Teen Smoking - Comments

I'm a smoker and to be honest, this entire article just sounded as if you were calling every teen smoker a completely incompetent, useless lay-about. I smoke because it works to de-stress me, not because I want lung cancer. It works to de-stress because not only does the mild 'head rush' effect of nicotine soothe you, but it forces you to take yourself out of a situation, think, and breathe. I'd rather light up the occasional fag than cut myself or God knows what else.

i know its bad for the health, but soo many of my friends do it. its crazy. but sometimes people do it cause of peer pressure :(
Even the smart ones give in for "just one puff" ...... pft.

'Scuse me 'hause of wolf'. I find you trivial and annoying. Please, go away.

Ahem, I'll cut that out now, save me some breath - which is obviously very short. As a smoker, I really liked this article. Again, same points as made before, sex and violence, what the fudge, blah blah. I'm at college and can't be bothered with people arguing and saying things without any backup.

Yes, smoking is bad for you. Yes, many of my family have died from smoking related illnesses such as lung cancer. Yes, I still persist in smoking but hypocritically forbid my already anti-smoking brother to ever, ever do it. And [b]no[/b]. Smoking [b]does not[/b] relieve stress. It may feel like it, but biologically, no.

It makes your heart rate rise and beat faster continuously for a full twenty minutes before returning to your normal resting heart rate. Being a fattie, my heart rate must go really high.

It destroys the celia in your throat. This leaves nothing to clean the dirt and mucus out of your throat. Thus resulting in starting your day with a good old cough to get all the lovely gunge from your nose and throat.

It destroys your sense of taste and smell. Sucks for me; I like my food and the smell of perfumes and cologne, deoderants, etcetera. Although, with the way the world is coming to, a sense of smell is the worst thing to have in certain places...

And finally, it ages your skin and destroys organs such as your lungs, and can have a wonderfully bad effect on your heart. As a smoker, I do know my risks and I know I'm very likely to die of some coronary disease.

But, to be brutally honest, I'd rather smoke than drink, do drugs, cut myself again, etcetera, etcetera.

I like to smoke. I like the taste the smell, the feeling I get, the connection it forms with other like-minded people.

Oh, and the person saying 'I want a good future!'? I will have a good future. I finished school with amazing grades and I'm doing pretty well in my A levels considering my background and how my family grew up. I'm smart enough to know which opportunities lie open for me and which ones will be good for me. I'm not an idiot just because I smoke a couple packs a week.

I'll have a future, and a damn good one at that. Considering my boyfriend is already on the road to being a footballer and I'm not exactly bad at writing and am striving to write a great British novel, I think I'm covered in the monetary department. And before you ask, no, I don't often smoke around people who are apparently smarter than me and chose the obviously safer route to me.

I will have a future, actually. It just so happens to look rather smokey from where I'm sitting.

L:W xoxo

ewww somking is not cool smoking is uncool that why i dont smoke i wanna have a good future and a good health that why tabacco ciggaret is a bullshit it smell like shit everytime i comeoutside and see ppl smoking is smell like shit even i have 22 cover my nose from dat smell

I hate how people think that smokers are these horrible people. It's bullshit!
Non-smokers judge smokers because they smoke.
Smokers dont normally jugde people because they dont smoke!

Sorry if I am being inpolite but just because you stated the obvious in the harms of smoking, doesnt mean that you can judge and look down upon people who smoke.

Yes, I am a smoker. I tend to smoke as stress relief, and it does a damn good job to be fair. I personally think that smoking (as notoriously bad as it is for your health) is the lesser of many evils. When some people get stressed they drink, cut or do drugs. People get stressed alot. I get stressed, smoke, get the relief without having to do anything stupid. To be totally honest, I can't say I'm ashamed. =/

I'm not being high and mighty. I do not look down upon people who smoke. I am just stating the researched facts. This was a required article for my language arts class and I thought I'd share it with you. That's all, I'm not trying to get anyone to stop smoking. I'm simply stating the facts of smoking.
If you disagree, I understand, but I'd appreciate it if you disagreed politely.

How the hell does smoking make you have sex. It can make men impotent after many years of both. I smoke and there is nothing listed on the packs I smoke that says it increases your libido and urges. And the packs list many MANY risks to smoking them. Anyways I think that this article is a crock of s**t because people can make their own choices. Everyone gets preached at about how bad smoking is and if they do it they are taking their own risks. And smoking isn't a gateway drug.

I like this article, but I do have one little bone to pick.

'Smoking is glorified and made to look cool and harmless in the media today.'

Maybe it's where I live, but I don't really think this is true anymore. Once upon a time, yeah, it was. But these days I think it is more seen as an act of rebellion, not always malicious rebellion, but a form of rebellion none the less.

Otherwise, you've done some good research. I'm very anti-smoking, for all ages, not just teens. I think it's an awful habit and I struggle to see where the positives in it lie.

I smoke a cancer stick every now and then.

had my first around this time last year.

Not addicted to them hopefuly I won't be. but I don't deny it i do light one up every now and then.

i like the taste...sue me

My view on this is if they wanna smoke, let them. It's not my problem.

I don't think you have the right to judge anyone. It's not your life. They know the risks, they do it anyway. Nothing you say will change it.

I thought the article was informative and well researched and structured :)

Smoking is unhealthy, and people continue with it just as they do with over-eating, alcoholism, etc etc... And just because a giant percentage of people smoke, and that a lot of people are curious are about it, does not make it right to waste money and life on an addiction.

Pointing this out does not make you high and mighty, as if looking down upon everyone that does. If so, then can only smokers asume that smoking is bad for you? Only people who have addictions can suggest that it is wrong to give into them?
I think that presenting facts and logic doesn't mean you think people are worthless, or don't understand that people have reasons for their addictions. But hose reasons surely do not make it right to kill yourself and those around you. But hey, all the same, it's not as if you don't know that already...

also, now you've pissed me off enough to need a marb!

weed=not a gate way drug, booze is more likely to get you to do other shit.
"There are many other harmful and threatening things about cigarettes. Teen smoking is also associated with fighting, carrying weapons, having sex, and using alcohol and other drugs. Many researchers even say that tobacco is a gateway drug and almost always leads to use of other, higher risk drugs."- I am a smoker, i can't go to school in the morning with out having one, and when i get outta school i need one and hour ago, [i]however[/i] i do not get in fights, when i carry weapons it's a poket knife which is mostly a handy-dandy thing, and makes me feel safer walking down town being an abnormaly small female, i have had sex, but that's because i'm a horn-ball, not 'cause i smoke, i drank for a VERY long time before i smoked cigs, and i smoked pot before i smoked cigs as well. i know a lotta people who undo you're little "high and mighty"bull shit

Weed is more of a gateway drug than tobacco, or nicotine, or whatever you want to call it, and to be perfectly honest, I felt like I was reading a wikipedia article.

Why are you centering out teens? It seems like you're saying teens are stupid for smoking, but it's okay for anyone else to do it?

I'm pretty sure most teens don't try smoking just because their "idol" in the media smokes or whatever.....

Yeah, I agree, teen smoking is bad, but I think you're not going in depth to the reasons why people smoke. It's not always because they're trying to be rebellious. Sometimes using tobacco can be a self-medicating crutch that people rely on to calm them down. Ever heard someone say how they're upset and they [I]need[/I] a smoke?

I'm not trying to excuse smoking, but you have to be empathetic to some people's situations. And just because your school warns students against smoking, not all of them do. Some kids don't even go to school by that point. People are a lot more oblivious than it seems.

Also, censoring the use of tobacco in media would be pointless. Not only is it, yet again, a restriction of freedom of speech (people have the right to depict smoking, it's a real life thing) but it wouldn't help. In fact, it would make kids more curious and more apt towards trying it. Teenagers revel in what society considers taboo. Think of sexuality; it's restricted and considered taboo on television and in society, but students are going on and getting pregnant, mainly because they're not educated.

I'm not sure how you can fix such a problem. No matter how muhc you crusade people will still do something. But, it's their lives.

A well researched article otherwise.

I appreciate the point you were trying to get across, and I would not for one second criticize the objective of this article, but I have to disagree on some counts.

[i]"There are many other harmful and threatening things about cigarettes. Teen smoking is also associated with fighting, carrying weapons, having sex, and using alcohol and other drugs. Many researchers even say that tobacco is a gateway drug and almost always leads to use of other, higher risk drugs. "[/i]
This point is one I'm not sure I would concur with... as a teenage smoker who has a lot of friends and acquaintences who also smoke, I really don't think it's true. If anything, friends of mine have started out on supposedly "worse" drugs (I mean for the most part cannabis) and ended up smoking cigarettes as a result. As for violence and sex, I'm not sure there's any evidence to prove or suggest that tobacco is a violence inducing drug, nor one that heightens sexual feeling. It is, of course, a dreadfully unhealthy and lethal drug that is incredibly addictive. However it annoys me sometimes that people are high and mighty about smoking when they drink alcohol, because the teenage binge drinking situation, particularly in the UK [I can't speak for the US or other countries] is absolutely horrific.
There are a lot of very badly written articles on here which consist of little more than "smoking is bad! dont do it! omg!!1111" Your article is actually very well written and I can tell you've researched a lot of the information for it. As I say, I still feel the sex and violence thing was going a bit far, but I admire you for actually addressing an issue so well, especially one you're likely to recieve backlash for. Sorry if I seem pretentious in this comment, I haven't been awake all that long and I tend to be a bit of a dick in the mornings.