Prompt 9

Don’t Light it up

            According to the CDC 3,000 kids smoke their first cigarette each day. Three thousand children a day is an enormous amount. In fact it is an obscene amount. And the scary part is tobacco use begins in the early adolescent years, at about 16 to be exact. So that means the majority of first time users try it before high school graduation.

            To say the least there is nothing fancy about cigarettes. In my personal opinion they are stinky and very unattractive. But yet still 20 percent of American teens smoke. These teens smoke despite the fact that they know smoking is addictive and leads to many diseases and ailments. They smoke even though it is proven that at least 80% of teen smokers will die prematurely due to smoking before age 70.  According to the Surgeon’s General smoking is also a precursor to other serious problems like the use of alcohol at a rate three times higher. And it makes you eight times more likely to use marijuana and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. To think all this can root from teenage smoking!  More risks of smoking include blood clots, strokes, bad lung function, cough and phlegm production, decrease in physical production and many others.

            Since the smoking age is 18 you may be curious as to how young adolescent smoking is so prevalent. Well according to a 2001 survey nearly 70% of teens report never being asked for proof of age when buying cigarettes. Further more 62.4% of teens say even after the retailer knew they were underage they still sold them cigarettes. Maybe it’s because retailers and parents alike don’t think smoking cigarettes are a big deal. After all it’s not drugs or alcohol, right? No wrong, yes cigarettes may be considered the lesser evil but they are still extremely addictive and dangerous. They cause problems just as bad if not worse than other drugs. Cigarettes are very bad and it’s high time we shine a light on their malice.