Teen Smoking
By
Ethan ****
1/**/2014 *st/th period

Tobacco has always been a prominent cash crop in American, even as far back as the colonial days. Tobacco was the driving factor that stimulated our economy in the beginning as our nation started to form. It was seen back then as nothing but another plant waiting to be shipped, but today it is seen as a deadly and addictive gateway drug. Cigarettes are seen as the ultimate gateway drug because you have to master a unique method of intake similar to the illegal drug marijuana. Most smokers will typically look to marijuana to get a certain “high” rather than smoking a cigarette. This may lead to an even more extreme addictive habit if not controlled. Cigarettes are a very dangerous legal substance that has affected many people, and most teens do not know the effects they have. Most smokers today start before the age of 18, which is below the legal age of purchasing cigarettes. They do not think about the long term effects that smoking causes like lung, nasal, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, and many other types of cancer that will most likely end their life. I can understand how they can live with the short term effects like smelling bad and shortness of breath but I do not believe losing 14 years off of my life to smoke a little tobacco stick just to look cool is a good idea. Smoking also affects your ability to remember things, which will affect grades making the dropout rate higher for smokers. It’s sad to think 3,600 teens under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette, a life time decision made before they have even taken their first step into the real world. Many smoker today do not know what they are inhaling, they just think its tobacco and nicotine, nothing else. Many would be shocked to know that cigarettes contain arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and 43 known carcinogens. Basically you are