Let me preface by saying that, despite tremendous peer pressure, I have never and hopefully will never lift a cigarette to my lips.
That being said, I believe people must be very sensitive toward smokers. Remember that the classical, fallback explanation of why people smoke–they’re just trying to be cool–is an outdated old aphorism that doesn’t apply nearly as much as it once did, when cigarette billboards and commercials were commonplace.
Smoking is an addiction, as is caffeine and, sometimes, overeating–both of which are likewise abused, on occasion, by yeshiva bachurim. If one wishes to take an altruistic approach and question why yeshiva bachurim don’t heed the call, “venishmartem meod es nafshosechem,” they should likewise be fiery advocates against the high-caloric meals served daily in yeshiva and capped off by pastries, chulent, kugel, kishke and beer at the end of the week. We are no longer Polish day laborers who burn thousands of calories a week, and heart issues are the leading causes of death. Rabbanim across the world should be demanding that an hour or two of physical exercise become mandatory in all yeshivos.
In addition, there was someone in this thread who wrote that, categorically, “anyone who smokes is a murderer.” It is exactly this sort of attitude that encourages smokers to continue smoking; they know that anyone who speaks this way is so far removed from the realities of nicotine addiction that nothing that person says needs to be taken seriously. Most people can’t “just stop” smoking without an openly medical impetus, no matter how many heartwarming tales you once heard or read about those who did.
Finally, we must remember that those who do triumph over their addiction have not suddenly opened up their whole lives before them in a new, shining and beautiful way; they have managed to control their body’s need for a substance that, throughout the rest of their lives, it will still crave deeply in times of emotional or social stress. For this reason, it is wrong to try telling a smoker how much better and cleaner his/her life will be once smoking is gone from it. Anyone who understands nicotine addiction also understands that quitting does not mean that one will immediately never want to smoke again; it’ll be like having a perpetual itch that they are being asked never to scratch.
Yes, smoking is filthy, dangerous, unhealthy and foolish, but do not presume to treat those who do it as “bad people.” You do not know their stories, and you do not immediately have the moral high ground. Let’s daven that yeshivas will really start pressing home to their bachurim how terrible a thing it is to even start. Let’s hope that yeshivas will someday stop intertwining Purim with smoking, as though it’s some sort of mitzvas ha-yom. Let’s hope they also begin providing regular exercise and extracurricular activities to keep their boys healthy and occupied.
If people really, truly, cared to preserve the lives of smokers, these things would already be the norm.