OSB & DGT, you raise good points.

Note that I didn't write the article nor perform the study.

I agree that teens want to be rebellious. That's why I always tried to get my students to crank classical music. I figured that'd mess with their parents far more than the bad rap music they listened to.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

To be honest, I'd be curious to see if this held as a general trend, perhaps with some sort of nicotine testing rather than volunteering of information. From personal experience, I know that I wouldn't have trusted someone "doing a study" as a teenager. We were administered all manner of anonymous polls on drugs/alcohol/sex when I was a teen, and a blithely lied on all of them, seeing no reason to accept the anonymity claim at face value.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

That's funny. Maybe I was too much of a nerd, 'cause I was always truthful on those studies.

I think that more study should be done as well. It'd be useful to see if there is any good way to really reduce smoking acquisition.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

I also lied my ass off on those. Sometimes going in the other direction and saying I did all sort of things that I never did. You could often count on me to check the heroin box.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

Study away, but how low do you really expect that number to get? Zero is improbable, %5 I would find acceptable that those kids are going to smoke regardless of any detterent.

I am one of the few that started smoking as an adult, gets boring on a fishing vessel and it keeps the mosquitos away to a point.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

I don't know that you'll ever hit 0.

Maybe someday it'll be low enough that the US Government would stop subsiding tobacco farming. That'd be good.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

I think my country should take more responsiblities in reducing the number of tobacoo and Smokers.
3,500,000,000,unbelievable! While there are only 2,100,000,000 netizen.
Fewer somkers ,more netizen.

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I am a Chinese and I am proud to be one

Pramjockey, don't worry--I knew it wasn't your article and it was put out there as food for thought and a point of discussion, that's all.

And I know I wouldn't have answered such 'surveys.' I'd be like "I'm not giving my mum and da or teachers anything they could discover to tan my hide, get me grounded or suspended, thrown in counselling, get the neighbours and others talking, etc."

It never ceases to amaze me in my law practice how many parents still assume their little darling wore the halo and there must be a mistake by the cops, or it was 'bad friends' that led their little darling into trouble who didn't know any better and/or would be a saint if not for the fault of those 'bad influences' who, now to be removed, will return to virtue, etc.

I think we have all been there. It is often times that people cannot see thier own faults, especially those of thier children. This might be a matter of perception on my part. But I always got into way more trouble if someone went through the trouble of telling my parents something bad I did. Thankfully I never have had police run ins short of a speeding ticket.

I got into a brief but intense spat with my neighbor after his teenaged son ran his snogo into my smokehouse and basically collapsed half of it, I saw him do it through the window and he put it in reverse and drove off before I could stop him. I went over and knocked on thier door, of course the kid said he didnt do it. The parents thought I was just raising hell and blaming him for something another person did.

It took me showing him the damage to the building and the traded paint to prove it. Some people's kids cant do no wrong.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

Two comments regarding your post. The first is that according to the CIA, the 2008 population of China is about 1.3 billion (https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/ch.html), which is somewhat smaller than your 3.5 billion.

That aside.....welcome to capitalism! Your govt isn't about to abolish tobacco, considering the enormous amount of excise tax revenue that governments the world over make off tobacco. We're talking tens of billions of dollars.

There's a relatively simple explanation as to why tobacco manufacturers still meet market demand for their products: it's largely because the cost of their paying our compensation in law suits is still far less than their income derived from the product. When it gets to equilibrium (ie the pay-out cost [or market demand drops accordingly] equates their income), then you'll see tobacco cease production .... and not a day before.

You make an interesting point and I dont disagree, it just bothers me that people take it upon themselves to sue a company for a product they know harms them and willingly pay for and consume.
Second hand issues set aside of course for this argument.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

Maybe it's because our smoking ban is relatively young, but isn't it rather premature to be doing comprehensive studies on their effects?

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas