poyndexter is on the right track here, and the time may be right to take such action. There has been a big change in attitude towards smoking over the last few decades, I am struggling to put together a list of people that I know who do smoke. Forty years ago it would have been difficult to put together a list of those who didn't.
It was made obvious to me at Christmas 1990 just how much things had changed when during a Candles by Candlelight evening at a local hall, nobody had any matches to light the candles for the kids. Not on them, not even in their cars, except for one person, and that was an overseas visitor staying with us, the only smoker out of about 100 people. Forty years ago there would have been a cloud of smoke hanging in the hall all night.
GZ and Rhinosaur are right, the addiction is in the head. It's a matter of whether the person wants to make the committment to stop or not. A lot of people don't want to commit fully to anything. The anti-smoking campaign has successfully gotten the message through the head of a lot of previously addicted smokers, and if my young bloke is any indication, to the young generation still in school that have not been exposed to smoking as much as what we were. He is not adverse to making a perfect stranger aware of just how irritating their smoke is, they will either stub it out or scurry away embarrassed. I feel really proud of him whenever I see it happen. Neighbours of mine, both smokers, some years ago wanted to buy a Toyota Prado. The wife worked out if they both stopped smoking they could afford the car, which they did. They are past the stage of taking it up again as they have a young family growing up and realise the importance of the example they are setting for their kids. I think if we try and imagine what it will be like looking back in 100 years time, people will identify a period of time that tobacco was used, just as we look back now at a time when opium was being used.
So Poyndexters postulation makes a lot of sense. It is something that is going to happen sooner or later. It is just a matter of who is going to have themselves remembered as the one who made the commitment.
