I am an ex-smoker that doesn't want to legislate what smokers do to themselves.  I basically believe in freedom to do whatever you want as long as it doesn't harm others.

However, unlike BobCole, I don't want my friend liberty86 to "hurry up & die from cancer".  Nor do I want to see anyone else do so.

I don't want to force smokers to quit.  I just wish they would.

As a young man, I smoked.  Settled on a pipe and really enjoyed it.  Then, my Dad, who was a life-time cigarette smoker, went into the hospital and I had to watch him die of cancer.

When he died, I went home, took my pipe, tobacco, and paraphernalia, and threw it all in a dumpster.  I've not smoked since.

I sure wish Dad hadn't traded the pleasure of smoking for the pleasure of seeing his great-grandchildren.  Or of getting to hunt quail with me.

Trash is trash. Moral of that story is pick up after yourself.

I would gladly buy you your first pack to get you started on your way. If you promised to pick up after yourself and not bother anyone else.

Try to get a anti gun to buy you a pistol.

Smoking is the #1 medical cost in the US the most preventable cause of disease and death.
 
Almost half a million people die each year from smoking related diseases.
 
Smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires combined.
 
Smoking is a primary risk factor in the top four causes of death (CAD, Cancer, Stroke, COPD).
 
Cigarette smoke contains at least 60 individual cancer causing chemicals and smoking is directly responsible for almost 90 percent of all lung cancers.
 
Smoking causes most of the cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
 
Patients who smoke regularly before surgery have twice the risk of wound infections as nonsmokers.
 
Smoking is a risk factor for osteoporosis (bone mineral loss), hip fractures, and spinal arthritis. A smoker's broken bones take almost twice as long to heal as a non-smoker's.
 
Smoking causes premature facial wrinkling and graying of the skin.
 
Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 – 30 percent of low birth-weight infants and up to 14% of pre-term births. Approximately 10 percent of all infant deaths are attributable to smoking.

American Cancer Society, and CDC

That said: Smoke away, but if you think your smoking doesn't impact on non smokers you're wrong.

There is NOTHING remotely attractive about someone who has a smoking stick that smells hanging out of his/her mouth. Not to mention the residual stench it leaves. I have never dated a smoker, nor would I. The thought of kissing someone who smokes is vile to me. But more than anything it is the lack of regard for their health that I find less than appealling.

TT [wave]

everybody dies of something

Like getting your gun stats from HCI and the VPC. Everyone has their own way of manipulating the stats. Whether is the ACS, CDC, or Philip Morris.



[BS]

If that many people were dying of smoking related deaths each year, one would think that I would have known at least ONE of them in my 33 years. I've know at least one person from every other category.