Beyond the industry’s own statements, there is compelling evidence that much of their advertising, promotion and discounts is directed at kids and successfully recruits new tobacco users. The NCI Monograph, noted previously, show a comprehensive examination of how mass media is used to encourage and discourage tobacco use.

For teens, image and acceptance can be everything, which often explains their sometimes risky choices — like lighting up a cigarette among friends.

This was confirmed by a survey by the University of the Philippines Communication Research Society (UP CommResSoc) that showed high-school students have now become heavy smokers.

Fewer Ontario teens are getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol and teen smoking is at an all-time low in the province, according to new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Smoking and smokeless tobacco use are usually initiated during adolescence. More than 80% of adult smokers begin smoking before 18 years of age. Additionally, adolescent smokeless tobacco users are more likely than nonusers to become adult cigarette smokers.1,2,3

Some teens take up smoking because they think it makes them look older, but it doesn’t. To most people it just looks like you’re making a big mistake, and like you’re trying to make yourself look older.

Sean Marsee had won 28 medals at track meets. He was a very popular and respected athlete at his high school. Thinking it was safe, Sean began chewing dip tobacco in his mid-teens.

One by one, the teenagers in crisp white T-shirts took a seat before the Hopkinton Board of Selectmen. They had data. They had well-rehearsed pitches. And, they told the board, they wanted local support to close a loophole in state law that bars minors from purchasing cigarettes but not from possessing them. “As it is, it is illegal to buy or sell tobacco products in the community, but if say a 12-year-old were able to magically procure some cigarettes and start smoking on the common, law enforcement can’t do anything about it,’’ Mitch Saeger, 18, told the elected officials last week.