Smokin' Hot... Or Not?

 
Am I wrong, or is smoking on the increase? It certainly seems that way to me when I'm out and about. It was once seen as cool then sort of went out of fashion with all the health scares, high taxes and negative publicity. But is smoking back in vogue?
It's a topic in writing that I ocassionally embrace - Angus McCloud enjoys a cigar and is often portrayed smoking one, usually with a malt whisky in his other hand. I've taken it further with other characters, using the glowing cigar as an object of torture to burn a submissive's nipple. I must admit that I like the image, and might look to take it further. But do people find it sexy, or is smoking old hat?
As an ex-smoker and glad to have given up, I never use cigarettes in any of my scenes. But perhaps that's being unrealistic when so many people are still happily adicted. I know that the BBC have banned it in some of their programs, not wanting to advocate by screening characters who smoke. But should I be doing the same? Is it right to self censor? What is the responsibility of an author - to portray reality, the world as it is; or to paint a fanciful picture where certain things don't exist?
Well let me think on that for a second, for that's all it need take...
Hey! This is Jack Brighton! This is Fiction on The Wild Side! Of course I paint a picture that is far from real. My men are always gorgeous like the smokin' hot stud above, their cocks are always big, hard and forever hungry, and it's a long long time since I wrapped one in a condom. It's a fantasy world full of fantasy characters, where the horrors of STD simply doesn't exist. Cigarettes don't either, or so it would seem. I never intentionally did that - just the way my characters turned out. Something to think about for the future, along with the question... Is smokin' hot... Or Not?

Jack