“And I would leave but I had to take a minute in the smoking section
Trying to be the pain ease
Watching her plane leave
Tripping in the smoking section
Trying to regain me
How can I get a grip when I lost my main squeeze
And now I’m stuck inside of an ashtray
Like a cigarette”

Does this seem familiar to you? Well, if it does, I can’t really say that I’m surprised. For those of you who don’t recognize it, it is the lyrics to Lil’ Wayne’s song, . Apparently to Lil’ Wayne and his song, Smoking Section, smoking is ok. Lil’ Wayne may think that smoking is ok, but look at all the trouble he is in now. He is sent off to jail due to the drugs he had been high on for the past few years.

Lil’ Wayne is an idol for many teenagers across the United States, but his habits are sure something the teens should not follow. He smokes openly and he proudly have pictures taken while he is smoking a cigarette.

Smoking remains the number one cause of premature death. The states in U.S. spend about 7.3 billion dollars a year treating smoking-related diseases. On top of that, the federal government spends another 20.5 billion dollars a year to aid seniors’ treatments for their smoking-related diseases (Cooper 2).

The earliest form of tobacco can be traced all the way back to the ninth century, used by the Mayans in Central America. Ever since then, tobacco had been one of the most popular and addicting drug (Cooper 3). People didn’t know the consequences of smoking until 1967, when it was found as a link to lung cancer. The first banning of tobacco in the U.S. was when it was prohibited from the television and radio in April 1970. In 1994, the first report to prevent tobacco use in young people was done by the Surgeon General, explaining how tobacco can cause the death of a young life. (Cooper 5). On April first, 1998, all states in the U.S. banned cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under eighteen years of age by law (Cooper 9).
Schools in the United States had also taken the responsibility to help teen to not to fall into peer pressure and into smoking by having programs that teaches students the consequences of smoking and having posters all around the schools explaining the consequences of smoking. Some schools even made smoking on school grounds an offense for both students and staff. Schools may also provide programs to help students to quit smoking if they had already started.

Anti-teen smoking organizations also pushes teens not to smoke, such as DoSomething.org and TheAntiDrug.com. According to studies, many young people who don't smoke before their twenties, they will never smoke (Cooper 5), organizations encourages teenagers to not to smoke now so they probably won’t smoke later in life.

Due to the increase in cigarette prices in the U.S., more consumers, especially younger buyers, became more and more sensitive about the cost of the cigarettes. Every ten percent jump in cigarette prices causes a three to five percent drop in demand for it. (Cooper 6) The increasing taxes of cigarettes causes young people to smoke less. In 2001, the amount of teens smoking cigarettes dropped by about twenty-seven percent due to the seventy percent increase in the cigarette price. (Teens and Smoking Tobacco 2) Also, an increasing number of people are more worried about the risks of smoking cigarettes than before. Many worry about health issues caused by smoking, such lung cancer. When smokeless cigarettes were invented though, more and more people tried that, thinking it was better because it did not produce any smoke. According to recent studies though, it shows that smokeless cigarettes also cause cancer, but in the throat. Many adult smokers began smoking in their teens.

Every year, about 440,000 Americans die from diseases due to their smoking habits, and about 90% of them began smoking as a teen, which is approximately 396,000 smokers who started smoking in their teenage years (Teen Help 1) dying each year due to the bad decisions they made when they were a teen. Every sunrise in the morning till the next sunrise, six thousand people under the age of 18 takes their first drag of a cigarette (Teen Help 1), which adds up to 2,190,000 teens who take their first drag every year. For every 2,190,000 teens that tries cigarettes every year, 730,000 of them will continue to smoke into their adulthood, which would be a lot of smokers.

There are many reasons why a teen may choose to smoke. According to studies, many teens smoke due to their low economic or social status, they may lack their parents’ support and have low self image or self esteem. Some teens who smoke have siblings or parents who also smoke. Having parents or siblings who smoke can make a person believe that smoking is ok. Having tobacco as something easy to get your hands on only makes smoking something easy to do. Also, having low cigarettes price allow more teens to be able to get it because it is more affordable according to a teen’s budget (Teens and Smoking Tobacco 2).
Ever seen your favorite baseball player chew some chewing tobacco and then spit it out? Does it seem cool? Well, it may seem cool to many people but it is actually very unhealthy.

When chewing tobacco first came out, everyone thought it was a better alternative to smoking. Due to researches though, it is proven that chewing tobacco can also cause many cancer related diseases. Since chewing tobacco is taken in through the mouth, it causes cancer in the oral cavity instead of the lungs like smoking does (National Caner Institute 1).

Chewing tobacco can also cause the user’s lips and gum bleed, make the person’s teen prematurely fall out, can increase the person’s blood pressure, the person may have irregular heartbeats. Users of chewing tobacco can also have a greater risk of heart attacks and brain damages than a normal person would (Teen Help 2)

According to some studies, if the current conditions of teen tobacco smoking continues, it is estimated that 6.4 million people will prematurely die due to their smoking habits ?Teen Help 1?.According to some others, they say that smoking will decrease in number due to the higher prices to smoke and the consequences a person pays to smoke, especially later in life. There are studies and research to prove both of these points, but we as people can not predict the future, we can only do what we think is right and make the future happen, instead of just doing whatever and get a whatever result.