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Teen Quit Tobacco Initiativesby Richard Munroe
The common denominator in reasoning amongst most of the youths towards these alternatives is that they are less of a health hazard than tobacco cigarettes. This is however a costly misconception as even chewing tobacco can cause cancer as shown in these chewing tobacco pictures. the United States alone there are more than 3.5 million teenage smokers aged 18 years and below. Even though there had been reports of declining teen tobacco use the figures certainly appear to have now stalled. Unless there is rapidly implemented quit smoking programs, an estimated 6.5 million young people living today will ultimately lose their lives due to smoking. Teen quit tobacco policies are more than urgent in light of these projections. The good news coming out of the American situation which will even help experts understand trends elsewhere is that American teens are motivated to quit. Even though levels of motivation have been high the actual quit smoking success rate has been dismal. Most attempting to quit end up permanently relapsing. Of the millions of teens attempting to quit time and again, the vast majority try to do so without any treatment which would normally include specific stop smoking products such as free nicotine patches and nicotine chewing gum amongst others. The use of quit smoking programs further boosts the success rate double. Quit smoking initiatives amongst the youths in America can potentially cut teen smoking prevalence by as much as 14%. To help make this become a reality, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that 8% of tobacco taxes collected in the different states be spent on cessation programs. California in 1988 implemented a model quit smoking tobacco initiative using money from a tobacco price increase of 25 cents. Teenage smoking fell by 43% between 1995 and 1999. This was also reflected in a fall of about 50% in tobacco sales. In fact the World Health Organization (WHO) is a fan of increasing tobacco taxes to control smoking. Most smokers sight price of tobacco cost as the second most important reason to quit smoking after dangers of smoking. Experts have long argued that high and well funded quit tobacco and regulation programs yield positive results with time. In America states are inline to benefit up to $246 billion over the next 25 years from big tobacco after a tobacco lawsuit which resulted in a settlement in 1998. This money is encouraged to go towards teen smoking programs in order to curb any further growth in teen smoking statistics. There is a special interest to arrest teenage smoking because 80% of adults who smoke today started in their teens. This translates to a huge number of smoking teens today that will be smoking adults in future with a very huge cost of smoking burden as reflected in the public health budget running into hundreds of billions of dollars. There are generally different approaches to teen smoking cessation programs. However, research and experience shows that the most effective stop smoking programs are multi-session, group based programs with motivation elements, social influences or cognitive behavioral components. It would appear teens enjoy a peer approach which is participatory. Quitting smoking cigarettes amongst teens in some states in America is also being accelerated by the new smoking laws and regulations. For instance selling tobacco products to underage youngsters is prohibited by law. Further teens caught with any tobacco products can be arrested by police and even reported to school authorities. Even though the effectiveness of such antagonizing initiatives have not been established it certainly adds up to the whole movement with an ultimate end to eradicate teenage tobacco use.
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