Morning Rant: Why do young people still smoke?

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DarkJediKnight

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Maybe because I'm a health freak, but in 2007, with all the info we have regarding health issues related to tobacco, doesn't this sound retarded?

It seems like everywhere I go, 19-20 year olds are lighting it up, whether on break or just outside with friends.

I can understand the 40+ year olds who may not have been wholly aware of the risks of smoking as much as kids do nowadays, so it's harder for them to quit, but if you're young now - why even start!!!

Holy shit! To me it's mind boggling. Given the cost of smokes these days, you'd think that was a deterent. Seems not. And it's going to be my fucking tax dollars going towards them eventually when their symptoms arise.
 
DarkJediKnight said:
Maybe because I'm a health freak, but in 2007, with all the info we have regarding health issues related to tobacco, doesn't this sound retarded?

It seems like everywhere I go, 19-20 year olds are lighting it up, whether on break or just outside with friends.

I can understand the 40+ year olds who may not have been wholly aware of the risks of smoking as much as kids do nowadays, so it's harder for them to quit, but if you're young now - why even start!!!

Holy shit! To me it's mind boggling. Given the cost of smokes these days, you'd think that was a deterent. Seems not. And it's going to be my fucking tax dollars going towards them eventually when their symptoms arise.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't feel bad about your tax dollars... will have pissed them away in Iraq long before then.
 
Tamanon said:
And you can't really blame advertisements of tobacco companies this time:P
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You know what, that's BULLSHIT when people use that excuse! Formula 1 racing is my religion (I have dogtags that say that), and I've been to many Canadian Grand Prixs, and been exposed to tobacco sponsors since 1990 when I was a tyke.
 
Plus, people telling you not to do something actually has about the same effect as people telling you TO do something.
 
I've asked a lot of friends back in highschool in grade 12 this same question and almost everyone's answer is the same, they started before grade 9 because it was cool to smoke but as they got older, they wanted to quit but just can't.
 
Pretty much no one where I work smokes. Maybe two or three persons at most. Definitely not a single younger person now, and two that used to, decided to quit (and managed to so far!) I don't care if people smoke personally, but it's nice to see a bad habit like that getting squashed.

Of course, I still see shitloads of younger people smoking whenever I go walking downtown.
 
alr1ghtstart said:
because they try it out to be cool, and their wills are too weak to break the habit.
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This is sad but true. My 15 year old little brother does this to impress his friends. He's even now experimented with pot. He gets in deep shit for this cause Dad doesn't want to fund his nicotine habit with his allowance.

The problem with him is that he's "a trouble child" that was adopted. So he does have cognitave disabilities and really doesn't know any better. We keep grilling him that it's expensive, unattractive and that his hockey idols don't do it. But he never heeds our words.

He's on a short leash but we keep giving him second chances. I blame the friends he hangs out with. He's trying hard to fit in. If they were to jump off a cliff he'd butt in line to do it. Kids these days will do anything to seem cool. What they fail to realize is it's very uncool and they think they're invincible.
 
Iamthegamer said:
These days it's pretty much for natural selection purposes.
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Pretty much...

And another note. I also blame the deadbeat parents. There are some that not only not teach their children about the dangers of smoking and do nothing, but they also provide them with the cigarettes. Shit. How do we shield my little brother from this when his friend's parents are giving them out like candy.

It's an uphill battle when the low income/low educated parents are giving away this shit for free.
 
SpoonyBard said:
Young people are generally pretty stupid. Half of them are dumber than the average.
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Young people are young.
The problem lies is people not being able to quit after growing out of the "idiot" phase.
 
Because smoking's cool, and they don't really care about the health risks. Dorky adults' attempts to vilify the habit only make it seem more attractive.

OMG TEENAGERS NOT BEHAVING IN A RATIONAL MANNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I think even worse are people around my age (I'm 17) that smoke, despite knowing that they have asthma.
 
You think 19-20 is bad? What about the 13 yr olds?

I'm 16. I'm not too close with any of my smoking friends (not because they smoke), but a lot of them do it as a social activity. Which just seems utterly stupid to me. If you want something to do there's whole lot of other crap to do. Some of them tried to quit, but 'surprisingly' they failed.
 
I don't smoke... but if someone around me is smoking, I'll most def light up. It averages out to about a cig a week or something. When I moved back home and started driving to school, I can't smoke at my house so I have pretty much been shut out from it. But, when I was in my apartment, I'd smoke a packokoolz every once in a while.
 
http://www.unsworn.org/dpt/digital_peacock_tails.pdf

The peacock shows his grandiose tail to the peahen to convince her to mate
with him. The peahen is, however, less amazed with the tail than she is
impressed with the fact that the peacock has survived in the wild despite
of it. For the size and colour of his tail make him an easily detected prey
and severely decrease his ability to escape should a predator attack him.
The tail makes the peacock’s life harder and serves for that reason as an
effective signal in this specific act of communication. It is a sacrifice of
instrumental functionality for expressive functionality.

Many human acts of communication are served with equally
costly, painful, limiting, cumbersome or dangerous displays. Some of
these displays come in the form of conspicuous consumption (Rolex
watches), impractical, painful displays (Chinese foot bindings, high
heels), or dangerous activities (cigarette smoking, riding between subway
cars).
Click to expand...
 
I'm in high school, so pretty much every other person smokes. Even I do it, but not often at all. I might smoke a couple of cigarettes at a party, but thats it. There's never been a time when I've had to have a cigarette.

The reason I do it is because it gives me a bit of a buzz when Im drinking, but I know thats not the reason that most other people do it. i think the main reason is becaue they think it makes them look cooler and they think that they're being rebellious by ignoring everyone's advice.
 
Almost all of my friends don't, including the ones that used to in high school because it was the cool thing to do, so that's pretty encouraging. I've never smoked habitually, but I occasionally partake of cigars that my brother and sister are always buying, and my one good friend who smokes (and didn't really smoke back in high school, now that I think about it) rolls her own cigarettes and occasionally convinces me to have one.

In other words, I think less people are carrying it on past the idiot-stage these days. And if someone does, it really doesn't bother me. We all do stuff that we know is bad for us. Cigarettes might be an especially well noted example, and tobacco corps might be evil assholes, but why does someone smoking bother you so much to begin with? Because you're a health freak? Good. So don't smoke yourself.
 
I was young when I first smoked. I mean we're talking umm.. 13 maybe? It was definitely cool. It really had nothing to do with advertising, though Joe Camel was certainly cool even though he didn't come along until maybe a year later.

another few interesting tidbits. When I started smoking, the legal age was 16. Granted I was 2-3 years under the legal age, but almost EVERYONE in high school smoked, at least the cool people. By the time I hit 14 or 15 the legal age was raised to 18 but the 16 year olds were grandfathered in. So basically by the time I got to high school everyone was STILL smoking legally. We were also in a residential area with the parking lot between the school and the street, so you could basically stand across the street and smoke legally outside the ordinance of the school.

all it takes is one "cool" kid to start and it's a big chain reaction. no one in school wants to feel left out, even if it's doing something stupid. I don't even think it has to do with the buzz or anything. They just want to belong.

if you have kids, just keep them educated. show lots of gross pictures and maybe even take them to view some emphysema or lung cancer patients.

for the record, I smoked for many years afterwards. Probably until I was maybe 20-21. I managed to stay quit for 5-6 years but then started back up "because of personal stuff". That went on and off for a few years until recently. Now I've completely quit for a few weeks and plan on staying quit. I really hate it, and for this entire past while have known I hated it and just kept doing it because I was addicted. My wife insisted it was because I was stressed, even though I know it doesn't alleviate stress.. It is jsut easier to not deal with the stress of quitting along with the other stress... Fortunately I am finding again that the stress of quitting only lasts for a few weeks. I've also learned that casual use is bullshit as well.. I Was able to casually get away with it for a few years there... but at this point it simply can't happen, and in the future.... what the fuck is the point???

part of me wants to say "To each their own" but the rest of me wants to say "How can companies legally get away with putting a product like this out for consumers?" IMHO it is easily the most questionable legal product on the market today, in any industry.
 
ive worked at a couple of places where some people smoke, and have seen people that didn't smoke before they started the job/didn't smoke for the first couple of weeks start smoking so they could take more breaks.

how come i get two 15 minute breaks a day, while every time i look out the window my cubicle is a part of, i see the same people down there in the smoking area? i swear these people take like 5 or 6 breaks a day, along with their lunchbreaks.

but when i took a 20 minute break once i got chewed out.
 
I know tons of people who got hooked on Newports because it brought back your high after you smoke weed. I smoke cloves because I enjoy smoking.
 
JodyAnthony said:
ive worked at a couple of places where some people smoke, and have seen people that didn't smoke before they started the job/didn't smoke for the first couple of weeks start smoking so they could take more breaks.

how come i get two 15 minute breaks a day, while every time i look out the window my cubicle is a part of, i see the same people down there in the smoking area? i swear these people take like 5 or 6 breaks a day, along with their lunchbreaks.

but when i took a 20 minute break once i got chewed out.
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this is actually a big change that is coming along in a lot of places... a unification of "breaks". In some places smokers are being forced to take fewer breaks. in other places workers are being given additional breaks to match up to smokers. It depends on your company. If your company hasn't started this I would definitely mention something.
 
DarkJediKnight said:
And it's going to be my fucking tax dollars going towards them eventually when their symptoms arise.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is the only problem here.

It's also the most insidious part about mandatory state charity care - it gives society an "in" to limit your personal freedom because everyone else is paying for your mistakes.

Also, the more a government does to try and almost ban cigarettes, the more attractive they become to a rebellious youth. Actually, that includes banning it outright, too - look how well alcohol prohibition worked. Or how well current laws against marijuana work. Worst of all, logically speaking, given what we ban now there's no reason not to ban alcohol and cigarettes too, it's just that these dangerous drugs are okay to be sold and those aren't. :lol Makes no sense. If the state's covering everyone's health, then anything remotely dangerous can be banned on that principle alone.

Banning its use in "public places" is just as insidious. There's a valid case for cigarettes and only cigarettes regarding secondhand smoke, but it's a simple matter for a private business to provide a means to reduce that to nil.

I also don't like the idea of a "sin tax." I mean, sure, there should be a sales tax on it, there should be a sales tax on all things that aren't a neccessity for life, and that should be the United States's main income instead of the income tax. I can kind of see the logic of it as long as there is welfare state charity care for low-income smokers... kind of, but I don't like it.
 
along the same lines; why do people still consume alcohol?
 
DarkJediKnight said:
Holy shit! To me it's mind boggling. Given the cost of smokes these days, you'd think that was a deterent. Seems not. And it's going to be my fucking tax dollars going towards them eventually when their symptoms arise.
Click to expand...


Are you also enraged by people who drink alcohol? Seems to be abuse of alcohol leads to health issues and your same tax dollars paying for them too.
 
otake said:
along the same lines; why do people still consume alcohol?
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Because it tastes good (assuming you enjoy a nice drink), gives you a nice buzz, and is far less of a long term health risk than smoking when done in moderation?

I don't see the comparison.
 
djkimothy said:
This is sad but true. My 15 year old little brother does this to impress his friends. He's even now experimented with pot. He gets in deep shit for this cause Dad doesn't want to fund his nicotine habit with his allowance.

The problem with him is that he's "a trouble child" that was adopted. So he does have cognitave disabilities and really doesn't know any better. We keep grilling him that it's expensive, unattractive and that his hockey idols don't do it. But he never heeds our words.

He's on a short leash but we keep giving him second chances. I blame the friends he hangs out with. He's trying hard to fit in. If they were to jump off a cliff he'd butt in line to do it. Kids these days will do anything to seem cool. What they fail to realize is it's very uncool and they think they're invincible.
Click to expand...

My brother was just like that before he became a Professional MMAer.
 
worldrunover said:
Because it tastes good (assuming you enjoy a nice drink), gives you a nice buzz, and is far less of a long term health risk than smoking when done in moderation?

I don't see the comparison.
Click to expand...
There are thousands of people who die because of alcohol, so thats one pretty strong comparison with cigarettes. I think smoking is worse, but both of them can cause some serious health issues.
 
I don't know too many people who smoke anymore, or at least keep their smoking to a minimum (god bless NY and their anti-smoking in public laws)... but seems like every European I know still does it.
 
psycho_snake said:
There are thousands of people who die because of alcohol, so thats one pretty strong comparison with cigarettes. I think smoking is worse, but both of them can cause some serious health issues.
Click to expand...

Very true. But when done in moderation, drinking is much less harmful, and doesn't really affect others around you the way smoke does. I mean, you can have a glass of wine at dinner and not have people complain. Try lighting up at the dinner table.
 
I smoke about 6-7 per year when I'm really stressed. It does give me a nice buzz and really relaxes me and allows me to focus better. I just don't do it very often because it stinks and is terrible for your health.

as for it being "stupid"...the odd thing is that some of the smartest people I've known were also light-to-heavy smokers. I'm also really surprised at the # of students at college that take smoke breaks. I thought smoking had gone down.

In other cases, smoking is one of the few excuses employers let people take breaks - especially a shit jobs like factories or gas stations. If you don't smoke, you don't get a break. I mean, what else are you gonna do with 5 minutes? Just stand there?
 
Why do old people still drink? Why do women still go to tanning beds? Why do fat people still eat at McDonald's? Why does anyone do anything that is going to shorten their lifespan?

Because you're going to fucking die. You. Will. Die. It's going to happen one way or another, so why not enjoy yourself while you're here? Smoking is awesome. I'd still be smoking if it didn't give me sinus infections and make my teeth hurt because the roots of my teeth are in my sinus cavities.

P.S. That's the shit they should tell kids if they really want to keep them from smoking. None of this "oh you might die when you're 50 or 60" because most kids (and me) don't want to be old anyway. Tell them that their teeth will fucking throb like they just sprayed cold water on a cavity and there's nothing they can do about it.
 
I just don't understand why weed is illegal and alcohol is. Alcohol in moderation is awesome but put people who are stoned in a room with people who are drunk and you'll see what I mean.
 
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