I started smoking because I enjoy it. Thats really all there is to it. It is completely legal. I don't smoke around people who mind it, I don't smoke around minors, or in eating establishments. I don't cough and puff and dance around with a Kabuki style 12-sided cigarette-holder while preaching bloody murder to the world.
I started smoking when I was 21, after my first legal trip to the local watering hole, and trying a boge that was offered to me by a friend. To be honest, after the first hit of it- I knew I really enjoyed the action of smoking a cigarette. It gave me a calming effect, and it certainly went well with the substantial amount of alcohol I drank.
Smoking has been a part of culture since much longer than Euro-centric cultures tend to believe it has, and they have been for the most part, alright because of it. Much like everything else, Smoking should be balanced with the rest of your life-- That way it keeps it's calming effects, and you negate substantial health risks.
I don't smoke a pack a day, maybe a pack every 2 weeks, heaviest during Friday nights out with girls and guys. I still run 2 miles everyday and lift, and have noticed no problems with my ability to exercise. I smoke light cigarettes in the way they were meant to be smoked, with your lips not engulfing the entire filter.
I am happy with the fact that I smoke, as it grants me opportunities to engage and talk to people I may have nothing in common with-- helping a lady light a boge, or talking to some grizzled hardened man over a cigarette or cigar over a beer is an enlightening experience, for the conversation that you may have with him or her.
I certainly appreciate and understand the important facts that regard heavy smoking, especially of american brand and manufactured cigarettes (they put quite a bit of excess harmful chemical in them to ease taste and exhallation). In that regard, I think it's important for all smokers to know how to make their own. Natural Tobacco is harmful, but much less so than manufactured brands-- it's also much more rich, and the entire process dissuades the idea of "chain-smoking", as it takes quite a bit of time to make a good cigarette.
Tobacco is an interesting drug. Scientists have no idea of it's true origins, it is one of the only natural plants that effects vary due to speed of use (For you smokers, this means.. if you smoke a cigarette, it will act as a powerful stimulant-- if you take your time the drug instead acts as a very mild depressant).
I am now 26 years old, have smoked for 5 years, and hopefully have given you some reasons as to why I started and why I continue to. I am certainly not trying to glorify the act of smoking, as it WILL lead to substantial health problems from overuse-- But I am also not trying to demonize it either.
Find your own personal balance, whether it be through smoking, exercise, drinking, recreational drug use, or anything else. The most important thing to remember is that in moderate to light use, any legal vice can be beneficial, socially bolstering, and relaxing.
Life, as we all know, is hard. I just don't see the point in cutting out all pleasure in favor of getting an extra year or two of life.. something which may be very depressing as naturally our bodies will fail despite the best efforts of science.
My 2 cents, take it as you will.
-KT.
