However, the image of smokers I have as a doctor is not at all charming. I regularly see individuals whose chronic smoking has caused their arteries to clog, leading to strokes that resulted in paralysis or a heart attack. These people who were once healthy now need someone to feed them and help them go to the bathroom. There are individuals with lungs damaged by smoke who no longer fill with enough air with each breath, gasping at the slightest effort and needing an oxygen tank just to climb stairs. If they ride a horse in the countryside, they will die.

Moreover, countless people whose love for cigarettes has led to mutations of cells in various parts of their bodies, causing cancer. Whether it's mouth, throat, lung, bladder, or stomach cancer, the result is the same: a slow, agonizing death as the cancer cells that divide relentlessly drain their strength and eat away at their flesh.

This ultimately happened to the actor who played the famous Marlboro cowboy: he died of lung cancer in 1992. And it happens every year to millions of others around the world. Their lives end prematurely because of a habit they couldn't—or didn't want to—break.