As a teen you want to be grown-up, so go on, make a grown-up choice! At least 90% of adults who smoke wished they didn’t, but they didn’t say no to teenage smoking, so they lost that easy choice and now… it’s much harder to say no to smoking. Smoking has lost its glamour image. The film and sports stars who originally promoted it have died early and ugly deaths. If you admire someone now who smokes, maybe a star, or someone amongst your friends or family… admire them for their attributes, not their habits. Who’s going to admire them when they’re dying — not you and not the doctors — instead they’ll get pity and even scorn now because it’s their own fault.

Nicotine is considered the number one entrance drug into other substance abuse problems. Research shows that teens between 13 and 17 years of age who smoke daily are more likely to use other drug substances. The use of other drugs is part of the peer pressure that our children have to face. The earlier that our youth begin using tobacco, the more likely they will continue using into adulthood.

Teens like to act as if they are someone special or dangerous. By smoking they can act on those feelings. Because it is so prohibited it becomes more tempting to teens. The problem is that when they take that first puff, they can become addicted. The idea that they are breaking the law or going against their parents and schools is an addiction within itself. Kids like to get attention; it does not matter if it’s good attention or bad attention. They desire attention and by smoking they get big attention. The other teens look at them in all kinds of ways and the adults get upset and don’t know what to do.