tobacco: the shittest drug on earth
There are many drugs available to today's consumer, both legal and illegal, and many factors to consider when choosing which to use. My suggestion is that you maximise pleasure/(cost x addictivity x chance of it killing you). This is hardly made up of quantifiable things, but you get the general point, tobacco scores low on pleasure, but high on cost, addictivity and chance of giving you cancer of the lungs, throat or mouth.
So why do people go for it? One, the government, who studiously follow the agenda of the narrow-minded and stupid, allow tobacco, and its advertising. This makes it easier to get hold of and easier for tobacco companies to persuade you, by increasingly subtle and artistic means, that you want it. The government is planning to reduce tobacco advertising, but it will only do so slowly and hypocritically, due to the amount of money they make from taxing its addicts.
Two, people who smoke think they're cool: having a roll of carcinogenic leaves shoved in their ugly gobs says loudly "look at me, I really don't give a shit, I'm a badass rebel prepared to spend good money on giving myself bad breath and a large variety of unsightly malignant tumours."
In short kids, tobacco is shit: take better drugs, that don't contribute to Blair's funds for persecuting single mothers, doleys and anyone not in possession of a Ford Mundano.
Tobias