by Lisa H Warren

Created on: July 26, 2008   Last Updated: November 06, 2008

Cigarette sales may not be what they once were; and cigarette taxes (as well as efforts to quit) may result in many smokers' "borrowing" cigarettes from others. Still, many people today do buy cigarettes (and buy them regularly). In fact, while cigarette smoking was once seen as glamorous and "cool", over the last several decades the habit has fallen from grace. Today, smoking has become primarily associated with elderly people who started as kids and never quit, low-income individuals, and teenagers.

Most agree that nobody should smoke, and most believe, too, that making it difficult for teenagers to get cigarettes may help (and probably has helped) reduce the number who get hooked on smoking at an early age.

So, removing teenagers from the equation, that leaves a smoking population primarily made up of elderly smokers and low-income smokers - all of whom buy cigarettes today. Of course, there are some wealthy and/or education individuals who smoke as well. They don't, however, make up the majority of smokers.

Why do people with little money spend their money on cigarettes? They do it because they have a nicotine addiction. Why don't they have the "self-discipline" to "just quit"? Based on what smokers I've known have said, they don't (can't) quit because many use smoking as a way of "keeping calm enough" to get through extremely stressful days. The person who began smoking as a teenager or young adult learned how effective nicotine can be, when it comes to feeling calmer and better. While some smokers may have gotten addicted to nicotine as young people, others would tell you that, even if they smoked as kids, they weren't necessarily addicted until they were a little older, had met up with some severe loss or stress, and was "up for trying anything" that may help them cope (without becoming intoxicated with alcohol, and without having their thinking clouded by drugs). Whether they're teenagers who experiment, or adults who have learned, first-hand, how much better smoking a cigarette can make a stressed out or grieving person feel, most smokers saw smoking as a short-term or occasional thing when they began smoking. Nicotine withdrawal is difficult for people who have the normal amount of stress, but under the average amount of stress or loss many former smokers have managed to get through the quitting process.

For people who live in extremely difficult circumstances, and for people who have had extreme loss or grief, there is an extra element to their addiction

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