Study: A Cigarette A Month Can Get A Kid Hooked

[Ed Barrow]

Source: NPR

Teenage smoking is often thought of as kind of innocent experiment, but a drag on a friend's cigarette may be the beginning of something that will be hard to shake.

A study of adolescent smokers in the journal Pediatrics tracks the course of addiction to nicotine among a group of sixth-graders. After following 1,246 middle-school children for four years, researchers say a pattern emerged of occasional smoking that led to an addiction to tobacco: A cigarette a month will do it.

"When people are just wanting a cigarette, every now and then, they think they just enjoy smoking," says study coauthor Dr. Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. "As time passes, then they start to notice they will crave a cigarette. So even when they are with someone who is not smoking, something will pop into their mind that will tell them it is time for a cigarette."

He adds, "When they get to the point of needing a cigarette, that means they have an urgent need to smoke and they have to smoke to get it out of their heads."



Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127241145

[DeadEyeDyck]

1. nicotine is more addictive than heroine

Could you main line once a month and not get hooked?

I see so many here snear at anti-smoking.
Why smoke?

[Tunkamerica]

2. heroine is spelled heroin and snear is spelled sneer

who sneers at anti-smoking? some people might sneer at non-smokers acting like asses. constantly.

and i always hear that. heroin is less addictive than cigarettes, easier to quit. what study says that? it sounds like bullshit, but i've never tried heroin so i'll never know. the vast majority of people never will. yet that "info" will continue to be spouted anytime smoking is discussed.

[bitchkitty]

6. It is true. n/t

[Better Today]

3. Bullshit, heroin addicts have to awaken for a fix, cig smokers can sleep

in late. Heroin addicts have to have the heroin, many smokers can get busy with things in non-smoking places and not freak out if it's way past time for a "fix," which means it isn't more addicting than heroin. People who foolishly believe that tripe, don't have a brother whose a junkie and haven't seen real addiction.

[LynneSin]

8. I don't know about that. Alot depends on how much you are smoking a day

Those accustomed to higher amounts of nicotine usually can't wait to get that morning smoke in them.

[No Elephants]

4. From my very first drag, I could not wait for the next. Stopped in '96. Too late, though.

[cbdo2007]

5. Just seeing their parents smoke once per month is enough to get a kid hooked.

Kids will only stop smoking when parents stop smoking.

[myrna minx]

7. I started smoking "once in a while" back in 1986 or 1987.

It took me years to finally quit smoking for good - 4 months ago.

[troubledamerican]

9. News item (Indonesia): 2-year-old cigarette addict

http://www.examiner.com/x-19494-Broward-County-Parenting-Teens-Examiner~y2010m5d28-Smoking-toddler-2-yearold-literally-smoking-up-to-2-packs-of-cigarettes-a-day-is-it-child-abuse