What's really remarkable about this is that it's hard to find a tobacco company executive who doesn't smoke. The stereotype of the evil drug pusher is that he gets other people hooked but doesn't use himself because he knows how bad the stuff is. The tobacco execs, on the other hand, knew what smoking's effects were as well as anyone did, and yet they continued to smoke. You could use this as evidence for the addictive power of nicotine (although the millions of former smokers all around you should make that difficult). But it seems like much better evidence that smoking is a choice and that adults who are fully aware of the risks will still smoke. Which, in a society that has at least a nodding acquaintance with the idea of personal liberty, would suggest that adults should also be allowed to smoke.