Many people believe in many different solutions. Experts say the only proven way to reduce smoking is to raise the price of cigarettes, through increased sales taxes. Kenneth Warner, professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who ha

The tobacco industry spends two billion dollars in advertising cigarettes per year, making them the most heavily marketed product in America (Hamilton 92), but cute pictures of camels and masculine impressions of cowboys are not the true reasons why teenagers smoke, which is why if the United States wants to stop teenage smoking then teens must know it is okay to quit; it is honorable to be a nonsmoker. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company target youth in its ads (Tanamachi n.p.). Why shouldn't they if almost ninety percent of smokers try cigarettes before the age of twenty-one (Hamilton 86)? In fact, eighty-nine percent of people who become lifelong smokers become addicted before the age of nineteen which means if the tobacco companies recruit smokers at an early age, chances are they will keep that business for years, even generations to come (Ayer 18). Although, is the real reason teenagers smoke because of good marketing? No. As John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-smoking lobbying group, says, "Even if you ban all advertising...it will not cause everybody to quit" (Tanamachi n.p.). Mr. Banzhaf is right. Real teenage smokers have been asked why they smoke even though health hazards of tobacco prove to be very dangerous. One blunt young smoker replied, "A lot of people smoke to give the finger to the world" (Ayer 15). Rebellion, a very popular reason teens smoke, begins with the family, along with typical teenage mentality. For instance, ten to twelve year old kids who think their parents are too strict, have been found in studies to be more likely to start smoking (Lang 29).

Tanamachi, Cara. Cutting Teen Smoking Isn't Easy. Online. Internet. Available: http.//ash.org/jan98/01-21-98-4.html. Jan. 1998, n.p.

Hamilton, Gene, Daniel McFeeley. Smoke Jokes. Vista, CA: Pacific Aero Press, 1991.

Raising the sales tax on cigarettes would reduce the amount of cigarettes bought by teens, but educating teens on long term financial costs of cigarettes would have a larger effect on teen smokers. Americans buy more that 500 billion cigarettes every year; teens under eighteen alone smoke seventeen billion of these cigarettes. How much does smoking cost a teenager? For a typical pack-a-day habit, teens spend $700-$800 a year each. When a teenager learns that the actual cost for sustaining a cigarette addiction takes up almost four working hours a week at minimum wage, they might think of better ways for spending their money (Lang 75). Plus, adults who live below the poverty line are more likely to be smokers that those above the poverty line, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. High school dropouts are also three times more likely to smoke than college graduates (Cooper n.p.). Instead of buying cigarettes, which also come with all sorts of breathing problems, od

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Approximate Word count = 1940
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)