# Why Would Anyone Smoke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 31, 2019, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802 "2019-03-31T06:44:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/41 "2019-04-02T14:30:32Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m pretty sure the OP is really asking “Why would anyone _ **intentionally start to** _ smoke _ **in this day and age, knowing what we do about its downsides** _?”, not basically why anyone continues to smoke. > > I mean, I see why habitual smokers continue to smoke. What I (and I suspect the OP) don’t get is why anyone under the age of say… 45 would have ever actually picked up a cigarette and thought “Yes! I WANT to start this habit.”, being aware of the health effects and social opprobrium associated with smoking. Can’t the same thing be said about many things? Like Heroin, or crack, or meth? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/42 "2019-04-02T14:35:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m pretty sure the OP is really asking “Why would anyone _ **intentionally start to** _ smoke _ **in this day and age, knowing what we do about its downsides** _?”, not basically why anyone continues to smoke. > > I mean, I see why habitual smokers continue to smoke. What I (and I suspect the OP) don’t get is why anyone under the age of say… 45 would have ever actually picked up a cigarette and thought “Yes! I WANT to start this habit.”, being aware of the health effects and social opprobrium associated with smoking. I’d say the same reasons people take up other addictions, despite knowing that they are bad for them and could ultimately cost them their health or their lives. Peer pressure is probably the biggest one. Just wanting to be part of the group or do what your friends are doing. Happily, smoking isn’t that popular anymore, and the fact that you now have to jump through a ton of hoops to smoke and that they have slapped tax after tax on tobacco products means less and less people are getting into it. I don’t know why anyone would pick up a cigarette and start smoking, to be honest. I never picked up that habit, as the few times I tried one I found it vile. I lived at a time in the US when people smoked in their offices or cubicles at work AND took smoke breaks, and in the military it seemed everyone smoked continually. I just never got the habit. I smoked…other things…until I got wealthy enough and picked up the taste for good cigars. This is a habit that you have to have quite a lot of money for, though, so it’s not something the average teen is going to get into (low end cigars are as vile as cigarettes, IMHO). One of the reasons I have cut back to a few cigars a month is that the cigars I buy average over $400 a box…often much more than that. So, smoking every day or even several times a week, while do-able, gets a bit expensive after a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/43 "2019-04-02T14:37:56Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > False premise. Do you think people would smoke if it did absolutely \*nothing \*for them ? When you start out, they get you gently dizzy and calm. My brain switches from “rapidly cycling through twentyfive things in no particular order” to “hyperfocus”; I was surprised when I found out that no, most people don’t have multiple simultaneous earworms (added that to the list of “ways I’m weird”). For me, a cigarrette slowed down the hamster’s wheel. It was nice… I didn’t become an active smoker purely as a matter of economics: my allowance covered a movie every two weeks or a cigarrete per day, I liked movies better. And while my family does have a history of cancer, it’s of types which are not linked to tobacco; my relatives’ lungs were described more than once as “insultingly clean” by radiologists who were definitely not used to seeing such pristine lungs in smokers; as for my teeth, they’re yellowed due to an antibiotic I had as a child. Expectable negative effects are limited to lowered sense of taste and smell. OK, so bad smells would bother me less. That’s a problem how? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/44 "2019-04-02T14:38:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > While there are possibly other ways, one that is used involves measuring cortisol levels. Your adrenal glands produce cortisol in response to stress. OK, good to know. Still, isn’t that a whole correlation/causation thing ? Maybe smokers tend to be more stressed out because they’re stressed out people to begin with, and self-medicate with nicotine. At least that’s what I infer from this bit from **Half Man Half Wit** ’s link’s summary : > [@](#): > > The authors say that their findings support the idea that people of an angry disposition are more susceptible to nicotine’s effects, and are therefore more likely to become addicted to cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/45 "2019-04-02T14:48:14Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My brain switches from “rapidly cycling through twentyfive things in no particular order” to “hyperfocus”; I was surprised when I found out that no, most people don’t have multiple simultaneous earworms (added that to the list of “ways I’m weird”). For me, a cigarrette slowed down the hamster’s wheel. It was nice… I found that weed had the exact opposite effect on me - going from an internal monologue to seventeen thousand thoughts zipping by at once and barely having the time to develop or even voice a single one before it was gone and replaced with another, without any ability to control things - but still feeling like sober me was struggling in the middle of all that. Very weird and unpleasant feeling? Which is why weed never became a thing with me. By contrast, drunk me also loses control and does/says dumb shit that sober me wants to strangle him for, but while it’s happening I still feel abshurluterly in coninconincontrol 'mnot even drknu, shtup. Hold m’beer, havanidea. S’good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/46 "2019-04-02T14:54:57Z")
Adds that to her list of “reasons not to try weed” (not that I’m ever likely to, I associate the smell with a particularly jerkish neighbor I had as a tween). Last thing I ever need is for the hamster’s wheel to get more dimensions. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/47 "2019-04-02T15:11:42Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > When you start out, they get you gently dizzy and calm. Very mildly high, if you prefer. I had quit smoking but at some point after 6 months I had a cigarette and holy crap I thought I was going to die. That ‘mild high’ was anything but. Yeah, I was dizzy but I was also nauseated to the point that I was sure I was going to throw up. I could feel sweat coming out of the pores on my head. At that point I realized how toxic nicotine actually is and have never had the desire to smoke tobacco again. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/48 "2019-04-02T15:58:54Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I had quit smoking but at some point after 6 months I had a cigarette and holy crap I thought I was going to die. That ‘mild high’ was anything but. Yeah, I was dizzy but I was also nauseated to the point that I was sure I was going to throw up. I could feel sweat coming out of the pores on my head. > > At that point I realized how toxic nicotine actually is and have never had the desire to smoke tobacco again. Excellent user name / post combo. 🙂 Both of my parents have been smokers since they were in their late teens or early 20s. So, they started smoking at a time (the 1950s) when the health consequences of smoking were not as well-known, and in a society where smoking was widespread. They both, objectively, know that it’s a bad habit, and can cause (or exacerbate) all sorts of health issues. They’ve lost several good friends to lung cancer and COPD, which was directly attributable to smoking. Both of my parents have, in fact, had cancer (mom had breast cancer, dad had prostate cancer). They have a _ton_ of good reasons to quit. And, both of them _have_ quit, repeatedly, over the years, for months or years at a stretch. But, damn, it’s an insidious thing. Even at times when they had been non-smokers for months or years, when the stresses of life got heavy, they went back to it. Regardless of whether or not nicotine physically relieves (or causes) stress on the body, there is, for them, an emotional / psychological craving for the comfort of having a cigarette, which peaks at times when they’re feeling stressed out. And, at this point, dad is 85, mom is 78. At a certain level, I imagine that they also feel, “to hell with it, the damage has already been done, and it’s not like I expect to live another 20 years anyway.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/49 "2019-04-02T16:15:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yes, and they are making more “period films” so that they can have more smoking. Having a Tobacco company pay a film for product placement is illegal. But it is not illegal just to promote smoking in general. It is well known that Big Tobacco bribes filmmakers with drugs or payola under the table. Cite reflecting current/recent practices? ---
**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:** [April 2, 2019, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/50 "2019-04-02T16:17:51Z")
Well, there’s another benefit. The stench! It seeps into the carpets and the paint in your home. It annoys and repels non-smokers! ---
**Author:** ![Walmarticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Walmarticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walmarticus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/51 "2019-04-02T16:32:23Z")
half of the appeal of cigarettes is all the other little motions that tell your brain ‘I’m on a break’. non-smokers might not automatically appreciate them. Lighting, ashing, puffing, maybe spitting. There’s a LOT of wiring connecting cigarettes to relaxing. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/52 "2019-04-02T16:41:40Z")
If I received a terminal diagnosis tomorrow, I’d buy a carton of cigarettes. Maybe Camels. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/53 "2019-04-02T18:08:13Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Ok. Let me explain in simple words. Let us say the average person has a stress level of 5, OK? Smokers have a average stress level of 7. But when they light up, that temporarily goes down to 4. So smoking makes you stressed, but you can get temporary relief from that stress by feeding the addiction. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/54 "2019-04-02T18:19:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Cite reflecting current/recent practices? What part of “under the table” dont you understand? [https://tobaccofree.org/films.htm](https://tobaccofree.org/films.htm) \*These are just the documented cases. There are doubtless many more which will never come to light. Hollywood swears that it has stopped placing cigarette brands in films — but we know of one instance in which a tobacco company helped finance a film, and then put its products prominently in it. U.S. Tobacco, which makes most of the chewing tobacco, had a movie production division which made a movie, Pure Country, in which handsome, good-old-boy cowboys chew. Fortunately, it bombed, to the relief of anti-smoking advocates. There have been more recent reports of cigar companies paying to promote cigars in films. Movie stars have done a great deal to help popularize cigars, such as Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day. Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Pierce Brosnan, all appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine. These stars’ use of cigars makes a powerful statement which is not lost on teens as they browse through the nation’s magazine racks. \*[Welcome | Smokefree Media](https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/history) _The new century | The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between state attorneys general and domestic tobacco companies prohibited tobacco product placement in entertainment accessible to kids. Despite this legally-binding agreement, however, on-screen smoking climbed until 2005, U.S. films remain a major recruiter of new young smokers around the world, and reports of tobacco industry product placement in films persist._ [https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/blog/direct-evidence-tobacco-product-placement-and-smoking-behavioral-placement-french-movies](https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/blog/direct-evidence-tobacco-product-placement-and-smoking-behavioral-placement-french-movies) \*The journalist has carefully investigated a recent case illustrating a shift in product placement, which may be either replaced or masked as behavioral placement when direct exposure of the brand is considered too risky: the tobacco company only requires that smoking be depicted in the movie, giving up brand visibility. This is what happened in Ouf, a first movie by young director Yann Coridian, released in 2013, in which the main actor smokes Gauloises Blondes cigarettes, provided by Seita. Although admitting having a contract with Seita, the director of the product placement agency which dealt with this movie denied product placement. He said that their only commitment was “that cigarettes be visible on screen, that’s all.” (See full transcript below.) Their only commitment was that cigarettes be visible on screen! This is an admission that tobacco companies use behavioral placement, paying movie producers so that actors are simply shown smoking in movies. \* [https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/smoking-and-tobacco-cessation-36/tobacco-and-kids-health-news-662/smoke-screen-smoking-in-the-movies-645323.html](https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/smoking-and-tobacco-cessation-36/tobacco-and-kids-health-news-662/smoke-screen-smoking-in-the-movies-645323.html) _In the early 1980s, Hollywood seemed to respond to national anti-smoking campaigns by cutting the rate at which its stars lit up on-screen to just 4.9 times per hour, less than half the 1950s rate of 10.7. But recently, even though tobacco use is declining in the real world, the silver screen rate has shot back up to 10.9, according to a study published in the Journal of Public Health…According to Glantz, on-screen smoking has increased steadily in the last decade, a time when smoking in the real world has actually declined. In his mind, the trend is no accident. Tobacco companies, desperate to attract new customers, Glantz says, are turning movies into commercials._ ---
**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:** [April 2, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/55 "2019-04-02T18:34:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > [https://tobaccofree.org/films.htm](https://tobaccofree.org/films.htm) > > \*These are just the documented cases. There are doubtless many more which will never come to light. > > Hollywood swears that it has stopped placing cigarette brands in films — but we know of one instance in which a tobacco company helped finance a film, and then put its products prominently in it. U.S. Tobacco, which makes most of the chewing tobacco, had a movie production division which made a movie, Pure Country, in which handsome, good-old-boy cowboys chew. Fortunately, it bombed, to the relief of anti-smoking advocates. > > There have been more recent reports of cigar companies paying to promote cigars in films. Movie stars have done a great deal to help popularize cigars, such as Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day. Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Pierce Brosnan, all appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine. These stars’ use of cigars makes a powerful statement which is not lost on teens as they browse through the nation’s magazine racks. \* For certain very generous definitions of “recent,” I suppose. _Pure Country_ was released in 1992. _Independence Day_ was released in 1996. Yes, the second cite you give notes a 2013 film (which, one should note, wasn’t even a U.S. film). But, cites about the tobacco industry influencing movies made 20+ years ago don’t really do much to support the case that it’s happening **now**. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/56 "2019-04-02T19:36:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Let me explain in simple words. Let us say the average person has a stress level of 5, OK? > > Smokers have a average stress level of 7. But when they light up, that temporarily goes down to 4. Sooooo…smoking reduces stress to a level below the average stress level of a non-smoker? Sounds like reducing stress to me. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/57 "2019-04-02T21:26:12Z")
I think what he’s getting at is that nicotine is a stimulant, but it’s also a depressant. Depends on the dose. Low doses have a depressant effect, while higher doses have a stimulant effect on the body. My WAG is this is what he’s talking about wrt ‘stress’. And, over time, you develop a tolerance for it, and become dependent so that is going to also impact ‘stress’. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/58 "2019-04-02T23:11:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If I received a terminal diagnosis tomorrow, I’d buy a carton of cigarettes. Maybe Camels. Me too. I’m 10 years quit after about 85 pack years of smoking, and I still dream about them every once in a while. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/59 "2019-04-02T23:49:11Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sooooo…smoking reduces stress to a level below the average stress level of a non-smoker? Sounds like reducing stress to me. It’s the same stress reduction any addict feels when they know they are going to get the drug that staves off the withdrawal. Perhaps it would be better to say it reduces anxiousness? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802/60 "2019-04-03T00:33:21Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > It’s the same stress reduction any addict feels when they know they are going to get the drug that staves off the withdrawal. > > Perhaps it would be better to say it reduces anxiousness? Perhaps. But my contention is with: “It relaxes me” “No it doesn’t!” As if someone else would know what relaxes me? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-anyone-smoke/831802.md?page=4)