I am not happy about the suffering you caused yourself by taking up smoking, but would be interested to know: did all the 15-year olds that you knew, say, in your school, also take up smoking? If not, why not? Why did you feel the need to be cool, but those other teenagers did not, at least not to the point where they would take up smoking?

I know that they put bad stuff into the cigs to get you addicted. That is why I can smoke occasionally (haven't in about a year) and then just let it go. It never became a habit with me, because I smoked only additive-free, pure tobacco. I do realize that even pure tobacco was not meant to be abused, of course.

However, in the case of alcohol, the bottler doesn't have to place any additives in order to make the drink addictive. Alcohol is inherently addictive. Therefore, considering the unspeakable damage that alcohol addiction does to the individual drunk, and to society as a whole from his drunkenness, would you also call for the banning of alcohol? If not, why not? Because some people do NOT become alcoholics? Then what about me and my once-in-a-while smoking? Why should a non-addictive smoker like me be punished by the banning of tobacco just because there are people who don't know about additive-free cigs, or who just have an inherently addictive personality?