I try to present data as accurately as I can, without bias. It is a fact that only 20% of the population smokes here. The SF Bay Area is one of the most expensive and desireable places on earth to live (rivaled by Boston and Munich). We have Stanford Univ., UC Berkeley, UCSF (7th highest ranked (teaching/medical school/research)hospital in US and numerous State U's. This is a major research and development center because of close proximity to all of the universities. We also have Lawrence Berkeley and Livermore Labs, not to mention Sandia. Out of the 16,000 registered medical device manufacturers, 10,000 of them are in California with the majority in the SF Bay area. Then there's always Silicon Valley. Did you receive radiation? You were probably treated on a Varian or Siemens linear accelerator which are both manufactured here in the Bay Area.
Bias? The stuff about intelligent population I read in a report someplace (and I am not saying that we don't have our fair share of rude people, village idiots and Neanderthals) - Where is Hannibal Lector when you need him? He only eats the "free range rude").

Obviously something they are doing in California IS working to get people to quit smoking. I commend the Canadians for being ahead of us in their aggressiveness to eliminate smoking.

As far as the Canadian data I listed, contact CNN, I didn't make it up (the source was the Candian Cancer Society).

It all boils down to this, which many have re-iterated in this string - People who are addicted will go to any length to satisfy that addiction. They will do this in spite of knowing the consequences of their actions.

And as far as how we spend money. We are a market driven society (one of the by products of a free society) and as a result we have companies spending more money on Viagra and Minoxodil research than on basic cancer research (not that I agree with this).

So once again, let's get out of the problem and into the solution - how do you get people weaned off of tobacco products?