The Southwest Voice

All > Schools > Stockdale High
Stockdale senior speaks out about smoking
Topics:
Anonymous user Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:03:24 PST
Viewed 295 times
0 responses 0 comments In 1961, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” premiered and Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly, was seen carrying a cigarette holder with glamour and grace, a cinema image that has become iconic. Flash forward to the present day and another stick-thin glamour girl, Nicole Richie, is doing the same.
In these types of images, women idolized by millions are killing themselves in style, and their fans want to mimic them. Money is dumped into Big Tobacco pockets.
Every time a tabloid shows a young starlet lighting up his or her cigarette of choice, a tobacco company is being promoted free of charge. The companies know this promotion will be seen by their target audience, the youth of America. After all, the younger they start smoking, the sooner they will start buying two packs a day.  This is probably why, according to a 2004 survey, 20 percent of our nation’s first-graders have either thought of or tried smoking. By the time they’re in the sixth grade, 15 percent of them have smoked.
For the past nine years, the Great American Smokeout program has invited students from all over Kern County to come together and spread the message to their peers. The conference is a way of trying to prevent the ever-expanding number of smokers in our country from growing by sending a message that discourages tobacco use among teens.
The special guest speaker for the event was an escape artist named Bob Fellows, who used magic to show his audience how easily the mind is manipulated.  
“Many of us hope someone else could make decisions for us,” said Fellows to his teenage audience. “We need to be in charge of our own lives.”     
This year alone, over six thousand of America’s youth will at least try smoking, and half will make it a daily habit. In fact, tobacco companies used to go to college campuses to give away  four-packs of cigarettes. They knew that was all it would take to get nicotine into consumer systems and lead to addiction. Call it recruiting new costumers.     
But there are ways to help prevent this addiction from being accepted by your kids. Some schools provide tobacco prevention clubs and activities for their students, and even if you are a smoker yourself, you should still encourage your child to join.  Explain to your child at an early age that while people on the street or family members may smoke, it doesn’t mean they should smoke. Explain to them that smoking is addictive, and those who are trying to quit can’t stop because of their addiction. Finally, list what could happen to their bodies if they try smoking, such as respiratory problems and lung cancer.
Educate the future so they don’t make the mistakes of the past.
— Samantha Pedrosa is a senior at Stockdale High School.

Send to a Friend

Report a Violation