Instead of learning about addiction, it taught me a ton about socializing. Sharing a cigarette with a romantic interest is such a low friction way to be able to keep close enough to have a conversation, and subtly reinforce intimacy. And after I quit, I would bring a pack to any party I went to and not tell anybody until someone was asking. There was a double whammy of providing one for a stranger, and saving a friend from having to donate one.

By the end of the night, when everybody was either trying to bum one or find someone sober enough to make a run to the gas station, my reputation for both having cigarettes and not smoking made me pretty popular. It was also really nice that when people praised me for it (mildly; "that's really cool of you, man") my stock response was "yeah, no worries. I know how great it would be if someone had a Dr pepper for me when I was dry", which made a lot of people offer me my favorite soda all the time.

I still can't stand smoking, and have only had a dozen or so in the decade since then, strictly for ingratiating myself to people. But there is nothing out there like cigarettes for socializing. I'm with a lot of other commenters here in wondering how much we've lost by stigmatizing it without ever reconciling with the (trivial, in comparison) benefits.

I have no clue what brand it is. But if I ever smell it in public I am teleported back there and find myself aching terribly with youthful nostalgia.

In another place, far to the north, above the arctic tree line I heard so many stories and met so many indigenous people when braving the frigid temperatures to participate in smoke breaks.

So - while horrible for health, my "anecdata" does seem to indicate that it does help break down social barriers, remove my self-imposed "shyness" regarding talking to "strangers" and strengthens community and social bonds.

(Thankfully, outside of a 6-week period where a relative was in hospice care and I was up to a "pack a day", I was able to quit easily)

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/1suta15/...

Yep, I’m old enough to have been working when you could still smoke in hotel bars. In Monaco you could order a pack of Marlboro Reds at your dinner table back in 2006.

This must have had an effect, beyond health. Surely? It's hard to research because it gets crowded out (understandably) by all the negatives from smoking and all the improvements to health from the reduction of it.

But nicotine does have an effect on the mind. Certainly some positives (concentration, I believe) and I'm sure some negatives too. So the idea that a society would, over the course of a few decades, quite sharply reduce it's use of a particular drug surely must have had some interesting knock-on effects.

I've heard some people wonder if the rise of ADHD diagnoses could be related. That in the past all the ADHD folks would smoke and self-medicate, without even realizing. I have no idea if that's true.

And for all the terrible chemicals they blast in the air, I don't remember ever having enjoyable small talk with strangers except when accompanying people to a smoke break, be it outside the office or a bar.

Upon banning smoking in public areas, my city and the surrounding municipalities encountered an immediate and statistically significant (~10%) reduction in heart attacks.

If you can put yourself back in that moment with honesty, and remember the hope and inevitable disappointment that this will be a 'good cigarette' ... lol that is not cool

The tobacco industry lobbied for this, because they didn't want to be held accountable for the deaths related to say a smoldering cigarette that lit a house on fire.

And those products themselves really weren't that healthy, as the flame-retardant added to say your couch would off-gas for a LONG time.

Now cigarettes (at least in the EU and in the USA) have 3 speed bumps in them, so they don't completely burn. They stop at each of these, and you need to suck more to overcome these bumps.

Me the first time getting drunk in the woods realizing I had crushed my smoke in my jacket.

I became friends with my best friend that day.

It may be the remnants of addiction speaking, but there was something about vaping that elevated certain scenarios. I loved standing at a tall place and watching the cloud dissipate into the scenery as my eye balls and body relaxed from the nicotine. Whether it was a cityscape or a high hill, it was just lovely and I remember it fondly.

The very last time I vaped, I was in the smoking lounge at the Singapore Changi airport. It was a rough room with harsh dystopian concrete benches. In the ill lit space, I sat down and took my last drags. As I inhaled, a middle aged Chinese business man in a suit sat down next to me and silently enjoyed his cigarettes. Then we went our own ways without saying anything. I thought it was a good last time.

Also, I'm sorry, but at least for me and a friend we found it hilariously easy to quit vaping. We simply just "stopped" and that was that. I found it much more painful to quit caffeine (which induced in me a fortnight of withdrawal symptoms, sore bones and fevers).

What about pipe smoking?

It's disgusting and I couldn't be more glad that I quit, but it does sound good sometimes. I also quit drinking and had to give up caffeine, so I have like zero vices now besides napping and ice cream.