And this is why people aren't as educated about tobacco as they could be - because the information is suppressed. I suspect that despite the lawsuits and financial losses the tobacco companies experience, that there will always be people who smoke. The reasons for this are given in your post - there are personalities that are naturally dependent, rebellious, and self-destructive. The tend to have frequent depression and hopelessness. I know someone who is like this. He says that smoking and drinking is pleasure, but I think what he's trying to say is that when he's sober, he's not happy. And since behaviour is largely driven by our emotions, as long as a person is feeling depressed and that life is hopeless there will always be smokers. The other issue of looking more mature, cool, heroic, etc., only fan the flames (if you'll pardon the expression). As far as tobacco-induced disease is concerned, these things do not matter to the smoker. They know the effects of tobacco use are well into the future and they simply don't care. Since they tend to be self-destructive anyway, dying from doing something they've come to love is what works for them. They know they're not going to be around forever anyway. If you're depressed and hopeless and know you're going to die one day, why not go out with a smile on your face? For alot of people tobacco allows this to happen. Prohibition didn't work in the 20's and 30's because government can't change a person's mental health. People say it didn't work because governenment can't dictate public morals, but that's not accurate. Morals can be changed, but mental health is a tougher fix. We tend to gravitate toward things that provide us with pleasure and not all behaviours provide the same effect to all people. We can be sure that some politicians who voted against alcohol years ago had the own private stashes. If something similar were to happen to tobacco there would be more private stashes. The final analysis? The same thing the government did - let people use it and tax the hell out it.