I smoke, and I am fully aware of what is in ciggerettes. That, I think, is the best advice to give to ppl who haven't tried and who you wouldn't want to start picking up a habit like smoking.
Take this for example:
1 pack ciggerettes
1 1/2 pint or so of boiling hot water
1 strainer
Take all the tobacco out of the cigerettes, discard papers and filters. Boil the crap out of the tobacco for about 15 minutes, strain the tobacco out. Put the remaining water on low heat, and evaporate the water. You SHOULD be left with a small amount of brown tarish substance. That is (mostly) nicotine. If you would take all that nicotine that was in the pack and consume it all at one time, you would most likely die. Nicotine IS a poison, and a very lethal one at that. It would only take 2-3 drops to kill someone.
Granted in every ciggerette there is hardly a lethal dose of nicotine, but still it is a poison, and no matter what you are causing harm to your body.
Now, as for why I smoke, even after I know this, I couldn't tell you. I started out of sheer boredom really. All morning/noon was school, all after noon was biking/hanging out/playing sports with my friends, and all night was spent on the computer. And after surfing the internet for about 5 years now, there really isn't a whole lot left to see. Smoking while surfing gave me something to do
Now watch this message be messed with because there is a recipe for nicotine
PS: Yes, this is the same recipe written by the Jolly Roger, and scaled down. The original recipe talks about chewing tobacco (Which is worse for you), but you can get the same results from cigerette tobacco as well. Besides, this is just to show what is in the ciggerettes we smoke, so don't flame me.