I had my first cigarette when I was 13/14, I think. Dad was a smoker, rolled his own cigarettes. One weekend when I was at his place and he was still asleep early in the morning I was rummaging through some of his cabinets and came across a rolling machine where you put the tobacco in and you squeeze it into these premade filters. I thought I was really cool and started doing it regularly when I was over at his place, although I didn't inhale back then.
Somewhere around '97 or '98, I was still in high school, and I learned to smoke over my lungs because I had made a couple of friends who did cannabis and I wanted to join them. In Holland it's pretty customary to put tobacco in your joints. It didn't take me very long to pick up smoking just cigarettes by themselves. Soon I had a 2 pack a day habit.
In the following years I tried to quit multiple times, unsuccessfully. Especially when having a beer the cravings for a cigarette would get unbearable, like others here have mentioned. It wasn't until mid 2010 when I decided to stop drinking completely that I was able to quit smoking as well. Now 8 years later I have picked up the booze again but I haven't started smoking, nor do I want to. I feel a lot better since I don't smoke anymore.
I do snus, though. Picked that up when I was working in Finland. It's different from smoking though. I can do snus for a few weeks and then just put it aside and don't touch it without any of the terrible cravings that ciggies would give me. Still gives me a nice and long lasting buzz, too. Snus is pretty great, I love it. I always get the Odens brand.
Only problem is, since I got so used to smoking joints with tobacco in them, when I leave it out they don't taste like I want them to. I have a vaporizer but it always tastes "off", I'm missing something which to me feels like an essential part of toking up.