Hello- Mark here: any of you that know me personally know that I am a smoker and have been for years. The purpose of this Blog post today is not to debate the right or wrong of smoking, nor the hazards to your health as posted by the Surgeon General.

Over the last few years, I have watched (and paid) as cigarette prices rose from a couple of dollars a pack to almost ten dollars for some brands! At each major rise, I would tell myself- "When they hit "X" amount per pack- I'm done!" Well guess what? I'm still smoking : ( I have been looking into alternatives, such as E-Cigarettes. Although I...

I am a smoker. I have been a smoker for 28 years, without once ever giving up. This is not a piece against non-smokers nor is it adovcating smoking. It is simply my views and feelings on what I believe my rights are as a smoker.
I have been criticized,harassed and even abused by many people over the years - mainly by those who fall into the ever-nagging, reformed smokers category. I sincerely applaud anyone who has wanted to give up smoking and has done so successfully. I also very much repect that smoking does bother and is indeed unpleasant to the non-smoker. However, do not condemn me just...

I'm not very sure of myself writing or not.. but, here goes.

I'm a young smoker, I've been smoking since I was 13 to 14 years old. All I ever hear is the whole, "You started smoking because you thought it looked cool.","You feel the need to be popular and accepted by your peers." and "You know that shit causes cancer, right?"

As a smoker that has grew up around smoking, I can justify for myself that "being cool" isn't the reason I started. The reason I started was curiousity. I mean, granted, I got curious more than once and now I'm at a pack to two packs a day.

I just guess that I started relying...