# Teenage Smokers...those morons **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 30, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443 "2003-06-30T22:25:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![brainfizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/21 "2003-07-01T11:26:59Z")
I started smoking in school because it got me laid. I continued smoking in university because it got me laid. I continued smoking at work because it got me promoted, and out at pubs/socializing because, guess what, it got me laid. ---
**Author:** ![Xerxes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d2c977/32.png) [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/22 "2003-07-01T11:50:11Z")
> [@](#): > > I started smoking in school because it got me laid. Seriously? I’m aghast. I don’t want to seem like I’m having a pop at you, **brainfizz** , but I can’t get my head around the fact that you wouldn’t have got laid or promoted without ciggies. I can understand teen peer-pressure, but I cannot understand one of my younger friends who took it up _at 25!!_. He’s not a stupid chap by any means (well, apart from this). He thinks he can control it and not become addicted. Riigghht. He’ll be telling me next he still believes in the tooth fairy. I lost both my parents to smoking-related (or smoking exacerbated, to be more precise) illness, my wife is literally desperate to give up (she has cut down, but can’t do the last mile - I really feel for her; God knows she’s trying). To cap it all (and I promise you I’m not making this up… what’d be the point?) we’re burying a friend of ours tomorrow who died of lung cancer. For f\*ck’s sake give it up. And do it now. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/23 "2003-07-01T15:43:10Z")
It seems to me that cigarette companies purposely try to push the rebel image to sell to teens (who, after all, are most of the new-smoker market). We thus have kids buying into the rebel image they are sold by old white guys who run enormous companies–they pay money to become slaves to a corporation. Which does not seem particularly cool to me. My BIL started smoking despite his asthma. Now that’s stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/24 "2003-07-01T16:08:30Z")
Before I was a smoker (started at 16) I knew it was addictive, bad for you, etc. but I didn’t realize _how_ addictive or what that would really mean. I think most kids think _they_ will not get addicted, they will just have a few when they want to fit in or get a buzz and quit before it becomes a real problem. Once I realized I was addicted, it was too late and I enjoyed smoking too much to care for a while. I did quit last year (at age 24) and I still look back and wonder why I started. I thought I could have just one, then two, and so on. I also think it has a lot to do with rebellion - they know it’s bad but they do it anyway, that’s so cool! ---
**Author:** ![ghostrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@ghostrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghostrider)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/25 "2003-07-02T04:17:17Z")
I’m 54. Had a massive heart attack 5 weeks ago. Minutes from death by the time they got me to the ER. But I was lucky, got thru it with an angioplasty, coupla stents, minimal long-term damage. Totally smoking-related. 2 packs a day for 30 years. My diet is good, cholesterol levels excellent at the time of the attack, I was reasonably active, did a 5-hour hike 10 days before (& shudder to think if the attack had happened out in the woods since I hike solo). I’d never understood the long-term effect of nicotine on the blood before this. IMHO a few public service ads about that would be a lot more useful than those smug “Behind the Curtain” wankers. Nothing like being wired to a hospital bed for a week to get you thru cold-turkey withdrawal. OTOH, I would not have been able to hold down a job 30 years ago if not for cigarettes. So I’m not going to condemn tobacco. There are few simple answers in life. Just try to make your choices wisely & keep your eyes open. ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/26 "2003-07-02T04:34:32Z")
Speaking of morons, today I saw a woman smoking that was about 7 months pregnant. Grrrrr! ---
**Author:** ![Quantum\_Butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e79b87/32.png) [@Quantum\_Butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quantum_Butterfly)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/27 "2003-07-02T05:08:54Z")
Speaking as a young nubile, if I see a guy smoking he is automatically checked off the internal ‘hot’ list. I don’t care if he’s otherwise drop-dead gorgeous, I have a sensitive nose and I like guys that smell good. Tobacco smoke does not qualify as good; in fact, Hell probably has thick clouds of tobacco smoke everywhere. My uncle whom I haven’t seen for ten years visited Sunday, and I could tell the minute he stepped in the door that he still smoked. It was all I could do to make myself hug him. He never lit up while at our house, but he absolutely reeked of cigarettes. Blecch. ---
**Author:** ![Br\_er\_Lapin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Br\_er\_Lapin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Br_er_Lapin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/28 "2003-07-02T05:13:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Velma \* > Before I was a smoker (started at 16) I knew it was addictive, bad for you, etc. but I didn’t realize _how_ addictive or what that would really mean. I think most kids think _they_ will not get addicted, they will just have a few when they want to fit in or get a buzz and quit before it becomes a real problem. Once I realized I was addicted, it was too late and I enjoyed smoking too much to care for a while. Ditto, ditto, ditto. **Exactly** what happened to me. I think the whole “trying to be a rebel” thing is BS, but that’s just me. But, I’ve only been smoking since January. Recently decided to quit, or, at the very least, get down to a pack a month. Isn’t going so well. I’m actually hoping to come down with strep throat or something. I have a feeling that’ll make me quit _real_ quick. but… > [@](#): > > Speaking as a young nubile, if I see a guy smoking he is automatically checked off the internal ‘hot’ list. I don’t care if he’s otherwise drop-dead gorgeous, I have a sensitive nose and I like guys that smell good. Tobacco smoke does not qualify as good; in fact, Hell probably has thick clouds of tobacco smoke everywhere. I have to admit that I LIKE the smell of stale cigarette smoke on a guy. But then, I’m a weird kid. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/29 "2003-07-02T05:58:58Z")
I’m the biggest reactionary here. Every time I see a smoker, stoner, or drinker, I make a pledge to my God that I will strike them down withthe mighty hammer of heat which he will bestow unto me upon the completion of my ascension rites. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/30 "2003-07-02T07:29:15Z")
‘People don’t smoke because of the reasons they should not.’ I don’t really remember how I started, but I assume it was partially peer pressure, and partly, as **Velma** pointed out, I never realised quite _how_ addictive smoking was. Most of my smoking friends either started when we were in school at 13-16 or so or got started once we hit university, mostly as a result of smoking weed (not a causal link, smoking weed doesn’t necessarily make you smoke cigarettes, but it nudges you in that direction I think). A good few of us have quit now (I’m at 6 months to the day since I quit after, um, 15 years), but alas the weed smokers can’t stop. They won’t give up weed and always smoke weed with tobacco, so they’re in a bit of a vicious circle. Advice to smokers: if you want to quit, it _is_ possible, there are ways, and one of them will work for you. If you don’t want to quit…well, it’s a confidence trick many of us have fallen into and you _will_ see the error of your ways; it’s simply a matter of what produces the change of mind. You just have to hope it’s wisdom and not health. Once you’re ‘out’ so to speak, you feel really foolish at having been conned for so long…then you have a few beers and remember what kept you hooked… ---
**Author:** ![the\_duke\_69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@the\_duke\_69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_duke_69)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/31 "2003-07-02T07:54:41Z")
I started smoking because it will always be there and I can realy on it to be there, where as most people they are not there. smoking is my way of puting some rutine and order in my hellish life, I can quite I have and I started back up because I need rutine. smoking calms my nerves. I know it stinks up my breath and I know it stinks up my clothes but hey its my breath and my clothes. I dont want to sound like anyone is in the wrong, for the most part I am in the wrong. but so far life has sucked and well I dont want to have to live it any longer than I have to. so I am going to shave some years off and then stop and be fine with that. I know this sounds very negative but this is my view on it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/32 "2003-07-02T07:57:39Z")
Holy shit, wtf are you smoking? Crack? ---
**Author:** ![the\_duke\_69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@the\_duke\_69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_duke_69)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/33 "2003-07-02T08:05:54Z")
Ok here is a more indepth explination. I lead a very very hectic life. people come and go and well there is nothing that stays the same in my life. I have taken up smoking so I can have something familiar in it. Its all psychological with me. I know I am not sane. I have deep rooted psochological issues and this is just one of them. I see my ciggerete as a friend that will be there when ever I call on it to calm my nerves or to just relax. It seems like I am talking in quadrangle but if you new me in person you would understand what I was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/34 "2003-07-02T09:28:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duckster \* > \*\*Where do they get their cancer sticks? Here you must be at least 18 to buy any tobacco products and I see signs in most stores saying they card _everyone_ who doesn’t look at least 35 just to confirm you’re 18. > > They do the same for alcohol as well. \*\* I don’t smoke, but I do know of a few underage people that do. Usually if there is someone who is in high school working at the local gas station, they won’t check for an ID. ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/35 "2003-07-03T02:05:00Z")
Why do teens start smoking? Let’s analyze. When you are a young teen, you are at the border between child and adult, but you yearn to be considered an adult. So, you want to do adult things. What is more “adult” than smoking? The tobacco companies picked up on this long ago; their current public “service” ads continually repat the mantra that smoking is for addults, that it is an adult habit, etc. Teens who are trying to enter the adult world are easy prey. Not that I am excusing them, it’s monumentally stupid to start smoking. But, it is an easily understood phenom. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/36 "2003-07-03T03:03:40Z")
I know why I started smoking as a teenager. It was to look cool, like so many others here have said. I had a nasty smoker’s cough by the time I was 21. Thank Og, at 23 my husband, the evil rat, one day out of the blue said, “We keep saying we should quit smoking, so let’s quit.” And then he sat down and DID it. Took me three painful months, but I quit, too. For ALL the wrong reasons – primarily spite: “If HE can do it, then of COURSE I can do it, too!” Today I’m just glad I quit, whatever the reason! On a brighter note, Young Tiger is heading off to Air Force basic training in November – and guess what? They don’t allow any tobacco at basic training! At all! In any form! Yeeeehah! (Mind you, he’s vehemently anti-smoking, but it’s still nice to see that the military is at least figuring out that a healthy force is a nonsmoking force!) ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443/37 "2003-07-04T01:34:36Z")
I’m lucky. When I was in high school and tried smoking to be like my cool, smoking friends, one of them informed me that I didn’t look “right” smoking, due to my chubby fingers. It was a big disappointment at the time, but thank god I’m a non-smoker. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenage-smokers-those-morons/185443.md?page=1)