. Tobacco and e-cigarette companies spend billions of dollars every year promoting their products at stores, in magazines, and online. > > Most ads show smokers as healthy, energetic, sexy, and successful. There are also many TV, video game, and and movie scenes showing people smoking. These scenes promote the idea that lots of people smoke and rarely show the bad consequences of smoking like trouble breathing, cancer, complications with other diseases, or even death.\* > > [Cool Personified: Smokey Allure of the Big Screen : Society: Mirroring movies, the nation smoked for most of this century. Then health issues came to the fore. So why are young people smoking again?](http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-11/opinion/op-12048_1_smoking-indoors) Your last “cite” is from 1993, which by my cacluations was 26 years ago. Your other “cites” talk about ads, but none offer any proof that BT has paid media houses to include smoking in TV shows or movies. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/29 "2016-08-11T00:58:30Z")
I don’t have an answer to the OP’s question but can confirm that here, in a state that’s always in the top ten for smoking rates, many, many young people are still starting for some reason. The company that I work for hires a lot of temps, most of them very young and mostly female and many of them are smokers. Smoking is not allowed on company property but at quitting time, at the intersection just off company property, there is a lot of lighting up. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/30 "2016-08-11T01:01:17Z")
Since when has it been “cool?” Not in the last 30 odd years, surely? Smokers are viewed as disgusting stinking people with no regard for their own or anyone else’s health. Or that was the attitude we were taught as kids. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/31 "2016-08-11T01:56:56Z")
Stress relief Weight loss Peer pressure Those are major reasons people take it up from what I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/32 "2016-08-11T04:02:08Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > Since when has it been “cool?” Not in the last 30 odd years, surely? Smokers are viewed as disgusting stinking people with no regard for their own or anyone else’s health. Or that was the attitude we were taught as kids. Well, yeah. Did you skip the teenage years when you’re supposed to rebel agains all those things they taught you as a kid? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/33 "2016-08-11T05:21:03Z")
When we were growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my sister ragged on my parents consistently about their smoking. But, when she got into her late teens and twenties, she started hanging around rock musicians – and nearly all of them smoked (likely some mixture of “cool” and “rebellious” in that subculture, as well as general overuse of controlled substances). And, thus, my sister became a smoker then, and still smokes today. OTOH, I had one cigarette, once, in college, nearly barfed, and never had another one. Her daughter (my nice) grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, certainly an era in which smoking became less common (and more frowned upon socially). But, her mom smoked (as did her grandparents, with whom she sometimes lived), and she, too, wound up hanging out with rock musicians. And, thus, she, too, is now a smoker. Also, they’re in Wisconsin, where it seems like smoking isn’t quite as frowned upon as it is here in Chicago, where I now live. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/34 "2016-08-11T09:24:34Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Stress relief > Weight loss > Peer pressure > > Those are major reasons people take it up from what I’ve heard. Yep. Yep. Yep. Smoking is still commonplace in both food service and retail, especially for the stress relief. Re food service, the mode of thinking has always been (or at least since I’ve been in the business) is “better to smoke than feed your face because if you stop smoking you won’t stop eating”. Watching a coworker suddenly gain X lbs. after quitting was enough to convince my 20-something mind to never quit. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/35 "2016-08-11T11:14:35Z")
I started with cigarettes when I was 14 (1954). “Everyone” smoked back then including my father and all his friends; my mother was unusual in that she didn’t smoke. I quit smoking in my early 60s because of my ex-wife’s asthma problems; I didn’t smoke for nearly fifteen years. I smoke cigars now because they help me resist the ongoing temptation to return to my pain pill addiction. In my case, smoking is really the lesser of two evils; my pain pill addiction would definitely have killed me if I hadn’t given it up. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/36 "2016-08-11T14:39:50Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There is some small evidence that tobacco, being a brain-affecting pharmaceutical, can have a beneficial effect for some times of mental illness and/or dysfunction. The claim is not substantiated, but it might explain why some people take up the habit, and it’s common among schizophrenics and some brain-injured people. Of course, there are negative consequences to go along with any positives. > > After one of my nephews suffered a traumatic brain injury he took up smoking. Says it helps him focus and concentrate, something he now finds difficult. I’m not thrilled with the habit, but given his level of permanent dysfunction I think there’s an argument that in his case the benefits, if there are some, might compensate to some extent for future harms. > > But such people are a very, very small minority of smokers and, as I said, nothing is proven. It might all be placebo effect and attempts at self-medicating. > > If there IS a boost for brain function it might account for some of the appeal to some people. Heavy thinkers might use it for that reason. Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character but the notion of him smoking a pipe to aid thought shows the meme has been around quite awhile. Good post. I started smoking a pipe after my MS was diagnosed. I have noticed some positive effects. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/37 "2016-08-11T15:01:14Z")
I started smoking in my late teens because my dad smoked (inside, all the time) and it felt natural and needed to me. And of course utterly possible in my home. None of my friends smoked and in fact very few ever saw me smoke in high school so it was not a “coolness” or “peer pressure” thing for me. Then I worked in food service and I fit right in. Then I went to college and was homesick and of course smoking was home (1997 - I was in the smoking dorm. Weird!) Even when I left the dorms, smoking was something I could do on my commute, between classes, and on smoke breaks with fellow classmates. After college one of the guys I dated was a smoker. That was a very smoky time! I finally quit when I was about 30 or so, and had lived on my own without my smoking dad for 5 years and no longer dated the smoker and was able to control the amount of smoke around me completely. ANYWAY, I wonder how much smoking perpetuates across generations. Some people **definitely are vehemently anti-smoking because of their parents** (yes, I hear you) but others, like me, are able to directly attribute it to growing up in a cloud of smoke. My brother started smoking as a teen like I did, then he married a woman who smokes (her father smoked too) and they are still smokers. I’m pretty sure they can’t quit because neither of them can carry the two of them. Since smoking was so prevalent some decades ago, a comfort from smoking may trickle down through some generations before it dies out. Smoking because your parent(s) smoke, marrying a smoker, having kids who feel the same…on and on etc. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/38 "2016-08-11T15:13:13Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Stress relief > Weight loss > Peer pressure > > Those are major reasons people take it up from what I’ve heard. Weight loss and stress relief don’t get people to start smoking much anymore. It happens, but it’s more likely someone who already has smoked will start up full time for those reasons. Peer pressure is the major reason, that’s what the cool factor is. Once upon a time there were far more people who had tried smoking cigarettes, they might be told to smoke a cigarette to calm down. That would likely upset a non-smoker these days. Even for weight loss it would be difficult to get someone who never smoked to start, but it’s more likely than for stress relief for some people. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/39 "2016-08-11T15:20:13Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Stress relief > Weight loss > Peer pressure Anecdotes on the first two points: As I noted in my earlier post, my parents both smoke, and they have for their entire adult lives. My dad is 82, my mother is 76. Both of them have had cancer (dad: prostate cancer, mom: three bouts of breast cancer), and they have lost several of their best friends to lung cancer. They _know_ that they shouldn’t smoke, and they have cut back from time to time. Hell, for a couple of years in the early 90s, they both quit entirely. But, they entered a very stressful period (my mother had her first breast cancer diagnosis, and my unmarried sister became pregnant), and that led to them starting to smoke again. It’s always seemed to be stress that gets them back into smoking more regularly. As far as weight loss: a friend of mine in college was a Dance major, specifically ballet, and was also taking classes in the Drama department. She told me that virtually everyone in her programs smoked, and appetite suppression was the reason why – people in both fields (particularly the women) were under intense pressure to stay thin, and they all felt that smoking helped with this. Now, this was the 1980s – attitudes in those fields may have changed since then. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328/40 "2016-08-11T15:21:58Z")
Started at age 14 and as others have mentioned above, it went well with weed. Gave you that extra head rush. We called them power boosters. Smoked until I was 23. That’s when I met the future Mrs. Hargraves who made it clear that she’ll have no part of that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-up-tobacco-smoking/762328.md?page=3)