To identify different reasons for smoking a study was conducted among the students of Jordan University of Science & Technology in Irbid, Jordan. The study consisted of random 650 students. After being asked it was revealed that 28.6% of students were smoking out of which among males 50.2% were found to smoke and for females it was found to be 6.5%. On being asked friends were the main source for smoking and most of them had lighten up their first cigarette at the age of 5. For males the main reason was found to be calming down and for females it was found out to be independence. Reason given by smokers to begin smoking was pleasure which was further followed by stress. Out of the 28.6% smokers 2/3rd of them thought to quit smoking in the coming time. Rest of the smokers didnt want to quit because of their addiction or because they had no idea how to quit smoking. Another study was conducted in metropolitan area of Darwin, Australia. It included 80 regular smokers 2 being males and rest 59 being females to write down all possible reasons they could think of for smoking. At the end 25 reasons
were found that people usually have for smoking. To cross check these 25 reason another 28 regular smokers were involved 59 males and rest 69 being females and out of these 25,4 major reasons were identified that were social acceptance, addiction or habit, pleasure & boredom. Even out of these 4, addiction and pleasure were found to be more strongly supported by smokers themselves.
From all of these studies pleasure and addiction can be considered to be most important factors influencing tobacco use. So the question which is the need of an hour is which is the driving force for continuation of smoking, pleasure or addiction? Pleasure due to tobacco is due to a major constituent called nicotine which is known to be a major motivation for smokers to continue. Nicotine after being smoked enters brain where it stimulates nicotinic cholinergic receptor. Nicotinic cholinergic receptors after being stimulated release a well-known neurotransmitter known as Dopamine. Dopamine is generally referred as chemical for pleasure. Once people get this pleasure they light up cigarette every time they need it.