[QUOTE="theone86"][QUOTE="jasperrussell"][QUOTE="_BlueDuck_"]
Smoking is bad for you. No one is going to argue that.
But that's not the point. There's two reasons why people smoke:
1) They have an addiction
2) They enjoy it
In the first case, if you think overcoming addiction only requires a strongminded person then you are greatly mistaken and clearly have never had a chemical dependence.
In the second case, this is none of your business. People are rational actors that can weigh the pros and cons of situations. It's quite possible the enjoyment they get out of smoking is worth the health risks to them. Just like anyone else who engages in unhealthy activities such as diet choices or anything else.
actually the point is why start in the first place - no one born in the last 20 years can plead ignorance. It sure as hell isn't a nice experience when you first try it. So the onl answer is there's still a perception amongst people that smoking is cool or smoking will make people like me. So that's why thread like this are important. So people can know there's enough people out there that think smoking is stupid and disgusting and won't be bullied by pathetic arguments that smokers continue to pose such as adults should be allowed to make adult decisions - which directly translates to smoking makes you more adult.Why do anything? Why drive a car when you're polluting the environment and putting your life at risk? Why go outside when you risk contracting mellanoma? Why eat unhealthy foods when it can put you at risk for a number of health problems, including colon cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more?
As for smoking being cool, I don't get that perception. Maybe it's still viewed as rebellious, but the only thing that would change that is to remove the negative stigma surrounding it, not try to increase it. I know it definitely didn't seem as prevalent when I was going to school as my parents make it seem when they were, and it seems even less prevalent in high schoolers since I left. There are no TV ads, cigarette companies can't sponsor events like the Winston Cup, they're less prevalent in TV and movies than ever before, and smoking is prohibited in most public places in cities across the world. What more could you possibly want, how much more can they do to make smoking seem uncool? It seems to me that it's not enough for smoking to be curbed, you NEED it to be stopped outright, you must have everyone else in the world thinking exactly like you because, well, that's the only logical way to think, right?
As for the last part, are you saying adults shouldn't be allowed to make adult decisions? Also, we consider people of age to buy cigarettes responsible enough to make that decision. Whether they are or not is not society's problem, it's their problem and the people who are rasing them. If they can't make complex decisions on their own by the time they are expected to, is it somehow society's problem? No, it's theirs.
Your problems as an individual influences the problems of your society 
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