This isn't a long writeup, because I don't have much to say. But I feel that what I do have is important, so here it is.
I've seen too many people who have been majorly fucked over by smoking. A lot of them are really close friends of mine IRL.
But sure, I've tried it. I wouldn't be in a perfect position to criticise it if I hadn't. Don't knock it until you've tried it may well be a sentence of great wisdom, but I've tried it, and fuck yeah am I going to knock it. I've seen my best friends need a smoke so bad that they are picking up fag ends. It's the worst thing I've seen them do - I usually look up to all of them, but seeing the weakness they all had really scared me. I had tried it and not liked it before then, but my decision was only reaffirmed. I could have been like them by now.
My stance on smoking is nearly the same as my stance on dance music - I hate it, but I don't hate those that enjoy it. I spend most of my time outside my house in the company of people who kill themselves very slowly on a regular basis. It's their choice - or so they say. But when you have to pick up something someone has stepped on, and put it in your mouth, it's not your choice anymore. And they are all 15 or 16 years old. I have frankly no idea what sort of state they will be in by the age of 20, 30, 40, or if they will even make it.
That was macabre, wasn't it?
But it's true. A teacher once told me that cigarettes are the one of the only things you can buy that kill you when used in the way they are intended to be used. It's stayed with me ever since, and stopped me more than a few times, when I've been offered one. Why? Does a nicotine rush suddenly make you want to recruit new smokers? Does it make you so compassionate that all you can think of is "Hey, look - one of my friends isn't smoking! We'll soon have that sorted out..."? As much as I enjoy the wonderfulness of free things, free death is not quite so well received by yours truly.
So go and smoke. But I've seen the state of my grandmother after she smoked most of her life. I've seen my friends after they have been smoking - some for only about a year, but it's affecting them just as bad. I fear for my friends. I don't want them to die early. But they will.
Everything Quests - Smoking