Despite the regulations against cigarettes a great number of polish youths begin smoking. The efforts that were made to discourage them from starting this awful habit or to encourage them to quit were not successful enough, because still too many young people are addicted to cigarettes. However it is not just a problem of youths, but also of adults, who have been smoking for a long time and can not imagine quitting. Smoking is on the increase among teenagers in spite of educational programmes at school, which were introduced to show a bad influence of smoking on our health and in spite of TV commercials against this habit. Teenagers reach for the first cigarette because of different reasons. Some of them want to make an impression on their friends and think that a cigarette in their hand will make them more mature. The others start smoking, because they do not want to be worse than their peers and differ from the group or because they think that it will help them with reducing stress.
It is a common knowledge that smoking has a terrible influence not only on the health of smoker, but also on the health of people who are around him. Regardless of the reason why teenagers start smoking, something has to be done to discourage them from poisoning themselves.
One way to deal with this problem would be increasing prices of cigarettes. Government should impose heavier taxes on cigarettes and make them inaccessible for young unemployed people. Now the packet of cigarettes costs around 10 zlotys, so it is available for teenagers as they have some pocket money given by parents or grandparents to buy something to eat at school. Unfortunately some teenagers prefer not to eat to not to smoke and sometimes they buy a packet together with a friend, so they spend even less money on it. Not only would increasing prices discourage the youths from starting smoking, but it may also encourage the adults to give up. It is a fact that the more expensive cigarettes are, the more people consider quitting, and so imposing heavier taxes will have a huge influence on decreasing the number of smokers. This would also make cigarettes less attractive for those, who consider starting.
Another way to discourage teenagers from starting smoking would be showing them disturbing pictures of smoker’s organs or taking them to a cancer ward, so that they could talk with people suffering from lung or larynx cancer. Despite the fact that children are being warn about the dangers of smoking, still too many of them have no idea that cigarette’s smoke contains a lot of carcinogens and tarry substances and that smoking may even lead to death. While teenagers are taught about the dangers of smoking or any other addiction a huge number of them thinks “it is no concern of mine”. Taking them to hospital would be a kind of a shock therapy. If they would speak to sick people, who have only a few months of live left, they will think after reaching for cigarette. In this way, the youths would not want to start smoking, because they will be afraid that the same may happen to them.
The number of smoking teenagers or the ones who consider starting could also be decreased if steps would be taken by the government to place a ban on the sale of cigarettes to adolescents. In this moment it is quite easy for a teenager to buy a packet of cigarettes. He or she goes to the newsagent and saleswoman gives it to him without saying a word, because she makes money on people addicted to cigarettes and thanks to them sells her goods. However such ban should be strictly enforced, because if not it would make no sense to place it. The effect of this would be that the under-eighteens would not have a possibility to buy cigarettes, unless an adult buys a packet for them. If cigarettes will not be wild available, less teenagers would start smoking.
What is more, convincing an addicted adult or teenager to stop smoking is also a huge problem. Nevertheless, it is not impossible and people should do their best to convince their relatives and friends to give up this horrible addiction. If smokers would be introduced to a new hobby or sport that would be interesting for them it would divert their attention from cigarettes. Having support in someone who is close for him is also very important for a smoker, who wants to quit. An addicted person should not be forced to give up her habit and her relatives should keep in mind that for a smoker giving up cigarettes is a life change.
To sum up, there are several solutions that if brought into effect could decrease the number of the adolescent smokers. In my opinion smoking is something extremely pointless, an addiction that gives no pleasure, but a lot of problems with health. It has also a terrible influence on our skin, because smokers get old faster and makes our breath smell unpleasant. However, we should remember that every person has the right to freedom and that people can do whatever they want to with their life and health. The family and friends could only give them advises, because of their care for them.