<p>Okay, I can hazard guess, but I am wondering what the kids THEMSELVES have to say:</p>
<p>Why did you start?
How often do you smoke?
Did your parents know?
Did you get caught?</p>
<p>My D has a couple of friends who smoke, they are 16 or 17. Drives me crazy. D doesn’t smoke and her friends are decent kids, but the smoking is so icky, I am wondering why kids start…</p>
<p>Do you really think it makes you look older and more sophisticated? Do you smell better? Do you feel mature?</p>
<ol>
<li>it feels good (at first)</li>
<li>it makes you feel older</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not a smoker, but I’ll smoke occasionally. It really is an enjoyable experiance when you’re not addicted. end. I don’t do it more because addiction obviously doesn’t look like fun (nor does cancer, bad breathing, cost), and because smokers are virtually persecuted nowadays between it being banned in public places and the general “holier than thou” attitude of many non-smokers.</p>
<p>Really, I just hate to see anyone smoke. As a nurse, I have cared for numerous patients whose lives were ruined from smoking, but they still couldn’t give it up. Ever see someone smoke through a tracheostomy tube … the very tube that was placed there because the patient could no longer breathe without one? It’s very, very sad. The foul breath, bad skin, bad smell (clothing, car and home) and yellow teeth that smokers have is just a scratch on the surface of what smoking can do. Struggling to breathe as your lungs are eaten away by growing tumors … how is that attractive? Decreasing your life span and objecting your family to the pain of watching you suffer … is that an attraction? </p>
<p>As an asthma sufferer, I am offended by people who attempt to smoke in enclosed places. They are not just harming themselves, they are harming me as well as others who suffer the effects of second-hand smoke. The shocker for me? In my experience, the very people who see the worst effect that smoking can have were the worst offenders when I worked at a local hospital … they were the respiratory therapists.</p>
<p>(Sorry, citygirlsmom … I know you said you wanted to hear from the kids themselves, but I just couldn’t stop myself)</p>
<p>I’m a teenager who doesn’t smoke (never tried it- I think there are more fun ways to slowly kill yourself)…I heard somewhere (not really remembering where at the moment- somewhere reputable like Newsweek, Time, or the like) that girls become addicted to smoking (on avg.) at their 3rd cigarette. For boys that stat is upwards of 30. Crazy, huh?</p>
<p>All the teen smokers I know started as a result of peer pressure or wanting to “look cool” and are now at the point where it isn’t an easy “I’ll just stop” kind of thing. Most of the high schoolers I know have never smoked cigarettes, as marijuana seems much more common nowadays.</p>
<p>I cant really say much about cigarettes. But more marijuana, this is what I will say.</p>
<p>It usually starts with their curiosity to experiment with what is out there. Also, if their friends smoke marijuana they tend to get involved too because they of the peer pressure to be the only one not smoking in a social outing. Many smoke marijuana to relieve themselves from the stress and pressures at home or school or whatever it may be. Offcourse this doesn’t solve the problem, but kids are aware of that too. A couple hours of perfect relaxation and heaven is good enough for them. Also, marijuana has become more of a social part of the teen friday and saturday nights. For some teens, what they used to do on friday nights no longer seem interesting, so they try something new. Although many say its to “look cool” i think it is more of the fear of looking bad infront of a group at a social outing in which everyone else is smoking.</p>
<p>I remember reading a statistic somewhere that every cigarette you smoke takes 10 minutes off your life. To me, that’s not worth it.</p>
<p>I absolutely HATE the smell of smoke (tobacco or marijuana)…although I come from a county where tobacco is a huge cash crop and go to school in a big cigarette town. I could never, ever date a smoker or live with someone who smoked in the house. Just the smell off my roommate’s clothes when she comes back from parties (she claims to be a social smoker and only smokes at parties…sometimes weed, sometimes cigarettes) is enough to drive me nuts.</p>
<p>I hate the smell of smoke too. I also hate the litterbugs who throw their cigarettes on the ground. :mad: (don’t you dare point out that Duke was founded on tobacco $)</p>
<p>A couple of my high school friends smoked (and drank, but that’s a whole 'nother story). Some did it to be “cool,” and some did it because of stress (e.g. one girl told me she smoked because of trauma she had resulting from rape). All of them found it hard to stop. :eek: Teen smoking isn’t as popular as you might think, though. A small group (10?) of people were smoking before graduation, and not only did everyone else find it dusgusting, but several people told them so.</p>
<p>Here’s a little something for anyone out there who’s thinking about starting. I started at 17 and couldn’t quit for 22 years. When I finally had to because my then-5-year-old son begged me to and I didn’t want him to ever start, I gained 75 pounds and am still carrying it around twelve years later.</p>
<p>I started to smoke because of my curiosity. Although it tasted awful, it was so addictive that I had to keep smoking for a while. As a minor, I became scared that I would get caught by my parents (who didn’t know this). I recently forced myself to stop; this was really difficult. I still think about smoking everyday. I just hope that I won’t go out and buy a pack of cigarette as soon as I turn 18.</p>
<p>I agree with ctymomteacher. Don’t start it.</p>
That’s something I don’t like. People say “omigod, I would never do that to my body” and walk off feeling surperior to the idiotic proletariat that would smoke. They repeat, as clear as a tape recorder, soundbytes from DARE or whatever program, many of which, especially those about marijuana, (but that’s another story) are of dubious veracity. There’s really no need to talk down in such a way to a person. People do it to feel better about themselves.</p>
<p>I mean to say that taking a whiff of a joint will not make you insane, AS seen in a movie (more than one, actually) my class was shown. I mean to say that no real study has ever supported the gateway drug hypothesis, and that several have discredited it, and that it doesn’t make sense anyway, but it is still taught AS FACT and this is little better than an outright LIE. </p>
<p>of course smoking anything isn’t good for you, but many of the things we learn about the “evils” of some drugs are contrived. marijuana is less addictive than alcohol, you can’t die from marijuana poisoning, and people on it are less inclened to drive than people who are drunk., but my health class taught me “alcohol is fine until the day you turn 21, but if you touch marijuana YOU WILL DIE!”
ok, that last scentance was hyperbole, but the rest wasn’t.</p>
<p>maybe the youth will have less disillusionment whith the “drug war” when they’re not being shown blatent propaganda.</p>
<p>WHat I have discovered is the smokers can’t smell themselves…their tastebuds are not functioning as well, they litter, and its does not look cool, the face all scrunched up and the wrinkles, egad</p>
<p>But why take that first drag? ANd what makes a smoker. I am a drinker. I have a few glasses of wine each week. I am not a heavy drinker, but I do drink alcohol. </p>
<p>How many cigs do you need to smoke to be a smoker?</p>
<p>I just don’t get the attraction of taking that first inhalation…</p>
<p>And I see a lot of teen girls smoking and it just saddens me. </p>
<p>Teens have to be careful doing any drug cause it is true their brains have a different addiction tolerance, and teens do not have a great reputation generally for moderation</p>
<p>I just returned from a wedding in Latin AMerica. There were quite a few 20 and 30-somethings smoking which really surprised me. (I’m a parent) I guess if I went to any American college campus I’d see the same thing, but it sure brought me up short. I don’t know ANYONE who smokes. ( and I was a 3 pack a day-er until my husband insisted that I quit…15 years ago)</p>
<p>Where I live a high percentage of the kids my age smoke. I personally don’t: I don’t like the smell or anything and my grandfather died of cancer, brought on by his heavy smoking. Still, I think kids should be allowed to make that choice if they so wish to, although I may not agree with it. </p>
<p>Here it just seems normal to smoke. When I’m out I see so many people in the city smoking, all ages, not just kids. Even at school people smoke. Technically my school is a non-smoking campus, but no one really obeys those rules. I’d say at least 50% of the kids in my grade smoke regularly, perhaps more than that. A good majority of them go out to smoke during breaks or lunch. Its seen as something cool, I guess. I don’t really understand it. Most people started in like 9th or 10th grade and by now they are most likely quite addicted.</p>
<p>At the time I started smoking I was very attracted to a guy who smoked, and I hoped smoking would make me seem like I was “his type.” I also thought it was incredibly cool that he had an earring. (This was in the late 70s)</p>
<p>In college I found that it gave me something to do while I was studying, and (in my mind) it made studying easier.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom, that’s a little bad info there. I never lost my ability to smell the stink of cigarettes the entire 22 years I smoked. Wish I had, actually. In fact, I didn’t smoke in the house–mine or anyone else’s–for the last ten years I smoked. The last five it was for my son’s sake, too, but the five years before that, it was because I couldn’t stand the smell on everything.</p>
<p>A lot of girls smoke so they can eat less, but the trend goes farther than that. A close friend of my daughter says he smokes to relieve stress, and because it looks cool.</p>
<p>Did anyone see the movie, Match Point? Scarlett J. smokes seductively through the whole film.</p>