Pretty sure I've been here and done this before. Well, not here in this topic specifically, but, uh... anyway.
Let me start off by saying this: I completely understand if someone hates smoking. There's plenty of good reasons to dislike it, although there's a few bad ones as well, but I digress.
Now, with that said, I am a smoker myself, and frankly I don't give much of a damn who doesn't like it. Before you start angerly calling me out for being arrogant, let me clarify: as a smoker, I try my best to respect people who don't smoke. if we are friends, I won't smoke around you, in your car or your home if you don't want me to. I won't leave any cigarette butts in or on any of your personal property, and even if you're OK with me smoking around you, or if you're a stranger, I will still do my best to make sure none of the smoke ends up in your face or other personal space. My point is. I try not to let me habit affect those around me whom don't want any part of it.
When I say I don't care who doesn't agree with it, I'm referring to the feverent anti-smoker types. Smoking is bad for me? No fucking shit. For the life of me, I can't wrap my mind around people who say this to smokers, as if they've never heard it before, or that maybe hearing it for the thousandth time will be the time they decide to quit right then and there. Some people try to defend it as giving "reminders". If you don't know this, there are "reminders" of smokings' negative health effects on every single tobacco product you can buy, so you're essentially wasting your time with efforts of futility. Oh, and that ridiculous overdramatic coughing when a puff of smoke just so happeneds to enter you personal space? Look, I'm genuinely sorry that that happened, but fuck off; it was an accident, and other than an unpleasent smell for a brief moment, you will be just fine, so drop the act.
I personally enjoy smoking. I know there's people whom claim it has no positives (some I've seen in this thread), but I say, speak for yourself. I like the taste, I like how it feels when I inhale, I like the buzz I get from it, and I like the overall act of smoking itself. Yes, I am an addict, and yes, sometimes I do worry about the probable health consequences I may face in the future: but everytime I weigh the pros and cons in my mind, it always comes out in favor of smoking. Simply put, I love it.
I recognize that I'm in quite the minority regarding this viewpoint, and as originally stated, I completely understand if you don't want to smoke yourself, or be around people whom are smoking. (And to those whom currently smoke, but wish to quit: it is, no doubt, extremely difficult, but just keep in mind that people have done it before, and people will continue to do it; it's not impossible, and if you keep trying you will one day succeed. Just find the method that works for you.) But I am sick and tired of being ostricized for doing something Iove, and that I try my hardest to keep to myself and from affecting others; I also recognize that there are smokers out there who smoke wherever and around whomever they feel like, regardless of the situation or the other people's well being, and litter thier smoking materials everywhere. Feel free to criticize these assholes.
Tl;DR: If you want to smoke, go right ahead, just always be curteous about it. If you don't want to smoke, good for you, just don't be a dick to a smoker unless their behavior warrants it.