Story last updated at 1:43 a.m. Thursday, July 29, 2004

Message of tobacco's danger lost on teens
By Kamille Bostick
Morris News Service

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Smoking is a guilty pleasure for Damian Blevins.

The 19-year-old technical-college freshman picked up his first cigarette when he was 16. Now smoking up to a pack a day, Blevins said it doesn't cross his mind as to why he does it.

"I just smoke. I never really think about it," he said with an unlighted cigarette in hand."

The dangers of smoking -- cancer, emphysema, heart disease and a host of other illnesses -- are widely known, but people still light up.

Even in the era of lawsuits against tobacco companies and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns against smoking, there are questions of whether the message is getting through.

Tobacco use among teens fell from 36 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2001, but much work remains, said Onnie Payne, a youth educator for the Tobacco Use Prevention Program, a public health program in Georgia.

"The numbers have declined, but there are still a lot of people who are still smoking," Payne said.

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly all first use of tobacco occurs before high school graduation. Statistics show that nearly 22,000 Georgia teens and adolescents will begin smoking each year, adding to the 113,000 high school students who already smoke.

Eric Mason, 18, a high school senior, said he started as a "social smoker" at age 16.

"Basically, it was with friends," he said. "The only way I'd smoke was with them."

Soon, though, he "just got hooked on them."

Now up to smoking a pack a day, Eric said he wishes he'd never started.

"If I'd already seen what I'd be doing, I wouldn't have let it go this far," he said.

Eric said that even as he watches commercials and sees the warnings against smoking, they rarely faze him.

"I've seen them. We laugh at them," he said, adding that mostly he figures what the ads say can't happen to him. "They say the long-term smokers get the effects, and I've only been smoking two years. And I'm planning on quitting. "

He just doesn't know when.

Payne said Eric is like a lot of students.

"I find that the students don't believe it's as harmful as it is," she said. "They don't think it's a drug because you can get it at the store. They don't think it's that bad for them."

A lot of that comes from what Blevins considers ambivalence. "I think too many people accept it nowadays," he said.

Ben Brown, 18, tried his first cigarette when he was 11 but didn't like it enough to continue. He said that although he doesn't condone smoking he doesn't exactly criticize it.

"I don't say, 'don't do that.' I don't encourage them, either, but I do say not to do it around me."

In the end, Brown said, it's going to be the influence of friends that will start or stop the next generation of smokers.

"I think if there was no peer pressure there would be a lot less people smoking. They only do it because their friends do it," he said.

Breakout 1:

- Need to beat the craving?

- Delay a minute or two and the urge will pass.

- Drink water.

- Do something else to distract yourself, such as walking or cleaning.

- Breathe deeply to relax yourself.

- Close your eyes and count.

- Discuss your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust.

Source: New York state Smokers Quit site Need help stopping smoking?

Breakout 2:

It's best to consult a professional, but there are several things a smoker can do to kick the habit:

- Make a list of why you want to stop.

- Write down what you're going to do instead of smoke.

- Throw out your cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays.

- Chew gum instead.

- Keep busy.

- Get a friend to stop smoking with you.

- Be positive: Don't allow a slip to stop you and reward yourself for not smoking.