To smoke or not to smoke? This loaded question faces every teenager at some time on the path to adulthood. As part of growing up and making independent decisions, one of the most important is deciding whether or not to become addicted to tobacco.

Statistics show that more likely than not, teens are choosing not to smoke. Even though 58 percent of students have tried cigarette smoking, only 22 percent report current regular use. Those 22 percent are putting themselves at great risk for an unhealthy future.

The Healthy Youth website, hosted by the Centers for Disease Control, says, “If current smoking behaviors continue, an estimated 6.4 million of today’s children can be expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related disease.”

Las Vegas Academy senior Katie Jensen heeds the warning. She says, “I think anybody who starts smoking now is foolish because, knowing all we know now, there’s just too much risk.”

Despite the dangers of cancer and disease, for some teens, smoking is about more than being a rebel or looking “cool;” it’s an addiction. Teens whose parents smoke are twice as likely to smoke as those whose parents don’t practice the habit.

Growing up around consistent secondhand smoke can lead children to become addicted to tobacco at a very young age, just as a baby whose mother smoked during pregnancy will go through withdrawals after its birth because of its addiction to nicotine.

Senior Steven Retchless says, “All my life, I’ve been around people who’ve smoked and it’s always bothered me.”

And with good reason! Secondhand smoke can be just as dangerous as actually inhaling the smoke firsthand.

“Secondhand smoke exposure … puts children in danger of severe respiratory diseases and can hinder the growth of their lungs,” says Healthy Youth.

With so much stress and activity in the average teen’s life, it can be hard not to turn to smoking as a way to escape because teens are targeted in tobacco ads and movies. Phillip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, the world’s largest-selling cigarette brand since 1972, sent an internal memo to all employees explaining the new tactics they would undertake to get teens under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes. The same company also claimed in an official document that smoking does not cause cancer, let alone admitting that one in five of all deaths within the United States are tobacco-related.

A fact not many know is that the company Phillip Morris also owns 84 percent of Kraft Foods, which makes Jell-O, Kool-Aid and Maxwell House coffee as well as other products. On the bright side, Phillip Morris has recently been making an effort to provide information to the public on the dangers of smoking through distribution of pamphlets titled “Raising Kids Who Don’t Smoke” in addition to running television ads.

Many people fall into the habit of smoking because it supposedly brings a temporary release from the stresses of everyday life. On the bad side, smoking is addictive and can cause irritability. It also requires excessive amounts of money spent to feed the habit that can also cause wrinkles, brown teeth, yellow fingers and even impotency in men.

LVA junior Nikki Wilson says, “People are ultimately going to make their own choices that will affect them in the end.”

It couldn’t be more true. To smoke or not to smoke comes down to each individual’s decision.

-Return to February 2005 Issue-