I note the irony where tobacco smoking has gone from chic and "in" to stigmatized and legally restricted...
It's stigmatized and legally restricted because it's a known and well documented health hazard.
And really, it simply isn't cool any more. Try to imagine (for instance) a cow or a horse, breathing in smoke from burning hay, then exhaling it in a noxious cloud. That's what I think of when I see someone sucking on a cigarette.
I remember when I'd go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. There might be a hundred diners present, with forty or fifty of them smoking, just puffing away. Where I worked, there'd be a cloud of grey cigarette smoke hanging over the work areas. It looked like smog. This was in a federal building, too. They furnished workers with these little clip-on metal ash trays, and cigs would sit there just smoldering. Ever smell cigarette filters burning in a confined office space?
in my town the large plaza in from the library is a legally mandated no smoking area, people who quit smoking-like people who decide to quit drinking-are hailed as heroes.
I don't know about "heroes", but as a former smoker, I can say that there's definitely a sense of pride and self-worth in having kicked the habit cold turkey. Plus the added advantage of knowing I don't reek of tobacco smoke. No one is gonna smell me coming.
I live in a large city. There are now more places where smoking is prohibited than where it's allowed. No smoking is allowed in federal, city, or county office buildings. No smoking in hospitals and other medical facilities, no smoking in stores, restaurants, and bars. I could go on, but that's the point. Times have changed. Lots of cars no longer come with cigarette lighters and ashtrays.
There are not hundreds or thousands of stoners here puffing on weed day in day out in public places. Seriously, there aren't. I might catch a whiff now and then, and if I waste enough time looking around trying to spot the culprit, I usually find them. But why bother?