As a university student, particularly one in a prestigious institution such as McGill, I have the opportunity to interact with some of the best minds in the world.

This being said, you would think that very few of the illustrious McGill crowd would smoke. Even a six year old can now describe the hazards of puffing on those "sticks of death." Lung cancer, coronary heart disease, decreased life expectancy . . . all are very recognized consequences of cigarette smoking. In fact, in Canada, tobacco is one place shy of being deemed an illegal substance. Proposed legislation severely restricts both advertising and sponsorship of events by tobacco companies.

As illogical as this may sound, many university students still puff away at tobacco. Despite known health risks, there seem to be perfectly logical reasons why students smoke. This does not make smoking right; I am just arguing that these students are most definitely not mentally impaired in any way. Students experience many pressures: the importance schools place on marks, family expectations, relationships, the weather (if you were ever at McGill, this is not a laughing matter), nostalgia, and the other forces, which demand that we find a way to relieve our stress. Yes, there are other time-honoured methods of doing this: some like to exercise, some drink coffee, some go to see movies. However, smoking gives a very special type of satisfaction.

Nicotine is a cholinergic agonist. All this scientific jargon means is that most of the effects of nicotine act directly on our nerves, those components of our body that help our minds react to what is going on around us. Nicotine actually increases one's state of wakefulness -- useful when one is pulling all-nighters to finish those three papers which, thanks to your caring professors, are all due the same week. It also increases short-term memory, which comes in handy when studying for that exam for which you have to memorize a book of information which you won't need at any other time in your life.

And for everyone who thinks that "the freshman 15," those 15 pounds you gain in first year and at the start of every year, are unavoidable, think again. Nicotine decreases the sensation of hunger, so you can kiss those chocolate cravings goodbye. It also improves concentration, so no longer do broken hearts keep you from doing well in your final exams. One might say that your life is more important than a grade on an exam, but then again, unless you do well, what life you have isn't going to be all that great anyway. With the rising rates of unemployment all over the world, it is difficult to worry about your health 30 years into the future, when there's the worry of whether you'll have a job five years ahead.

Smoking is often railed at for causing addictions that are difficult to reverse. Only five percent of all smokers who try to quit succeed without professional help, and this often at the cost of chewing some terrible tasting gum or using uncomfortable patches. However, everyone forgets to mention that although nicotine is addictive, it cannot be "abused" as the term is legally defined. What does this mean? Although you can't easily give up nicotine completely, you keep taking in the same amount every day once you have settled into a pattern. Therefore, if someone has been smoking one pack of cigarettes a week for the past two years, he or she will continue to do so for the rest of his or her smoking career, and will not become a two-pack-a-day smoker. This is actually one of the main reasons why tobacco is legal, unlike many other addictive drugs.

These are some of the reasons why the smoking industry is one of the biggest and most vibrant in the world. The Grand Prix of racing, tennis tourneys, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Just for Laughs Comedy Fest, the Montreal Film Festival . . . all of these are sponsored by these huge, sprawling, immensely profitable companies.

All this for the measly price of about five bucks! One might almost question why people don't smoke! My argument might cause some to think that I am an avid smoker, or that I support smoking. Au contraire, I am a confirmed non-smoker, extremely worried about the burdens that smoking places on health and the health care system, and I dislike the smell of cigarette smoke. However, this is no reason to beat up on my smoking peers and label them as stupid or silly.

Since more than a third of all smokers are within the 18-24 age group (which makes up the majority of university students), stopping smoking means addressing their concerns. Maybe universities could work to alleviate some of the stresses placed on students and provide services whereby they can deal with the problems which cannot be avoided, and thus remove the need for cigarettes. While a puff a day may not keep the diseases away, it sure does seem to keep a lot of a university student's everyday problems at bay.