Smoking Should Be Allowed In High School

Smoking is an activity that has been around for many years for people to use and adapt into their lifestyle. It is a tool that many people use to help reduce the stresses of life and put them in a comfortable position that enables them to cope with the hectic lifestyle they are living. However, smoking has been scientifically proven to cause many types of cancer, the most common being lung cancer resulting in numerous deaths across the United States. According to BBC, "Smoking is a greater cause of death and disability than any single disease" (BBC, 2). Evidently, the benefits and drawbacks of smoking have been debated for many years, and only recently have some countries have placed a ban in public places such as Britain and the United

One of my first memories in the United States was taking a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) class. I was in sixth grade and a top student, as talking about drugs and alcohol and the way they affect us was fascinating to me. This is why, the following year, I volunteered to become a peer educator in Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U). For a couple of years, I gave presentations to young students which included facts, demonstrations, and games, to spread the knowledge that tobacco is harmful and that staying away from smoking prolongs life expectancy and increases the quality of life. It should come as no surprise, then, that I consider myself a big proponent of staying tobacco-free and encouraging others to quit smoking as a great way to promote health. I remember watching my mom and sister as they took part in their nightly ritual of smoking a few cigarettes to unwind. “Did you know that a main component of cigarettes is used as rocket fuel?” I would ask them, as I opened the window and they stared back at me blankly. “We know, we know” was the answer every time. I knew that convincing them to quit was no easy task, but I was committed. Day after day, I proudly stated a new fact about the evils of smoking. Finally one day, they quit. At first, they attributed it to the cost. Since we had just immigrated to the United States, the cost of cigarettes was simply not something they could afford. I didn’t believe it. I proudly

Many smokers, like Sload, take their first puffs in college. Other students experiment with cigarettes in high school but start smoking heavily in college. Everyone I surveyed and interviewed is aware that smoking was responsible for the deaths of many people every year. They know it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke and adversely affects breathing and the lungs. And like smokers of any age, many college students are actively trying to quit. Mandie Sload knows that for or five cigarettes a day were four or five too many. She plans to quit someday. She understands that if she quits her breath will smell better;

Vaping might just be the newest obsession among high school students. A vaporizing or e-cigarette device is an apparatus which heats nicotine laced liquid into a gas (Wilcox 6). The laced liquid comes in various flavors and delivers teens enough of a “buzz” to keep them coming back. This “buzz” comes from the nicotine going to the user’s brain, consequently causing the brain to release adrenaline. Because these vaporizing devices are illegal for minors, these gadgets fulfill the zeal for rebellion countless students face in their high school years. Although some articles claim these devices should be legalized for minors because they are “far less harmful than the traditional cigarette” and do not allegedly have any known long term health effects

Most often seniors in high schools can purchase cigarettes because they are 18, so they distribute them to underclassmen or friends. Nearly 21 percent of high schoolers in public schools smoke cigarettes, which would be about 3.13 million students (Preidt). My survey shows that only four percent, or two out of 49 people admit their addiction to cigarettes. The two students admitted that stress is their reasoning for why they began smoking and continue, but only one has support to end their need to smoke. While the student with assistance is continuing to smoke, they are attempting to stop; however, the effects of smoking are obviously severe (lung disease, cancer, bronchitis, etc.) and cannot continue. Cigarettes may be a partial stress reliever although the permanent and long-term effects should be proof enough that this addiction is a necessity to prevent in our high schoolers even if it is four

Air It Out is a tobacco intervention program specifically designed to promote smoking cessation and smoking prevention among adolescents aged 11 to 18 regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or place of residence within the U.S. (e.g. suburban, urban, inner city, etc.). Until recently, speaking out against smoking carried zero authority given smoking was a personal habit that began in adolescence, a habit that continued until December 2015 when diagnosed with cancer. Now with two rounds of chemotherapy behind me and another scheduled for later this month, the issue of adolescent smoking is one, which I can now stand behind. Unfortunately, it takes the manifestation of a tragic and core-shattering experience to forever changes one’s perception because once it becomes personal, we transform from silent participant to that of an activist. Examples supporting this hypothesis include Christopher Reeve’s who became an activist for paralysis only after suffering his injury, Michael J. Fox, who after his diagnosis became an advocate for Parkinson’s, and Elizabeth Taylor, who became a fearless activist for AIDS after the death of her beloved friend Rock Hudson.

Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer death in the United States. Universities moving to become tobacco-free campuses have spread across the country. As of January 1, 2016, there are at least 1,475 smoke-free campuses in the United States. Of those, about 820 prohibit the use of e-cigarettes anywhere on campus. This is a major increase in numbers compared to 2011, where only 586 campuses were smoke-free. In Florida, 23 universities and colleges have prohibited smoking. In 2011, Florida International University (FIU) and Nova Southeastern University (NSU), located here in South Florida, banned all types of tobacco and smoking products. This means no e-cigarettes, hookahs, cigarettes, vape pens, and no chewing tobacco anywhere

Over the years we have seen a monumental change in the way society views cigarette smoking. At one time cigarette smoking was seen as a normal behavior and few regulations existed. However, as the associated health risks and anti-smoking campaigns have been introduced to the media, stigmatization of smokers has continuously risen over the years. Around the end of World War II, smoking was seen as a fashionable/trendy and effective stress reliever; today it is seen as socially unacceptable and often frowned upon. What most likely led to this radical change in opinion concerning cigarettes? The answer may lie in recent movements of anti-smoking legislation, decline in smoking prevalence, the increase in anti-smoking media such commercials and campaigns, as well as increased public health awareness as to the dangers of first and secondhand smoke (Pacheco, 2011). Groups even exist composed of anti-smoking activists that are dedicated to promoting an unfavorable image of smoking; one extreme example being the 1970’s group SMASH, the Society for Mortification and Smoker Humiliation, who suggested implanting explosives into cigarettes.(“Anti-smoking Hall of Fame,”

The first kid I knew who smoked was a kid named Isaac K. We became friends in the 7th grade when the major distinctions in our suburban middle class school, jocks, heads, brains, were beginning to form. Isaac was cool. He was the first to date girls, smoke cigarette, drink hard alcohol, and listen to druggy music. I even remember Isaac and I sitting in his upstairs bedroom, his parents were divorced – another first, and his mother was never home, listening to Eminem's “Recovery” album. The draw for me was the adultness of it all.When you combine the traits of people who smoke, defiance, sexual precocity, honestly, impulsiveness, indifference to the opinion of of adults, thrill seeking, appears almost the perfect definition of the kind of person

Beti Thompson, Anne L. Thompson, Jennifer Hymer, and Susan Zbikowsi conducted and wrote the study “A Qualitative Study of Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices Among 40 Undergraduate Smokers” published in the Journal of American College Healthy, 2007. This study had aimed discern more information about the perspectives of college-age smokers. Studies are done in subjugation of smokers to understand what may influence this unhealthy behavior, as in all psychology: understanding the root and trigger of a problem may bring the solution. This study has specifically focused on the college-age population of smokers in an aim to understand the cause and cessation of smoking cigarettes. In result, the study has concluded that college-age smokers are in their prime to be influenced by their environment into either picking up smoking as a habit or putting it down. The study had strong uses of qualitative questioning in the interviews, which allowed for adequate descriptive responses to be taken. However, one of the weakness of this study would be the limited sample size.

One of the largest issues today is adolescent smoking. According to a heath based website, nearly 90% of adult smokers start while they are still teens and they never intend to get hooked. They may start by bumming a cigarette or two from a friend at a party, and then go on to buying an occasional pack. Soon they realize that they can't go without that pack. They've gotten used to reaching for a cigarette first thing in the morning, after meals, or during any stressful time. They become addicted, both physically and psychologically. According to the American Lung Association, each day 6,000 children under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. Almost 2,000 of them will become regular smokers – that’s 757, 000 new smokers annually!

Smoking, as one knows it, has become a stress-reliever worldwide. One will find a smoker pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up around every corner. Smoking has especially become a growing problem in college campuses. When a college student enters the college campus, they do not only enter a new campus, a new life is also entered. In this new experience, one will find themselves exploring new things. The power of the eye is remarkable in today’s society. When someone has a friend that is doing something, the one looking will eventually want to try as well. This can raise many red flags that can be avoided, simply by banning smoking on all college campuses. Smoking on college campuses should be banned because of nicotine’s negative effect on student’s personalities, academics, and overall health.

Trying different things with smoking as a rule happens in the early adolescent years, often times in high school were students like me, often succumb to the peer pressure. This is often driven transcendently by psychosocial thought process. For me, as a “beginner” in high school, smoking cigarette’s was a typical demonstration of passing on a message, that I was no longer a child. Yet, I also think that I was trying to “fit in” to what I perceived to be a “cool kid.” I was essentially trying to change my persona because I was often time the kid who was picked on or considered a nerd or a geek.

There are some colleges that have made it illegal to smoke on their campuses, but all campuses should have this law. Everyone has their own opinion on smoking laws and where they think smoking should be illegal. Smoking is hazardous to not only the person smoking but to the people around them. Some people say that smoking rates have gone down since campuses have started banning smoking. Some people feel as if these bans are colleges way of saying smokers aren’t welcome at that school. Some people think that the bans are useless and some kids say that they are going to ignore the ban and continue to smoke on campus. As students, we learn how bad smoking is for you and how it’s not allowed in certain areas, but some colleges still allow it on their campus.

Because of the improvement of technology, it is easier and more affordable to buy cigarettes. Smoking becomes general phenomenon. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), there are an estimated 42.1 million adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes. However, the report also said that more than 2.4 million people died in the USA annually, and over 480,000 people died because of smoking. Medical News Today (2013) said that smokers died ten years sooner than non-smoker. Besides, there are close to 20 million college students in The U.S.A (Nation Center for Education Statistic, 2015) and 30% of them smoke (The MU School of Medicine, 2013). To be