Federal law currently prohibits smoking in federally funded schools nationwide. So why do some students still smoke?

Recent studies show that about 3,000 teens each day take up smoking. Also facts indicate that more and more teenagers are leaving school campuses to smoke, leading to more truancies and fines.

Who are the people that have to pay for this? Certainly not the big tobacco companies, nor the schools, and definitely not our parents. We, the youth of America, are the ones who have to pay.

Some teens use smoking to relieve stress or hunger, to help lose weight or even to keep the drama of the everyday high school life out of sight and out of mind. Others just do it to do it, with no real reason why. But is that a good enough reason to start?

Numerous studies show what smoking tobacco really does, and an estimation on how severe the brown plaque from tobacco can get to be on a person’s lungs.

The World Health Organization’s Web site at www.who.int states, “We can expect tobacco’s death toll to nearly triple in the developing world over the next 20 years, killing in numbers that will rival any other world epidemic in human history.” However, that number does not include the fact that secondhand smoke kills about 53,000 Americans each year.

“I don’t know why smoking is such a big deal for teenagers in our schools,” says Basic High School junior Jessica Smith. “So many of us do it anyway, and it’s not like anyone will make us quit.”

A random poll of 60 students at Basic taken during one week in September revealed that more than 40 teens either smoke cigarettes or have at least tried smoking once or more at parties.

“I don’t get the point of smoking. It doesn’t do anything,” says Miguel Cuevas, a junior at Basic.

If you’re interested in quitting, you can talk with your health care provider, or the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA for useful information on how to quit.

-Return to December 2003 Issue-