I have to wonder if this idea that smoking is disgusting is simply due to the negative image that tobacco has gained over the last twenty or thirty years. Yes, it'll kill you. Yes, most people consider this a drawback. But then, I'm sure there are a number of folks here who recall the days when smoking was so prevalent that most hospital rooms had ashtrays in them. There was a time when smoking was just about as common as drinking is now and yet that seems to be forgotten. It strikes me as odd that there weren't more people in those days extolling how it was a dirty disgusting habit with no redeeming qualities.
I grew up in a home with two parents as smokers. Even after my dad split, my mum maintained a pack a day habit for most of my childhood and didn't actually start going outside to smoke until my stepfather more or less forced her to (I was twelve at that point). I don't think my mother is a bad person for smoking. I don't think I'm a bad person for smoking. And, having grown up with it, I'm not particularly bothered by the smell of cigarette smoke.
I'm not one to force my habits on others, just as I expect others not to force their habits on me. I gave up drinking and drugs several years ago. I'm not about to judge people for sparking up now and again (or even every day if that's your thing), but the smell of marijuana bothers me these days and if someone is smoking it I'm likely to be somewhere else. I have no problem with people who take the same attitude towards my cigarettes and I fancy that I'm actually fairly considerate about it. I don't light up in front of anyone unless I know they're okay with it. If I don't know that for a fact, I ask. I don't stand in front of doors, I don't smoke inside bus shelters. In general, I take the consequences of my habit with good humour. What gets me, after all that, is that there are people who feel they have the right to make a moral judgment about me based on my vice. Smoking is not who I am, it's something I do and it does not make me or anyone else a bad person. For those who are assholes about it, I'm inclined to say they're probably assholes in general and it's not fair to those of us who aren't to blame the unrelated habit.
What bothers me even more is the people who feel the need to sermonize. I'm aware of the risks, thanks. Seeing as half the surface of my pack is taken up by big, dramatic warnings (
see?), I'd have to be a fool to not be and if that were the case you're probably wasting your breath. If I choose to smoke anyway, odds are I have a reason.
I realize I've gotten a bit off-topic here and I apologize. This is one of those subjects that gets me foaming at the mouth, as some here probably know already. I am a smoker and I am not apologetic about it.
To answer the original question, I do enjoy smoking . I enjoy the rush. The pleasure of that first cigarette of the day, the post-dinner cigarette, the with-coffee cigarette, the post-coitus cigarette. It does give me a way to fill wait time (you say my prescription will take ten minutes to fill? Right, I'll be outside having a smoke). It acts as a social lubricant. Oh, right, there's also that chemically dependent thing.
I started smoking for reasons that I won't go into here. The reasons I continue to smoke are very different, but I consider them valid. And the bottom line is that when it comes to my health and my habits, I really couldn't give a shit about anyone else's opinion but my own.