[Avodah] Is Smoking Mutar?

[Arie Folger]

RMB wrote:
> In calculating the added risk caused by smoking a cigarette one must
> take into account the fact that it's addictive. Thus the risk of one
> cigarette is not only that of the cigarette itself. By smoking, one
> continues and enhances the addiction. Future cigerettes and their risk
> become more probable. and that too is part of the life expectancy risk
> associated with the current decision. No one would be smoking their
> 3,000th cigarette if they didn't try their first. Or if they would have
> stopped after their 2,000th.

Yes, I believe that it is sensible to take addiction into account. And while I 
can't recall what R. Bleich said about that part, I feel he'd take addiction 
into account. Furthermore, addiction is not only problematic because it 
increases the likelihood of sakanah, as we have been discussing in this 
thread, but also because it is bad in and of itself (artificial dependence upon 
a gashmi substance) and in some cases because it leads to consorting with the 
wrong crowd (as per RMF in IM).

Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger
http://ariefolger.wordpress.com
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com