I have never met a person who quit smoking who didn’t truly want and decide to quit; and I have never (yet) met a smoker who truly wanted to and decided to quit, and then failed.
I don’t smoke (anymore) BTW.
I don’t appreciate the manipulation of numbers that anti-smokers use to try to influence mass behavior, even if some of it is true.
A correlation between a behavior and a higher incidence rate of a disease does not prove that the behavior causes the disease.
A smoker is more statistically likely to get heart disease.
That does not mean that a smoker who got heart disease got it from smoking – heart disease is common among non-smokers. Same with stroke.
Another point – “Smokers are 20 times more likely to get lung cancer,” vs. “Non-Smokers have a 1/7200 incidence of lung cancer, smokers have 1/360 incidence of lung cancer” The CDC said the first one, I said the second one (based on info from the CDC). Both are true.
I can turn it around. Someone who quits smoking has an 80% likelihood of gaining weight. Perhaps it is healthier to smoke.
Remember, figures can’t lie but liars can figure. Trying to maximize the emotional effect by being tricky, just because it is the most practical way to lower healthcare spending is wrong. Again, the incidence rate I posted is 100% neutral, and 100% agenda free. Stating the percentage increase without stating the original numbers, is a big fat manipulative lie.