Up in Smoke: Anti-Smoking Campaign Targets Teens

Originally Published: Oct 18, 2007

Revised: Dec 13, 2007

There's a big push nationwide to stop teens from smoking. Congress banned ads, like Joe Camel, which they say are aimed at kids. They raised the cigarette tax so that smokes cost more.

And some states are cracking down on kids who smoke. They're passing laws that make teens pay fines or lose their driver's licenses if they're caught smoking.

Sex, Etc. asked teen smokers—and ex-smokers—whether they think all this will help smokers kick the habit. Most of the teen smokers we interviewed said they would quit only "for themselves" or if they thought smoking was making them sick.

"If I found out it was affecting my health, I'd stop,'' says Labake, 17, who started smoking two years ago. "One of the reasons why me and my friends don't quit is because we won't get the effects until later in life. If it would hurt us at the age of 19, then we might have never started in the first place."

Another teen smoker, Travis, 18, says he would quit "if I developed mouth sores or early signs of cancer." (Hint: There are few "early signs of cancer." Usually, cancer creeps up on people.)

Jordana, 17, doesn't smoke, partly because she watched a relative die of lung cancer.

"If teens want to smoke, they will, until they lose someone to cancer and see that they're really destroying their lives," she says.

Kristen, 17, has tried to quit a couple of times, but she always ends up going back. She thinks a national push to stop teen smoking is a good idea because too many kids under 13 smoke.

"I'm not sure if a big fine would make me stop," she adds. "But it would make me more aware and more careful of where I smoke."

Raise the Tax

Other teens think Congress should raise the cigarette tax even more. Sex, Etc.'s Christine Bayeux discussed the issue with her economics class recently and they came up with these suggestions.

"If the government increased taxes on cigarettes by, say, $2 a pack, kids couldn't afford cigarettes or at least they would have to cut back," she says.

"We should also start educating kids in elementary school about the dangers of smoking. Since young kids are impressionable, showing them the classic pictures of black lungs may scare them into never starting."

Pass the Wrigley's

Other teens say fines and the threat of losing their license is enough to make them stub the smokes.

"To me, the pleasures of smoking are in no way worth the risk of losing my license," says Sean, 17. "So, I quit and now cigarettes disgust me."

"I could smoke and have no life, no car, no money, or I could quit,'' says Joanne, 17. "Tough choice . . . pass me the Wrigley's Spearmint."

Is Smoking Killing You?

Smoking wrecks your health from drag one—even if you don't notice it. Most of us know that smoking can cause major diseases like cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and bronchitis. Somehow, though, that stuff seems to happen to older people. Not us young, healthy things. Maybe so.

But smoking can cause a whole bunch of other health problems. You might already have some and not even know it. Did you know, for example, that smoking can cause: