Confession: I smoke cigarettes. Gasp.
It's my choice. The anti-smoking message was just getting started when I started, but it was nowhere nearly as prevalent as it is now. When I started smoking, in the 80s as a teen, you could smoke in doctor's offices, in hospital emergency rooms, and walking down the aisles in grocery stores. I'm very happy that it's not like that now, because that's gross. On the other hand, when I'm outside in the open smoking and someone walks by me 20 feet away and curls their nose at the smell...come on, that's ridiculous. That whiff of the scent you're getting for a nano second is doing you absolutely no harm, and you're just being an obnoxious shit.
I know it's harmful, but so are a lot of other things, and I enjoy it. Maybe I'll quit someday, but not now.
I smoked a bit during my pregnancy in the late 80s, before that behaviour was practically criminalized, and despite the "LOW BIRTH WEIGHT!!!" warnings, my child was 9 lbs, 3 ozs. No ill effects at all. My mom, and many of her peers, smoked during pregnancies. We're fine. And yet, in this non-smoking time, when smoking during pregnancy/around your children is verboten, rates of allergies and asthma are higher than ever. Why is that?
Again, fully aware it's not good, and I hope to quit someday (honestly, I've cut down, but never really tried to quit, I like it too much), but the attitudes of some people are nuts. I'm glad it's not allowed in indoor public places anymore. I wear my seatbelt. I don't drive if I've had even one drink. I'm not eating half a cow every week or consuming buckets full of sugar. I wear lifejackets on boats, helmets on bikes. Your sins probably aren't any less than mine.
I also know some pot smokers - in my age group, the occasional users are fine. The regular users seem to be unmotivated burnouts, so don't kid yourself that there's no harm.
Eta - I think that if the anti-smoking messages now were as prevalent when I was a kid, I wouldn't have started.