Drinking is the #1 reason kids start smoking. Let’s face it, kids are drinking underage…..alcohol is everywhere!!!! Including, places adolescents hangout… sport events, high school party’s, coffee shops, driving down the road….ect. There’s nothing like a cigarette when your 18 and buzzed……    Kinda a high feeling, amplifies the effects of that one beer you happen to get ahold of. Young adults want to acheive that feeling again…, and to be in a public place, where adults don’t point and don’t call authorities when they see a young looking person smoking a cigarette, is the reward to there risk! Responsible adult just look and,  think “there parents must have failed along the way….”.
      Young people hangout with, ” older crowds” to gain experience, just how all humans learn from the elder human, how to speak, walk, read, ect…
    I feel that the thought that goes through a young smokers head is,  ”Healthy looking people seem to be doing it”…. “It’s obviously not a debilitating habit”. ( at the time it’s witnessed, young person smoking….., doesn’t look like there any closer to death then the next person, or them) It seems like an enjoyable social action……. Then they think, “And they seem to be having a good time too.”……. And it usually appears that way! People are laughing, very connected, just a loud crowd of close people talking there own thoughts of the surrounding events! It seems harder for a young adult to relate smoking with death then, a good time!
     That said, I have an idea! Let’s have smokers register as “smokers”. Maybe some kind of marking on there id’s or driving license? That way only “smokers” can purchase and consume tabacco….. Then we tax them accordingly. They pay an environmental tax, a personal hazard tax, medical treatment tax, potential fire hazard tax, higher home insurance, more when they lease a car maybe? You get creative!
    I believe it’s just like having a license to purchase other regulated products like , chemicals, ammunition, wholesale goods…. ect.
      Thanks for your consideration!