Young people starting to smoke

[tdwave]

It'S Christmas day and it's my first Christmas without cigs. So i am overjoyed sitting here on my ps passthrough just wacking some great flavors. Surfing through the internet i am just reading up on smoking sites, you know all the bad that is related to smoking. But just came up with another thought. The FDA is using one of their arguments that e-cigs and flavors will attract young adults/children into smoking.....
So i had to post this:
I pulled this statistic off of a web site.

• About 80% of smokers start before the age of 18.
• Every day nearly 4,000 12–17 year olds in the United States start smoking.
• About 22% of high school students in the United States smoke cigarettes.
• About 8% of middle school student in the United States smoke cigarettes.

That is real cigs. No help from the e-cig industry... and my friends that is no flavors and a product that they should not be able to buy anyway.
Seems like the FDA does have a handle on things.
So my point would be, maybe we should also be promoting the e-cig to young adults because the problem here is two fold. The e-cig is made to get you off the cigs.. but dah, maybe by having them out where a young adult could actually make a safer choice who knows.. he/she might not need to get off them like we did....... better for all.
Am I smarter than the FDA... No, they just have more MONEY!!!
Just some info here on Christmas...
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy Holiday season to the rest of you...

 

[cliff5550]

Not one young person I know wants anything to do with "some electric cigarette gadget". It's "old people" thinking that flavors attract young smokers. Of the ones I know, males and females, the guys want "real" tobacco and real cigarettes. The gals think the flavors are a "cute" idea but see no sense in paying for an old person's gadget. They also say they don't want to be bothered with stuffing carts, charging batteries, buying juice and equipment. They don't have the patience and don't want to mess with the whole thing.

 

[Keegan1014]

every thing to do with tabacco or related like e cigs they say its geared for kids
well when I was a kid I wanted nothing to do with it I had no money.
but when I got a job and was bored I started smokeing
its all BS

 

[Deschain]

Yep, the flavour thing is pure unadulterated BS.

How many of us started smoking via strawberry or chocolate flavour smokes?

Answer: None of us did...in the UK, we started with Regal, B&H, L&B etc...you Americans probably started out with Marlboro's etc.

I can not think of one single person who I know that started smoking because their smokes tasted like sweets or apple pies or some such BS...not a single one.


.

 

[757girl]

I started at 13 and that was my dads generic cigs with no filter lol I started because I was a nosey kid and my parents never told me they were bad so I would sneak them. I just liked the feeling it gave me and at the time I didn't care about the taste.

 

[JustFolly]

Not one young person I know wants anything to do with "some electric cigarette gadget". It's "old people" thinking that flavors attract young smokers. Of the ones I know, males and females, the guys want "real" tobacco and real cigarettes. The gals think the flavors are a "cute" idea but see no sense in paying for an old person's gadget. They also say they don't want to be bothered with stuffing carts, charging batteries, buying juice and equipment. They don't have the patience and don't want to mess with the whole thing.

Eh, I don't know about that. I'm college aged, so I would say that I probably qualify as a "young person". At my University, at any rate, e-cigs are actually becoming fairly ubiquitous in certain social circles. A lot of us spend the middle of the semesters bored and looking for something to tinker with. The appeal is definitely not limited to certain age groups.

That said, I do agree that the whole "Sweet flavors attracts young people" line is a giant load. Most smokers, I think, start either due to social reasons (smoking friends/family/etc) or due to the urge to use nicotine to relax. Flavors are considered nice, but I don't believe they factor in to the decision to start.

 

[Deschain]

I started at 13 and that was my dads generic cigs with no filter lol I started because I was a nosey kid and my parents never told me they were bad so I would sneak them. I just liked the feeling it gave me and at the time I didn't care about the taste.

Exactly. Most peoples first smokes are stolen from parents or bummed off other kids.


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[Fairlane64]

Exactly. Most peoples first smokes are stolen from parents or bummed off other kids.
.

Yep, I'm not young anymore by any stretch of the imagination, but I haven't forgotten how I started! Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sister all smoked, my buddies parents smoked, we (my buddies and I) smoked because it made us feel grown up and cool. When I was 14 I was swiping one here and there from Mom and Dad or siblings, by 16 I was buying them myself from merchants that didn't bother to card (remember this was many years ago). Chewing tobacco was also a big thing then with highschool kids, I guess it was partially the thrill of doing something we weren't supposed to do right in the classroom.
It had nothing to do with the taste of the cigarettes, so to say flavors attract kids is a total load of BS in my opinion and from my own personal experience.

 

[CodyZ]

I agree! This whole "e-cigarettes draw in children" bs is just mindless. My first pack was purchased due to impulse on the way to a college party. Kids aren't likely to save up money from their paychecks at 15 to go buy a 510 or a GS. LMAO . Part of the thing that makes real cigs so accessible in the beginning is that they are cheap enough to warrant an impulse buy. If e-cigs went mainstream kids still wouldn't be able to afford them.

Cody.

 

[Kent C]

Eh, I don't know about that. I'm college aged, so I would say that I probably qualify as a "young person". At my University, at any rate, e-cigs are actually becoming fairly ubiquitous in certain social circles. A lot of us spend the middle of the semesters bored and looking for something to tinker with. The appeal is definitely not limited to certain age groups.

That said, I do agree that the whole "Sweet flavors attracts young people" line is a giant load. Most smokers, I think, start either due to social reasons (smoking friends/family/etc) or due to the urge to use nicotine to relax. Flavors are considered nice, but I don't believe they factor in to the decision to start.

I agree, the kids I've known that have seen mine and others have been intrigued by them. Some say, I'm going to get one of them when I'm old enough.

But frankly, to the OP's point, it's really none of our business what they do and as far as a group, we should stay out of it. Parents are responsible for their children's health and habits, not us.

 

[ArtAttackTat2]

I think flavored tobacco of any type is gross, did as an adolescent also! I hope this vaping flavor thing is not as nasty.

 

[Daedalus]

Eh, I don't know about that. I'm college aged, so I would say that I probably qualify as a "young person". At my University, at any rate, e-cigs are actually becoming fairly ubiquitous in certain social circles. A lot of us spend the middle of the semesters bored and looking for something to tinker with. The appeal is definitely not limited to certain age groups.

That said, I do agree that the whole "Sweet flavors attracts young people" line is a giant load. Most smokers, I think, start either due to social reasons (smoking friends/family/etc) or due to the urge to use nicotine to relax. Flavors are considered nice, but I don't believe they factor in to the decision to start.

Yeah but college age students are old enough to legally smoke anyway. They also largely differ from minors in a number of ways. For the most part we're talking about people with more free time, dorm rooms away from home, and probably more income from a job.

It would have been such a hassle using an ecig at home when I was a minor. I'd have to intercept all the packages from "diet smokes", "totally wicked", and other assorted senders. The charger, spare batteries/atomizers, juice bottles, etc...all of that paraphernalia compared to just a pack and lighter when I smoked regular cigs. Also the cost and need of a credit card, I didn't even have a debit card until I was 17 anyway.

And those stats in the OP don't shock me. I started smoking in high school and I knew a lot of people who did...easily 20% at my school. Middle school, that I don't know about....I still thought cigarettes were gross back then.

So I don't buy all this crap about minors picking up e-cigs and getting addicted. They don't look cool to kids in those age groups, they're also not nearly as accessible. Random mall kiosks compared to every liquor store and gas station on every corner for for a fraction of the price to start up?

It's no contest.