I enjoy tackling positions I disagree with.
I can't possibly list them all, but they include a significantly reduced risk of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases and reduced ageing of the brain generally, significantly reduced risk of breast cancer, significantly reduced risk of ulcerative colitis, while it is also an effective treatment for the symptoms of many mental health problems. About 80% of schizophrenics smoke, and it is reasonable to attribute this to smoking's positive effects on many of the cognitive, psychiatric and physical symptoms of the illness. The effects of smoking have been shown to effectively treat major depressive disorder, for another example.
More generally, cigarette smoking enhances concentration, improves memory, inhibits pain and reduces anxiety. Cigarette smoking, depending on the speed and strength of inhalation, can be both a stimulant and a relaxant. Smoking is also useful in tackling obesity, which can be infinitely more dangerous than light smoking, because it inhibits appetite.
Here are some well written and well sourced pages on some of the health benefits of smoking:
http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/therap.htmhttp://www.sott.net/article/221013-Health-Benefits-of-Smoking-TobaccoLung cancer. There is undeniably a much bigger risk of lung cancer with smoking but it is nowhere near as likely as is portrayed. A well sourced quote from Wikipedia:
In other words, I have a 1.5/10 risk of developing lung cancer if I smoke as I do for the rest of my life, while as a woman you would have a 0.95/10 risk. In my mind, considering the pleasure it gives me and the benefits touched on above, I do not believe this risk is great enough for me to abstain from it. There is a 75% chance I won't develop the disease.
The biggest scandal we've never heard about is that medical practitioners make a great deal of money from encouraging anti-smoking. Below is the link to an article by a man who has done the leg work - and he concludes that doctors make about £88m annually from being anti-smoking. The newspapers, meanwhile, make a pretty penny from enticing people into reading them by scaremongering, and politicians are mostly populist at the top and will do everything possible to conform to popular attitudes when there is no great need to resist them. All three of these actors are responsible for the vilification of smoking in the public conscience and I ask you to consider that they are all their own respective conflicts of interests before you take their word for it. Smoking is not as great a danger as we have been led to believe, and its many benefits have been hushed up.
http://www.clivebates.com/?p=2488