I don't understand it either . . . and I don't think it should be allowed anywhere other than home. Perhaps it's just one of the stupid things that people insist on doing when young because they can and then, oh dear, they can't stop. My grandmother used to try and send me out to buy cigarettes for her next door neighbour who had smoked heavily since being 16 and I would refuse beause a) I was really scared of her and knew I would then be expected to go to her house and give her them: she seemed a cantankerous, smoke-preserved creature who was always wreathed in grayness and b) I wanted no part whatsoever in her demise, which seemed to me to be very close. That was twelve years ago, and by some miracle she seems now, at 87, no worse than she did then. She must have leather for lungs by now. Her skin is grayish pink, with soot seemingly ingrained in the pores.

I do understand why people do it though, it's because everyone else does. I'm not talking just peer pressure either, you just get so used to it being in every part of your life, the amount of times i've taken a ciggerette when offered and then remembered i don't smoke are countless.
I do hate them though and not only because they make people taste REALLY bad, i wish they would ban them but they won't, the goverment makes too much money off them.

its makes you feel good when you smoke. Unless someones blowing smoke in your face, why care what someone else does to their body?

Ahhh, but you're forgetting it makes you look cool and sexy! :P

Plus, the science behind Passive Smoking theories is very dodgy and politically-motivated.

It was just invented as a counteract to the 'I'm only harming myself' argument as a prelude to prohibition (which worked SO well with alcohol didn't it??).

It is possible to be a smoker (not heavy), like myself, and be a considerate individual as well.

Much as it's very bad for you, so are many of life's pleasures. If you've never smoked, you wouldn't know, so I don't expect you to understand. I am still young and so, I have mortgaged my future on a bit of pleasure- the time to give up will present itself probably in a few years I expect.

Smokers are the new pariahs in society, so I expect to be flamed to hell for daring to put the other side of the argument.

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?

I think smoking is probably fine if done in moderation, say after a very nice meal and a good bottle of wine; or after a meal with a snifter of cognac.

But as Oscar said, anything that is pleasureable leaves one wanting more thus one is apt to abuse, which leads to the polluting of everyone's lungs as well.

Ah, but didn't he also say Nothing succeeds like excess" too? Hah!