I live in an environment where people perceive smokers as bad people. They see a smoker as someone who is bad, Someone who is not loyal, someone who is stubborn and have no love in him, someone who can easily hurt others, someone who is capable of committing crime in the society. And many more I can't remember. Maybe when you read this you can add more to the list. The question is why are Smokers viewed this way in the society?
Smoking was rampant in the past. When I was a kid, I remember almost all of old age men and women used to smoke. The smoking trend got fewer on my parents age as people became aware of health effects of cigarettes and cigarettes too got expensive with taxes. In my friends circle till high school, many smoked to look cool. That was a trend at our time but our generation was the last one with it. Currently the smoking trend has got very low.
I personally don't smoke cigarettes, I have tried them in past but I didn't like it. I do occasionally smoke weed though. Among my friends circle, about 25% of them smoke.