How do we get kids to stop smoking?

Why do young’uns love to smoke so much? Is it a way of saying they’re adults? Is it a symbolic counter-balance to their seemingly limitless youth?

I just saw photos of a family friend, who can’t be more than 18, smoking on Facebook. That’s all well and good, kids smoke I know…but…I felt rather paternal or brotherly and had that good ol’instinct to tell her to stop.

Why do kids love smoking, so? Because you’re kinda saying, Eff You, Immortality? I may feel young and perfect and have no wrinkles, but I can eff my body up every day! Drugs! Alcohol! Smoking!

It’s dumb. It looks good. It’s bad. It’s wrong. Momma wouldn’t approve. All of that equals a recipe for cool.

Only idiots smoke more than a little. Case in point:

That said, in my defense, I only ever really smoked one a day, or one a week. In my smoking prime, I smoked as much as three or four a day, if I was out drinking. It was always a kinda special thing, and for whatever reason I never felt addicted. When I got sick, I’d stop.

So: smoking a little—if you’re smoking with some sense of sacredness and mindfulness, and you’re smoking something that’s natural and not laced with rat poision as are most “normal” cigarettes…well—that’s cool, too.

But now, I’m an old man. When I see kids smoking, I want to say, ah, skip that phase. It’s stinky and dumb and cancer sucks and life is awesome.

So how do we reach our younger brothers and sisters and friends, without making smoking even cooler and rebellious in the process?

Bonus…the (in)famous video: