Like other things, smoking can be an addiction. Ask any number of people who have tried to quit. Addictions plague the rich as well as the poor. For better or worse, people get something out of cigarettes just as they do liquor, marijuana, hard drugs - even food, and, if the addiction is severe enough, they will find a source or way to get their needs met. Tobacco and liquor companies supply this need. It can be said the government makes money off addicts by heavy taxation on booze and cigarettes. Then too, unfortunately, a great many people rely on tobacco, in its manufacture, sales and distribution for their income.

Speaking personally, growing up, I recall movies on the results of cocaine use and still remember those images of people with holes in their noses. It was gross and maybe over the top a bit, but when an occasion came up that I was offered cocaine, I turned it down.

I cannot recall any such emphasis put on the dangers of smoking. People smoked in homes, stores, theaters, restaurants, on buses and even in hospitals (both patients and visitors). Some doctors even encouraged it to lose weight and relieve stress. It was advertised in magazines, on billboards and television. It was part of the culture, socially acceptable and people smoked guilt free. People were mislead by the tobacco industry as to its hazards. Many unwittingly became addicted to nicotine. I am one. While I don't hold myself entirely responsible for the addiction I am responsible for my own healing.

I believe legislating morality seldom works. IMO, more productive would be education as to its negative effects along with different coping skills. If it takes showing kids movies of blackened lungs, people with late stage emphysema and inviting speakers on oxygen, so be it. It may sound harsh, but so is dying of lung cancer.

As to cigarettes being sold in stores....well, so is rat poison, but knowing the consequences of ingesting it, rare is the person who would do so.