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April 03-04
Caught up in the smoke
By Meghan Thomas, Desert Pines HS
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The smell of tobacco swept over me with my first step into the smoke shop. I could never imagine taking this adventure every day. As I got closer to the register, I felt like my stomach was doing flips. Either I was nervous, or the smell was just nauseating.
The cashier greeted me with a grunt and something you might call a smile, with his yellow teeth and all. Trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about, I asked for “Marlboro Lights in a box, please.”
As the cashier walked to retrieve my “smokes,” I looked down to see the “We Card for Tobacco Products” sign. Although I am 18, I doubt a stranger can tell, and I thought he would definitely ask for my ID. The cigarettes were dropped on the counter in front of me. “$4.36,” the cashier spit out.
As I walked out, the fresh air never felt so good. “That was way too easy,” I thought.
The Nevada law says anyone under the age of 18 cannot legally purchase tobacco products. However, a study done in Carson City shows that Nevada’s teenagers are able to illegally buy cigarettes 35 percent of the time. As I walked into six smoke shops and gas stations, I was only asked to show my ID three times, or 50 percent of the time.
Why isn’t this law taken seriously by tobacco vendors? Could the reason be that the punishment for breaking this law is a puny $100 fine? Did the clerks I purchased my tobacco from have some sort of psychic powers and know I was 18 years old, or is the 35-percent number a little low?
All over the country, steps have been taken to stop teens from being able to buy tobacco products. Just under 10 years ago, teens were able to buy cigarettes three out of every five tries. Currently the national average has dropped to one out of every five tries. Although the national average has dropped since stricter laws have been enforced, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco state that in some cities, teenage smoking rates have increased. Our fabulous city of Las Vegas sits on top of this list, with our teen smoking increasing by 12 percent in the past five years, according to the study.
Professor Spelding, a youth tobacco researcher at UCSF, says that because of these facts, “overnight miracles cannot be expected in a state like Nevada.”
Does this offend anyone else? What is so bad about Nevada teens that they do not hold us to the same standards as the rest of the nation? The high teen smoking rates might go hand-in-hand with the fact that Nevada also has the highest adult smoking rate in the entire nation. Aren’t we supposed to learn from our elders? Instead we are being deemed hopeless based on the fact that 36 percent of adults in Nevada smoke.
Our school is not an exception to the high smoking rate. One anonymous Desert Pines High School smoker says, “I have been smoking for three years. I think it relieves my stress. I don’t know, it just feels good.”
If a 16-year-old cannot buy cigarettes, how does Desert Pines’ “smokers’ corner” continue to flourish?
“My parents buy my cigarettes for me, but even if they didn’t, I would just get my friends to get them. Or I know places where people younger than me just walk in and no one cards them,” says the smoker. “Seriously, anyone could get cigarettes if they really wanted them.”
Obviously, the Nevada teens who smoke are not going to wake up one morning and no longer feel the urge to chop years off their lives by reaching for a cigarette. At least 25 percent of the time, teens can walk into a store and buy cigarettes as easily as if they were buying a pack of gum. Even if every cashier in America would never sell tobacco to a teen, there would still be a “smokers’ corner” at schools because, as the Desert Pines’ smoker says, most teens do not buy cigarettes for themselves; they find some way to get them.
The bottom line is that teens will find a way to buy cigarettes if they want to. The only way to stop teen smoking is to make teens not want cigarettes. The need for cigarettes must be diminished before our generation bumps the Nevada adult smoking rates up even more.
Educating students on the dangers of tobacco is the most effective weapon in destroying teen smoking. No one is born addicted to tobacco, so if children are taught that smoking is a dangerous and disgusting habit, teens would not smoke. Knowledge is power and children must have knowledge. One out of every five deaths in the United States is due to tobacco-related illness, which means one out of every five deaths is caused by a choice. Education programs and campaigns are increasing, but easy availability of tobacco continues to escalate the problem.
All in all, stopping teen smoking begins with us — teens.
-Return to April 03/04-
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