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Tobacco and its nicotine are the gateway drug By
Bryce Atkins
Advertisers know this, and that is why they target teen-agers with advertisements such as Joe Camel, which has recently been banned from advertising. Studies that I have found say that 30 percent of 3-year olds and 91 percent of 6-year olds can identify "Joe Camel" as a symbol of smoking. Ninety percent of current smokers began smoking as teen-agers. Every day 3,000 underage kids become regular smokers, and about 1,000 of those will eventually die from smoking. In this country everyone who wants to smoke has a right to do so. Where the problem lies, is in how we educate our youth against the harmful effects of tobacco use. Many national anti-smoking ad campaigns have been launched to try to combat the problem, and educate tobacco users on the harmfulness of the drug. I can't go for an hour without hearing one of these advertisements on the radio. The reason I believe nicotine to be the gateway drug and such a huge problem is that I see it. With most of the people I know who smoke or use smokeless tobacco, their drug use and experimenting didn't stop with tobacco. When you go into bars for alcohol what are people doing? Smoking. It's like they honestly go together. I don't know anybody who drinks but hasn't ever smoked. Among 12- to 17-year-old adolescents who have smoked in the past month, they were three times more likely to consume alcohol, eight times more likely to have smoked marijuana, and 22 times more likely to have used cocaine than those who had not smoked cigarettes (NIDA, national household survey on drug abuse, 1985). These numbers really shock me and I feel they back up my statement. I don't have the answers to solve the problems we have with nicotine. I do feel that tougher laws need to be passed against companies that advertise to children. No one deserves to die from smoking, especially children, and that is where most smokers start.
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