That's a bit later than I thought. But the point was, you mentioned having sympathy, I do for the people who started when the effects weren't really understood (for example Johan Cruyff who quit for 20 years but still died of lung cancer), but very little for people of my generation who choose to smoke.

In California it seems like the peer pressure from younger generations is disappearing based on my own experience. Judging from my sister's experience in high school (she's 5 years younger than me), I'd even say that kids have started thinking smoking is straight up uncool.

Same here, the numbers are going down quite fast.

The smoking ban probably helped.

That's certainly good news, however I think that as long as their parents are against it, many kids will smoke just to be rebels or whatever.

There would definitely be some, but I don't think it's that significant of a number. With the way the culture is changing, it's about as rebellious as wearing all black. There are other more accessible, cheaper ways to rebel like buying weed, especially with California's regulations making 21 the minimum age for buying tobacco.

If I may flesh out TH's answer:-

I think there was plenty of scientific and then public awareness before litigation.

I suspect that the fifties was the last decade of guilt-free smoking. In the sixties and seventies the attitude was, "This is probably bad for me but everybody does it, don't they?" It wasn't until the eighties, though, that people became apologetic about smoking. In this decade there was a significant social change; the question that visitors asked as they took out their cigarettes used to be, "Do you have an ashtray?" in the same tone as you'd ask, "Do you have a bathroom?" By the end of the eighties, the question was, "Do you mind if I smoke?" i.e. the question had shifted from assuming a right to asking permission.

I suppose litigation came along belatedly because no government dared stomp on such a popular habit until they they were confident that there'd be only a limited backlash. (To say nothing of the hostility of the tobacco companies.)

huh

In San Francisco they're trying to ban flavored and menthol cigarettes. I'm trying to quit but it's pretty crazy to think about a world without Newport menthols, the best cigarette that ever existed.