Why we smoke?

In the 1980s, experts finally started to confirm what had been suspected for the last two decades: Smoking is bad for your health.

The result: Kids growing up in the '90s were inundated with anti-smoking campaigns - from the Truth commercials to bans on smoking in many public places. The days of Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man were long gone. Studies still list smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, resulting in 435,000 deaths a year (18.1 percent).

And yet those who grew up during that decade still get hooked on cigarettes ... why? The answer is certainly not ignorance.

The social stigma of smoking today often leaves smokers outcasted by non-smokers. A common question posed to smokers seems to be: “Why don’t you just quit?”

But smoking and choosing to quit is not so black and white. Naturally, there’s a hazy gray area.