Cigars after graduation ceremony?

Parent Cafe
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<p>You’re absolutely right. I would be stunned at any research that can link a few puffs of a cigar with instant and long-lasting nicotine addiction.</p>

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<p>This article by the director of the American Academy of Pediatric is about cigarettes, but I imagine the same is true of cigars.</p>

<p>My older S smoked a cigarette for the first time at about age 19. He was using it as a prop to look cool while performing with his punk rock group. He says that he immediately was hooked and smoked a pack that day.</p>

<p>" Gervais and colleagues report on the natural history and course of onset of cigarette use among grade 7 students. They describe addiction patterns and behavioural transitions in tobacco use using data from self-reported surveys conducted every 3 months over a 5-year study period. Contrary to older, common assumptions that experimentation leads to regular use and then to addiction, the authors found that symptoms of nicotine dependence develop early in the course of an adolescent’s exposure to cigarettes. In fact, for some of the participants, signs of addiction developed quickly, even after a single first puff, and most youth reported symptoms of addiction and cravings long before becoming a daily smoker."
[Adolescents</a> and smoking: The first puff may be the worst – Klein 175 (3): 262 – Canadian Medical Association Journal](<a href=“http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/175/3/262]Adolescents”>http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/175/3/262)</p>

<p>“A person’s decision to smoke for the first time, or carry on smoking, is not thought to be governed solely by his or her genes, but a mixture of genes, environmental factors and social pressures.
However, scientists are hoping that by cracking the genetic secrets of nicotine addiction, they could make it easier for people to wean themselves off cigarettes, or even stop them taking up the habit in the first place.
The gene in question, CHRNA5, has already been highlighted by other studies into nicotine addiction, and it has been suggested that it could increase a smoker’s chance of developing lung cancer.
The [University of ] Michigan research, however, suggests that it could be at work from the very first instance of exposure to nicotine.”</p>

<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | Health | Gene hooks smokers at first puff](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7548878.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | Health | Gene hooks smokers at first puff)</p>

83

<p>The research is clear and compelling. 90% of all nicotine addicts began as children or teens. Multiple studies have shown that teens become addicted to nicotine very quickly, after smoking just a few times, even one time. There’s some research that suggests children are born addicted (moms smoking during pregnancy), go into remission as children, and then have the addiction re-activated with one puff. There no dispute that the massive brain chemistry changes with nicotine addiction are retriggered with one cigarette after quitting. It’s a physical addiction.</p>

<p>There’s no comparison between the danger of nicotine addicition and other drugs. One third of all youth nicotine addict smokers will die prematurely from smoking related causes. That’s more than the death rates from heroiin, cocaine, and alcohol addiction combined. It’s not even close.</p>

<p>To dismiss ANY use of nicotine by teenagers as “no big deal” is doing a huge disservice. Look at who the tobacco companies market to. They aren’t stupid.</p>

<p>New York Times:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12brod.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12brod.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>University of Aukland Study:
Addictive Behaviors, May 2008, Volume 33(5), Pages 689-698</p>

<p>[Diminished</a> autonomy over tobacco can appear with t… [Addict Behav. 2008] - PubMed result](<a href=“Diminished autonomy over tobacco can appear with the first cigarettes - PubMed”>Diminished autonomy over tobacco can appear with the first cigarettes - PubMed)</p>

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<p>Teen Smoking Factsheet
<a href=“http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0127.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0127.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Teen Smoking Factsheet #2
<a href=“http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0001.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0001.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>You should assume that any teen nicotine addict will have a “long-lasting nicotine addiction” lasting a decade or longer. The quit rates for young smokers are infinitesimally low. Successful quit rates increase with age, but the damage is already done.</p>

<p>If the nicotine marketers get you as a teen, they’ve got you for years and years. You don’t think they’ve got astroturf marketing efforts on facebook and YouTube promoting the joy of a graduation cigar? You don’t think half the YouTubes on Swedish “snus” aren’t astroturf marketing programs by the tobacco companies?</p>

<p>Now that you are grown up, use nicotine! The cigarette companies pay for the “If You were Born Before this date” signs at every checkout counter in America. They love 'em. Nothing makes smoking seem more desireable to a kid than being told he’s not grown up enough…</p>

85

<p>If my first taste of smoking were a cigar I never would have smoked again. Big difference between them and cigarettes and wanting another one. I have smoked a cigar maybe a dozen times in 50 years and never wanted another. Saying it starts with one puff is the biggest circular argument ever made. Everything has to start with the first step–DUH. And per capita I’d be happy to wager heroin use is FAR more deadly faster than any tobacco use. I don’t smoke anything now but did into my 20’s. For me it was easy to quit. I have about one per year now and hate the smell on others.</p>

86

<p>(I don’t want to get into the addiction/health issues of this debate…)</p>

<p>When my prim and proper D graduated from Jesuit HS 2 years ago, going outside to see grad cap toss, I was shocked to see MANY boys lighting up cigars. Bright, intelligent, athletic, talented boys carrying on a (so I was informed) long standing tradition.
Couldn’t believe it. “Where are their parents?” I was thinking. </p>

<p>Fast forward two years…I have no doubt whatsoever that my lovable, social, wild child S will be leading the pack of those lighting cigars! </p>

<p>At this point in time, I’m praying I’ll get to witness the act—It will mean he actually made it to graduation without getting kicked out beforehand! Holding my breath for the next 109 days…</p>

87

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<p>It’s not even close. You think that half of all heroin addicts die from their addiction? Per capita, smoking/nicotine addiction is far and away the most devastating and costly from a health standpoint.</p>

<p>The difference is the way we view nicotine addicts and heroin addicts. Thanks to the effectiveness of tobacco company advertising, we don’t view nicotine addicts as junkies in the same way. They are. Probably even more so as they need their fix 10, 20, 30 times a day. Where cigarettes are banned (such as in prisons), a single cigarette sells for as much as $8.</p>

<p>The heroin comparison is probably the biggest reason not to ban the sale of nicotine as it can be argued that forcing the product into a black market causes much of the problems. I don’t know about all that. I do know that condoning any use of any nicotine by any teenager is a major mistake.</p>

88

<p>I didn’t see any cigar smoking at my graduation (WA), but it seems to be a tradition for some people down here in the South. I agree that tobacco use can create an addiction with a good chance of serious heath problems later on. That said, tobacco companies are required to spend a lot of money on preventing kids from smoking and to help people quit. As long long as the cigar smoking is done after graduation and off school property, I see no problem with letting graduates exercise their legal right to smoke. Yes, I’d prefer that they refrained from smoking, but if state law permits that person to smoke, they have the right to smoke.</p>

89

<p>I’m a rabid nonsmoker (I’ve never even smoked a cigarette in my life), and hate the smell of cigars, BUT</p>

<p>I can think of a lot worse things high school students could do after graduation (that could result in pregnancy, STDs, arrest for drug possession, drunk driving accidents) particularly since it sounds like the cigars they are smoking are just plain tobacco cigars.</p>

<p>It’s not something I’d ever encourage, and I think smoking makes high schoolers look dumb, but THEY don’t think so.</p>

<p>Maybe I shouldn’t spill the beans, but, once they are away at college, even the nicest kids with the best grades sometimes do things that their parents would disapprove of. Polite kids just don’t tell their parents about it. :-></p>

90

<p>For the studies to be relevant, you would have to make the assumption that smoking a cigar for first time is the same as smoking a cigarette. There are significant differences between the two, which make applying one set of conclusions to the other potentially misleading.</p>

<p>At my daughter’s school where the majority of the class smoked a cigar (or tried to) after graduating, cigarette smoking was uncommon and generally frowned upon. To the best of my knowledge very few of the students went on to become regular smokers. </p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating smoking cigars after graduating as a positive thing, and personally I’d prefer not to see it. However, it’s easy to overstate the risks, and in the overall scheme of things there are far worse things they could be getting upto.</p>

91

<p>our school has a smoking tradition on the last day of school after school ends for seniors.</p>

92

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<p>The issue is nicotine drug addiction. While there are differences in the delivery mechanism, nicotine addiction occurs regardless of the delivery mechanism. Smoking cigarettes. Smoking cigars. Smoking hookah. Chewing tobacco. Chewing nicotine gum. Drinking nicotine water. Sucking on nicotine lollipops.</p>

<p>It’s a very well understood physical addiction, triggered by nicotine binding to, and highjacking, a particular set of neuro-receptors in the brain, specifically receptors that regulate the brain’s dopamine reward mechanism.</p>

<p>I’m not saying that everyone who smokes one cigar will become addicted to nicotine, but the odds are not favorable and the consequences so devastating that it is hard to understand how any parent could condone this for their sons or daughters.</p>

93

<p>I’m about to graduate in 3 hours… Me and my friends all had a great time goin to pick out these cigars. Seeing who can find the biggest one. Seems like a great tradition to me</p>

94

<p>I hope that you don’t get trapped in life of nicotine addiction. You have no idea the fire you are playing with. When I was your age, I knew I could quit smoking anytime I wanted to. I just didn’t know that I wouldn’t want to for thirty five more years.</p>

<p>It’s too bad there are no leaders in your crowd who would stand up and say, “this is just stupid”.</p>