A survey conducted this week found that Nova Scotia had the lowest number of youth smokers in the country. Even those who do smoke support extreme efforts to reduce the practice.
By Carrie Gilbert <cr914238@dal.ca>
Posted: Jan. 25, 2008
Teenage boy smokes. Credit: Free Photo 1
Tiffany MacIsaac, 21, has been smoking since she was 13. She says when she was a young, smoking was definitely considered cool. Everyone did it, and her best friend at the time got her hooked. “I thought I was a little hard rock,” she says, “walking down the street smoking a cigarette.”
Now, eight years later, she doesn’t think it’s so cool anymore.
“Don’t do it, ‘cause it ain’t cool,” she encourages. “Let me tell you, in the mornings, I wake up, I’m coughing and hacking, I got to spit up all kinds of phlegm and it’s too much. It’s so addictive that when you try to quit, you’re so stressed out over it.”
Tiffany’s opposition towards smoking seems to be a common view among youth. A survey released this week reveals that Nova Scotia has the lowest youth smoking rate in the country.
Nova Scotia has gone from having the highest rate in Canada to the lowest. Figures from early 2007 show a change of 19 percentage points from 2000, when the rate was 31 per cent.
The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring survey revealed that only 12 per cent of those in Nova Scotia between the ages of 15 to 19 were enjoying a smoke in the first six months of the year— three percentage points below the national average. It is estimated that 15 per cent of teens smoke in Canada on average.
The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring survey regulary measures tobacco use for those 15 and older and the Youth Smoking Survey for school chidren in grades five to nine. This impacts the development of effective tobacco control policies and programs.
"It gets you so addicted."- Tiffany MacIsaac Credit: FreeFoto.com
Tiffany is surprised to learn that Nova Scotia has the lowest youth smoking rate because she sees smokers everywhere she goes.“Every time you walk down the street, there’s somebody there smoking. Youth, adults, even senior citizens. It don’t make no sense.” Tiffany agrees with the province’s Tobacco Control Strategy, which targets goals such as prevention among youth and reducing tobacco product displays. She thinks bans are an especially good idea.
“When they banned them from the bars and stuff like that, I think it was a good idea because people that are in there that don’t smoke shouldn’t have to be sitting in second-hand smoke.”
Still, she isn’t sure that this would convince her to quit.
“I just need to find the willpower,” she says. In fact, quitting was her New Year’s resolution, but she’s having a hard time sticking to it.
“It’s just hard, you’re so addicted to it, all the chemicals they put in it nowadays, it gets you so addicted.”
"Smoking is something that is brought upon yourself."- Latisha Photo Credit: Free Foto
George is a sixteen-year-old who quit smoking. He believes it has lost its appeal for himself and for others. “I think it’s stupid,” he says, “and people do it ‘cause they think they’re cool.” He thinks the reason for a loss of interest is that people grow up and learn smoking isn’t cool.
He agrees with the Tobacco Control Strategy in that he doesn’t think smoking should be allowed in public places. “It should be in designated areas or at a home or something. Not around kids,” he says.
Latisha, a 15-year-old smoker, feels the same way. She thinks more public places should be non-smoking and that if there were more smoking spots at bus stops, this would help in continuing to drop the youth smoking rate in Nova Scotia. Nonetheless, she is perplexed about the fact that the rate is the lowest in Canada.
She thinks that for youth, smoking is less about looking cool and more about finding a way to cope through their issues.
“Smoking is something that is brought upon yourself, and sometimes people go through rough times and they think that smoking is the only answer.”
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