I met this 18 yo girl who smoked not so long ago. Like really? How does one even get started these days?

Single use vapes seem to be everywhere these days here in Germany. Plus they have been advertised by influencers at the beginning of the pandemic, directly to underage children. Glad they forbid that at the beginning of 2021.

Smoking is such as disgusting habit and I could never imagine having a smoker as my partner.

So sad seeing more and more young people smoking around here rather than less as should be expected.

This is just anectodal evidence, but I feel like more people have started to smoke again during the last ~10 years or so.

A few years ago, aggressive marketing rules were introduced here in Germany which resulted in very disgusting pictures on cigarette boxes displaying the consequences of lung cancer etc.

The thing is, when those rules were introduced, cigarette boxes were still prominently displayed everywhere. You just had them lying around en masse at the counter or checkout in any shop, so even as a non-smoker you always had to see the consequences of destroying your own body when you inhale toxic substances. And during that time, I was rarely seeing people smoking at all. It just got really, really uncool to do it.

Nowadays you don't really see those boxes anymore. You have to ask the lady at the counter for them or you go to one of those neutral-looking vending machines we have on the streets. I'm not sure if this is what causes people to start smoking again, maybe it's also the rise of vaping influencers.

I believe there was a study done 1 or 2 years ago that came to the conclusion that especially younger people have started smoking again. I wonder why? Is it just that typical phase of being different than the older generation?

I would love if people would just go back and stop smoking again. Especially those aresholes smoking while waiting at a red light. These people deserve a special kind of hell. The second group is smokers selling stuff on eBay and omitting that detail in the description.

It is dying here because they are $50 a pack..

https://archive.ph/4OTBi

Personally I wonder if switching from the term 'smoker' to something more accurately describing the experience for people around them, maybe something like 'stinker' and 'horrible stinker' instead of 'heavy smoker' might help reduce the appeal.

I was against smoking until I arrived in the psychward. If you're suicidal your health isn't that important to you.

Think about it, smoking is as green as it gets. Think of how much waste every human makes every year and how many animals have to die just to sustain the average human for a year. Think of how much plastic waste the average human makes. If every human lived 20 fewer years, that's mountains of garbage and billions of creatures saved from extinction.

maybe it's the overall economic situation that drives people to smoking as a "fuck it all, alter" gesture

It's a harmful activity that's about to go extinct. Almost all smokers started because it's "cool", and now it's no cooler for anyone.

"Die Renten sind sicher". (pensions are safe)

Weird way to go about it, but it might work.

Keine Kinder kriegen und rauchen um schneller zu verenden dann sich über die Einwanderer aufregen und von "Ersatztheorie" spinnen. Deutschland 👌

i mean, if some people wanna kill themselves sooner rather than later, id say let them lol