Why tobacco has been such a profitable business

Why tobacco has been such a profitable businessHow many industries could claim this kind of loyalty to their products? From MedPage Today:

For fully half of longtime smokers, neither an MI, nor heart failure, nor hypertension alone was enough of a wake-up call to make them quit, German researchers reported.

Even among smokers who had three or more circulatory disorders, 28% still could not kick the habit, according to a study published online by BMC Public Health by epidemiologist Ulrich John, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Greifswald here.

The authors points to denial and lack of knowledge about the relationship between smoking and poor health and suggest that counseling might help.Seems to me that addiction is the more likely reason not to quit.