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Started smoking in College when I noticed how many good looking girls would sit outside of the dorms and smoke(looking for an excuse to chat them up)...wasn't too bright, didn't quit till my oldest son was born...that's 20 years of stupid on my part.

For whatever reason, I didn't and don't enjoy a buzz. Tobacco gave that to me the times I tried it and so I just didn't.

Seems sports is a major place to start tobacco use for many though from what I"ve seen.

It was a sign of getting "mature", cool in social settings. I was 13 and just got done baling hay, a new neighbor kid walk over to introduce himself and offered me a cig. That was all it took. Was hooked since.

Mom never smoked, but watched my old man smoke for years, so it came natural. He quit off and on, and finally for good years ago. He always was after me and my sister to quit, but neither of us could quit...even after chantix, patches, gum, etc. Vaping now, but still smoking also. The habit itself is hard enough to break, quitting altogether I can see happening with vaping. Just gotta get it in my head.

What gets me is, ive been sick for awhile(not smoking related), seen folks a WHOLE lot sicker than me, and for some reason this [bleep] is addictive enough to keep us smoking. When I got sick from Lyme and Bartonella, I thought the disease was gonna kill me. And it might. But im positive smoking will kill me if I cant shake it. Nicotine addiction is very real, much more than I ever thought possible.

what puzzles me about smoker is smoking one last cigarette before going to bed , tobacco is an upper !



P.

Started at 15 swiping my old man's Camel non-filters. Got booted from school many times for smoking in the student parking lot. 3 days or 3 swats with a wicked paddle was the punishment. Took the swats most of the time so the old man wouldn't find out.

Went to menthol "Salem" for years then moved to Marlboro light menthol and smoked them for many years. Not much else to do trucking but smoke to stay awake.
Quit in 08 when I got the tonsil cancer diagnosis, been smoke free and cancer free ever since.
Sadly all it would take after all these years is 1 smoke and I would be a smoker again. It's that damn powerful.

It also has calming effects. Both of which are short lived, but the very reason why its so addictive. Its a viscious cycle. Nicotine is rare in action, not many other chemicals work both ways.

My weekly or semi-weekly bowl of Cavendish is the absolute least of my present health concerns.

I started smoking at 15. Everybody did it and I didn't want to be left out. Over the next 15 years, I smoked as much as two packs of Cowboy Killers, a day. In September of 1991 I got a scare. I thought I'd had a heart attack playing football. It turned out to be a torn muscle in my chest. I decided that was close enough. I had my last one that day and have never looked back. Quitting is very hard but I learned one thing... once you truly decide that you want to quit, more than you want to smoke, you're done. Quitting smoking was absolutely the smartest thing I ever did. I'd say "good luck" to anyone trying to quit, but luck has nothing to do with it. It's a decision you make for your life and your family.

They claim the same about caffeine. I can drink a full on caffeinated drink and lay down and be asleep in a minute or so typically...

My Dad quit smoking the minute he read the Surgeon General's report in 1965, he quit cold turkey threw the pack of cigarettes in the trash and never smoked again. He lived to be 89 and had no cigarette related illesses. My Mother and her sister continued to smoke, Mother died at age 50 of a bronchial spasm which triggered a massive heart attack. Her sister developed epiglotal cancer at age 50 and later in life bladder cancer. I never had any desire to smoke having grown up in a smoking household, I didn't like the smell and especially emptying the trash with the ashes from the ashtrays blowing up in my face.

Started as a little chithead kid in middle school with my buddies. Stole smokes from friends folks and hit up the cigarette machines that were in range of our BMX bikes.

Started dipping as well in High school and continued to smoke and occasionally dip and chew through my 20's up until 2008.

I quit probably 50 times over the years. Lol. Got my head right and finally gave that stupidity up.

Absolutely the stupidest habit I ever acquired. I can't believe that folks still smoke.

At least real drugs are fun.

middle school with my buddies, mostly because our older brothers did it and we looked up to them.

Quit for good about 5 years ago.

I started smoking in high school. Never anywhere near a regular user though. Just had a few cigarettes in HS and college. I don't think I ever bought a pack although maybe a pack of cloves (gayer than a .270!). I don't think I ever finished a full cigarette either. Eventually in college I figured out tobacco makes a hangover worse and cut back from what very little I was smoking.

I never did chew/dip. But I did try snuff once. That was... interesting.

I also smoked cigars in college. I think it's been near about 1.5 years since I consumed any tobacco. Currently I have a pipe if I ever feel the need.

Wow ... that represents a lot of money over time.

Yes it does. When I started I could get them for 11 cents a pack.

I started in high-school. Dad went through two packs a day, and since he was always my hero...
I quit twice, once for 6 months while I was in the army, and for about 8 months six years ago. Army stress got me started again, and when Dad landed in the hospice in 2010, I bought a pack.
I probably smoked a pack and a half at the peak, but now a pack will last me 3 or 4 days. (Unless I'm in the beer) I never smoke around Wifey, and I'll sometimes go for days without lighting up.
7mm

I started chewing in Jr. High. Quit after college after a story I'm not telling while sober.

Never even tried smoking anything.

To me there's one way only to reduce that all-powerful nicotine craving - to avoid nicotine.

I started smoking anything as a kid, dry grass, butts whatever we could get ahold of but I was always the ring leader and had packs as early as nine. Also chewed at times. From age 13 to 35 I had packs, always, usually burnt one a day unless partying a lot and then lots more, which was often +P. Managed to knock it off for several months a few times in my early thirties but would always do something to screw it up, like thinking I could have a cigar or one time I watched an old WWII movie and the guys smoking straights did it to me and got some Lucky Strikes.

Finally, quit drinking, went dry, and learned a lot about myself and addictions. One year later to the day I smoked my last dammed cigarette. Tobacco free since May 30 2005. Months of constant conscious effort was required. That chit killed one grandfather young. The other said they dammed well knew it was bad for you in the 20's and said the way to quit was easy - just don't put one to your mouth. And that's the absolute truth of it. I don't care what anyone says in opposition, in my opinion, modern cigarettes should be banned. What a waste, absolutely zero benefit.

After 39 years of smoking I quit on Mothers day 2010. Coming up on 7 years. My grandmother, a smoker, died of lung cancer, my mother, a nonsmoker, died of breast cancer at 42 years old. And my dad, a smoker, died of lung cancer at 69 y.o. History is there. Wish I never started and hope I quit soon enough.

I started smoking driftwood when I was 12, went to Salem when I was 15, quit cold turkey in '75 when I was 36. Been off them nasty things for 45 years.