Smoky Message

I can't help but put up a health post for two reasons:
1. I'm studying it everyday all the time
2. I just saw the funniest video in a long time



Now, here is my quip about smoking.  The most susceptible population to start smoking is teenagers.  There are huge public health efforts to prevent smoking in adolescents aged 13-19.
I was thinking for a long time about why this age group is the most vulnerable to this.  This is the age when peer influence weighs heaviest in one's decision-making and values.  If your cool friend Damien (that just sounds like a cool name right?) is smoking, and all the ladies like him, you're going to want to smoke too!  I'm sure it's not that simple.  But you get the point, right?

This is the question of the century--if there is enough evidence to drown you that shows that smoking is linked to lung cancer, bladder cancer, private-parts cancer, as well as every single disease known to man (I exaggerate but not that much), why would you start smoking?  With every puff, you're declaring to the world, Yes! Shorten my life with an inevitable progressive, debilitating health condition!  I am purposely inhaling carcinogens that are mutating my cells right this instant! Even smokers will tell you that smoking is associated with health problems and it can kill.

So why?  Why do they smoke?  Obviously, once you start and get addicted, then it's hard to stop. I can understand that.  But let me paint you a scenario.

Uncle Bob, in his mid-50's, is on a respirator 24/7, is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for a lung cancer that has metastasized to his brain, and so he is slowly losing his cognition.  He needs someone to bathe him, change him, feed him.  One could say that he is in his last couple of days on earth.  You, a bright young but impressionable teenager goes to visit him.  He's been smoking since he was your age and he is still smoking now.  He pulls out a cigarette, hands it to you, and says in between labored painful breaths, "Smoking was the best decision I made in my life.  Try it."  You would be out of your friggin' mind to accept that cigarette and smoke.

But that's not usually how it goes, is it?  Cool Damien ( remember him? ) who is everything you want to be, has no acne, has perfect hair, a 6 pack (you caught a glimpse in the locker room and were embarrassed to look but could not feel ashamed at your flat nothing-pack), and he looks like a model for crying out loud.  He's smoking and he's offering me one?  Heck yah!  Give me anything that he's doing and I'll do it because in my mind I believe it will make me more like him!

Smoking kills after decades, and a teenager (who's brain hasn't fully developed the common sense part yet) doesn't live thinking about future consequences.  In my opinion, that's how they get suckered in...
I've always been too scared to try cigarettes because if I ever liked it, and got hooked.  Geez, it would be past my willpower to stop.

What do you guys think?