[jtheory]

I'm grateful fairly frequently that I never went beyond sampling cigarettes as a kid. So a bit by chance, I don't smoke now, and I'm sure as hell not going to start as an adult.

It's just profoundly clear to me (from your comments, from similar discussions with lots of other smokers) that there's no going back to a pre-smoking life. Life after quitting smoking (or any other deeply-rooted addition, I suspect) is not at all the same as a life where you never started; that bridge is burned.

[1337p337]

Well, once you're off, the benefits start to pile up quickly. Food tastes better, you don't cough up strangely colored things early in the morning, your lungs don't burn, etc. It's still an incredibly difficult addiction to quit, much moreso than I expected before I started smoking. When not smoking, I do tend to miss all of the benefits, especially the extra time to think, but I've in the past replaced it with taking brief walks to get some coffee or tea.

[ajays]

I think most smokers start at a young age; if you're not a smoker by age 25, there is little chance of you becoming one after that. This is why a lot of cigarette advertising is subliminally targeted at young folks.