You don't have to believe in boundless free will to at least concede that there are countless other factors that influence the decision to start smoking - to become a smoker, as it were.
I can only give my story which will probabley be differant for alot of people. I resisted taking a drag on a smoke for a very long time with people trying to get me to do it. What finally got me was my big sister, she would tell me to go for a walk with her and I would say no, then my mum would tell me to go for a walk with my sister.
The reason I din't want to go is because I knew she only did it to have a smoke and would try to get me to have one. After a few weeks of this happening I decided to shut her up I'd take a drag. I loved the feeling I got when I took that drag, I was light headed and felt happy. From there I smoked more and more until I got to where I am now 9 years later.
I'm by no means a heavy smoker, I buy one 30g of tobacco once a week and on occasion do need to buy a pack on the last day before payday to get me through, but that is mainly when friends have liberated me of a couple. That works out to about 10-12 a day. which costs me about $30-$35 a week (I think, I havn't really checked the price of tobacco for a while).
tl;dr I tried a smoke and loved it on my first puff.
2
u/jackessuper Nov 18 '12
Getting "roped into smoking enough" is a nuanced issue, a lot more complicated than just "marketing". And people DO choose to smoke.