How many anti-tobacco ads have teens seen? How many classes have they sat through telling them how bad smoking is for their health? This article is not going to be like the millions of others that most teens have read. It’s not going to be full of facts that mean nothing to the average high school student; it’s not going to tell smokers that what they’re doing is wrong; it’s not even going to tell them that they have to stop smoking.

What it is going to do is let everyone know what teenagers think about smoking and about those who do it.

“I think smoking is a disgusting habit,” says Las Vegas High School senior Mikaela Cavida. “I can’t understand why people would want to hurt themselves in that way. I know that they think it is the cool thing to do, but why would you risk your life to be ‘cool.’ I just don’t get it.”

Mikaela’s younger sister, Megan Cavida, who is currently in 10th grade at Las Vegas, says, “Boys who smoke are gross. I hate to talk to a guy after he has just had a cigarette because he just reeks of smoke, and it makes me sick.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Las Vegas senior Kathy Dickenson says, “I smoke. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s just something that I do. It’s not who I am.”

Dickenson says that anti-smoking campaigns make all smokers out to be horrible people whose lives revolve around a cigarette.

“I have done it for years, and I’m not addicted. I could quit right now if I wanted to,” she says. “It’s just a matter of when the right time is. My boyfriend smokes too, and it doesn’t bother me. I guess I am just used to it.”

Can a person who smokes only date other people who smoke so they aren’t offended by the odor? Other physical changes caused by smoking that might cause someone to avoid relationships with smokers are yellowing fingernails, wrinkling and premature aging of the skin and tooth decay.

“Smoking is a disease that I do not want around me,” says senior Myriam Lopez, who attends Las Vegas Academy. “I am trying to work hard my senior year and accomplish as much as I can. I would never cut off valuable time from my life because I wanted to try [smoking], or because all of my friends were doing it.”

The number one reason that high school students begin to smoke is because their friends are doing it. They don’t want to be left out when everyone else in the group has a cigarette. The risks of smoking are not even a factor in these cases, despite the fact that studies have shown that one pack of cigarettes can take seven minutes off a person’s life. Even casual smokers who smoke socially every now and then risk serious health damage. Poisonous substances from cigarette smoke accumulate in the lungs until the body’s natural purification process can’t take it anymore and shuts down.

“I would never smoke. I want to live as long as I can, and as healthy as I can,” says Las Vegas High Senior Class President and varsity football player Marc Steele. “If I started smoking, I would not be able to run as fast in football.”

He adds, “I don’t want to always have to try to catch my breath for the rest of my life. I have enough things to worry about. There is no need for me to add smoking diseases onto my list.”

Many smokers notice that they have shortness of breath after the first pack they smoke.

Jon Kroll, a 2002 graduate from Colorado Springs, Colo., says, “I have smoked before — not a lot, and only with my friends. It made me gag the first few times I inhaled, but then I guess I just got used to it.”

“After graduation, the group I hung with wasn’t around anymore and I went off to college,” he adds. “Sometimes, I still have problems catching my breath. The problems don’t go away when you stop smoking. They just stop getting worse.”

Whether or not one smokes is his or her own decision on what is most important to him or her. Similarly, those who choose not to smoke must decide if the problems that go along with inhaling secondhand smoke are worth a relationship or friendship with someone who smokes and puts their lives at risk. What teens decide to do with their lives today will affect them tomorrow. They have to consider the risks to themselves and to those around them who may be influenced or affected by their actions.

Teens are old enough to make their own decisions, and they just need to be sure they are educated enough to make the right one.

-Return to May 2004 Issue-