Why do young people still pick up smoking?

[AlistarWills]

Saw a young lady today smoking. Not vaping, an actual cigarette. I was sort of taken aback. With all that’s known about smoking I don’t understand how someone would even pick it up anymore. I know that can be said about so much regarding unhealthy habits these days, but smoking to me just has this stigma now.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

More than likely because a few of her friends do it. People take up some bad habits to fit in and be accepted. My father was a heavy smoker and died when he was only 54 so it never tempted me to try. Drinking and cursing are some other habits people take up for acceptance. My mother was very strict and didn't allow drinking or cursing so I never took up any of the 3 habits I mentioned. As a result I never had many friends but that was OK because I always wanted to be myself and not turn into someone else just to be accepted by others.

 

[mdb-tpet]

Because we value money more than people. If money were not more important than people, we would not continually allow addiction industries like nicotine, we would limit sales of alcohol, we would easy to manufacture life saving drugs cheap to free, but we don't. We prefer industry making money to people being healthy and alive. We allow alcohol sales where people have to drive, we allow advertisements for cigarettes albeit in limited areas. It's just a love of money problem in the end.

 

[Tidewater]

I think it is for the same reason that young men drive at 90 mph on the shoulder of a busy interstate (saw it with my own eyes in the Tidewater area of Virginia) They are not thinking about their mortality.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

People have their bad habits for all different types of reasons. People smoke for all kinds of reasons. Most start off for one reason or another other but ultimately they keep smoking because they're addicted. Just like the food industry and beverage industry. People eat when they're happy, and drink when they're happy, but they also eat when they're sad and drink when they're sad. Unfortunately, we are bent toward being addicted to something, even though we know it's harmful. The human condition isn't always pretty.

 

[Toddrn]

When I was in basic training if you smoked you got to take a break. If you didn't, you kept on doing the task at hand. Lots of people started smoking and never stopped.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

In a recent (and totally uncited) study involving monkeys and tobacco addiction, scientists discovered that the smoking monkeys appeared to be a lot cooler than the non-smoking monkeys.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

In a recent (and totally uncited) study involving monkeys and tobacco addiction, scientists discovered that the smoking monkeys appeared to be a lot cooler than the non-smoking monkeys.

 

[BamaNation]

When I was in basic training if you smoked you got to take a break. If you didn't, you kept on doing the task at hand. Lots of people started smoking and never stopped.

When I was in IT consulting, about half the folks I worked with/for smoked heavily. Every hour or two, they would take a 15-minute smoke break. One of my colleagues and I began taking "non-smoking smoke breaks" at the same time because of our annoyance with the whole thing.

 

[CrimsonJazz]