I see where you are coming from but calling them idiots is not fair. Addiction is a seriously debilitating illness. It’s quite an amazing illness where individuals do not want to stop because the drug affects their decision making ability. That’s why most smokers are initially in denial of their addiction. If you’ve ever had depression, you would understand exactly what I mean by the decision making ability hinderance; the mechanism deemed the “tinted glasses” of depression. It’s not stubbornness for the sake of stubbornness - it’s stubbornness born out of addiction.

And it’s disingenuous for one to blame them for starting either. It is a single mistake which siphons you into the vicious cycle - it was one bad day for me and that was that. I was pissed off at life and I bought a pack to rebel. Everyone makes a mistake. But addiction is unfortunately an extremely costly one - and the money spent is the least significant cost unfortunately. It’s the lifetime of cravings despite having quit for years now. It’s the depression and being the times I was a jump away from suicide. All of this because I was angry at the world one night. Instead of punching the wall, I bought a pack.

It’s pretty trivial to call it an issue of intelligence. I urge one to delve into the issue - it’s naturally a very perplexing paradox which starts unraveling once one tries understanding it.