# Why would one smoke in the first place? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 17, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-one-smoke-in-the-first-place/331467 "2005-11-17T06:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![E72521](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@E72521](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E72521)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-one-smoke-in-the-first-place/331467/61 "2005-11-18T22:10:18Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Never smoked as a kid. Started smoking a pipe when I was around 29 years old as a result of many years spent reading Sherlock Holmes stories. > > About 33 years old started smoking Black & Milds (the pipe tobacco cigars favored by royalty) got to where I’d be up to 5 per day and about 10 per day on weekends, then I’d quit for 6 months or so. Mostly because I stopped enjoying it. So I’d quit in July and promise myself not to smoke until New Year’s eve or something. Then I’d enjoy it again. Just to be clear, I inhale the smoke deep down into my lungs. > > Got married to a nurse at 39 years old and quit for 4 years. No problem, didn’t miss it. Never even thought about it. > > 44 years old now, seperated from my wife so I decided to start smoking again. It’s been one year and I’m up to 10 a day. I jokingly tell my freinds that it’s a substitute for sex, which is not altogether untrue. Occainsionly still smoke a pipe, too. > > When I feel like it I’ll quit again. > > Addiction? Nope. Habit? Yep. > [@](#): > > Based on the study responses, the researchers split the students into three > categories: > > ``` > * ''Love at first sight'' smokers, who quickly became addicted. > > * ''Slow onset'' smokers, who reported addiction symptoms only a month > after starting smoking. > > * ''Chippers,'' resistant to dependence on nicotine. > > ``` [Cite.](http://no-smoking.org/sept00/09-13-00-1.html) According to this study, you’re a “Chipper”, you lucky dog. [This](http://no-smoking.org/april04/04-20-04-4.html) may explain why some are so easily addicted while others are not. ---
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-one-smoke-in-the-first-place/331467/62 "2005-11-21T05:51:13Z")
I honestly think that there’s something about individual body chemistry that predisposes some people to be addicted to certain things and not others. For example, I can’t understand why anyone would even want to smoke. But I’m a sugar addict, and the only way to keep from eating about 10 bags of Oreos a day was for me to finally quit, cold turkey. I can literally never have one single bite of anything with sugar of any kind in it (including all artificial sweeteners.) It will set me off into a binge. If sugar was illegal and I hadn’t quit, I would probably steal and kill and whore to get it. To me, it is a drug. Frankly, I think it has some of this effect on everyone, which is why it’s the major component of 8 of the top 10 foods Americans eat, but I doubt too many people have the addiction to it that I have. I’m addicted to exercise, too, but that’s a pretty harmless one. 😉 Got to have it every single day!! Don’t try to keep me from my aerobox class!!! I read an interesting article yesterday that pondered the question of WHY more people aren’t addicted to exercise, since it does mimic the effects of opiates in the brain. The authors concluded that it might be mainly because the opiate effect is delayed, and you really don’t get the behavorial reward in a serious way until you’re pretty hardcore. Unlike smoking. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-one-smoke-in-the-first-place/331467/63 "2005-11-21T22:49:21Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > Why does anyone start smoking crack or shooting heroin? The downsides of those tend to be more visibly apparent. One problem with cigs is the real damage tends to be seen only after many years of smoking. Teens don’t see other teens and young adults dying from smoking related causes. [FTR–Smoked cigarettes in college; stopped long ago but still smoke the very occasional cigar or pipeful]. I think what got me started was the fact that tobacco was so cheap that I could afford the best. There’s not much of anything that you can afford the best of when you’re a college student, so that was an attraction. I couldn’t afford Dom Perignon champagne, but I could have Dunhill cigarettes and Yenidje pipe tobacco. I enjoyed smoking; it was worth doing for the taste and the feeling of stimilation it provided. But I didn’t have any trouble giving it up; I must be one of those non-addictive types. The illegal drugs mentioned above I think have the additional lure of forbidden fruit; a certain type of person will think that if something is so strenuously prohibited and prosecuted against it must be inordinately attractive to use. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-one-smoke-in-the-first-place/331467.md?page=3)