Smoking bans deter teens from starting habit - Addictions - MSNBC.com

Pardon the source, it's what comes up on my news RSS.

It appears that there's some deterrent factor to teen smoking in towns where smoking is banned in restaurants.

Maybe the argument that these bans are glamorizing smoking isn't quite true?

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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

Australia is starting to really toughen up on smoking. Many of our states have now virtually made smoking in public prohibited. You can't smoke in any building; within several metres of any building; on beaches, etc. Of course, if smoking is so bad the govt should just ban it, but then they'd lose all of their tax excise they gain from it ... so that won't happen.

As a side note, we've also just had the price of pre-mixed drinks (you know, when you buy a can of bourbon & coke) increased by $1 (per drink) across the board. This is aimed at trying to reduce adolescent binge drinking by making it less affordable. IMO all it will do is increase revenue to the govt as teenagers will simply buy cheaper grog (like cheap wine/champagne), which has a higher alcohol content than the "lolly water" anyway.

I hope that smoking bans DO deter teens from starting. I also believe that there are some who will still view it as glamorous and start. It's a horrible habit to kick.

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them; speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

Maybe. I'm trying to remember why I started way back when. I don't think that it was a glamour thing, per se, but a fitting in thing.


I didn't find it that hard to quit, though. I guess I was lucky.

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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

Smoking bans, especially in bars..grrrrr...first they wont let people toke up, then you cant smoke baccy, coming soon to a bar near you, no drinking,
no talking and no fun.
Geez this paragraph brings back memories. You Aussies like those pre-mix cans more that oxygen it seems! I havent seen anyone but a wino actually drink those in America. Down there they drink them like beer.

I love the Aussie pub scene. Especially being the only American around. More than once a very similar dialogue happened to me as follows.
Bloke: So you a yank there mate?
Me: Ah well kinda, I am an Alaskan.
Bloke: Alaska! Jesus mate, its bloody cold up there. What are you an eskimo?
Me: Well yeah actually I am. Well only half.
Bloke: Fair dinkum, what you drinkin thar mate?
Me: VBs for now.
Bloke:Ah good mate, I am glad you like the Aussie beer. Because your American beer is some horrible piss.
Me:Yeah I like the Aussie beer and especially the wine.
Bloke:Have you ever tried a ____bitter?
Me: Nah, havent had that type of your domestic bitter beer.
Bloke: Well its sure as hell is a lot better than that Budweiser piss you yanks have.
Me: Yeah I would agree.
Bloke: Yeah Yankee piss is horrible! Bahkeep! Get me mate here an emu bitter, and Ill take a Jack and coke.

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Ha ha, yeah that sounds like a typical Aussie exchange in a pub. Australian's are among the world's highest consumers of alcohol ... and I don't think that's necessarily something to be proud of.

On that note though, I can't stand the taste of VB. Being a Queensland boy originally, I was raised on XXXX beer (for those that don't know it, it's actually called XXXX, ie 4 X's).

VB = Victoria Bitter?

I enjoyed the Redback my sis brought back from me. There's a good stout I've had from Australia, as well.

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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

Yup, VB = Victoria Bitter .... and bitter it is

Yeah. My favorite was crown lager and brown bros wine. But there is also Emu bitter, and a few others I cant think of off the top of my head.
I have also had several gutfulls of tooheys extra dry.

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Damn, I need to get down under!

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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

Right up there with Alaskans, at least you are in good company.
Alaskans consume way more alcohol per capita than the rest of the country, and believe it or not, ice cream as well.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

I havent been to Europe yet, but want to go badly. I have been down there 3x while I was dating an aussie shiela. Among the best places to visit I have ever been. Amazingly friendly people, the women are beautiful and the accent is intoxicating. I was down there staying with Aussies and got much more of the local flavor than one would otherwise. I never really had anyone be rude to me about being an American.
Lots of, ah mate, we love yanks, we just hate Bush.

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It's a load of crap and, again, is a self-serving 'study' by those who favour that conclusion and the study isn't scientific. And they have more of the same shoddy logic, like this as quoted from the article:

Hmm. Well, I don't see smoking cannabis out in the public eye like alcohol is . . . or pill popping abuse, or cocaine, etc. Do lots of people still do it in epidemic proportions? Sure.

People know cigarettes are bad for them, even teenagers. It's true with most bad things like alcohol, drugs, etc. Teenagers pick up the habit because they see it as a passage of right, it's 'naughty,' etc. All the states around me in the US plus Ireland have indoor smoking bans and it hasn't stopped teenagers from smoking. They just smoke elsewhere, deny using it, etc.

'Out of sight, out of mind' just isn't true with addictive use and vices such as alcohol, tobacco, prescription drug abuse, street drug abuse, etc.

Bans instead heighten the 'forbidden fruit' enticement. It also, whether teenagers or adults, causes unintended consequences, e.g.,

Smirting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smoking rates are reduced by

1) solid education about the risks of the habit, and

undlerline, italicise, and bold the following . . .

2) dislike of the smell/stink of it.

One of the main reasons why people, despite their education about alcohol and other vices, still choose to engage in those vices but make the exception for smoking is because they dislike smoking due to its aesthetic side effects.

It's not the physical ones--people don't go to bars and greasy spoon restaurants, casinos, etc, for their health. If they were that concerned, they wouldn't be there.

It stinks up clothes, hair, stains and dusts stuff, etc. Most people I know who hate smoke hate it because of its pall. The SHS/ETS thing is really just a convenient excuse to get accomplished what they really want to say: "Take that stinky ass shit outside!!!!"

That's why more half to more than half didn't smoke even before studies first confirmed smoking was unhealthy.

Indoor smoking and its foggy residue has been the strongest repellent for making smokers since it started.

Now that many jurisdictions are quickly putting it outside, the No.1 repellent factor is gone, and instead, smoking is a great social device for socialites on the patios and outside for making friends, getting a 'smirting' opportunity to get a shot at getting laid, etc. That is the reglamourisation of smoking.

Now, if people really wanted to do something about the overall public health, they'd demand mandatory smoking permitted in McDonald's, etc., as well as bars, casinos, strip joints, etc. The more people who hate the smoke will continue to hate smoking and not smoke as well as avoid those additional vice traders and toxic waste dump fast food joints, etc.

Your conclusion doesn't seem to follow. The study indicates that the smoking ban makes no statistical difference in the amount of teens that try smoking - just in the number that go on to be smokers. Kids going for "glamor" are more likely to do it front of their friends than in addictive fashion, by themselves, where the reductions lie, according to this "study". (I use quotes because in voluntary questions about contraband the tendency is heavy under-reporting, and this would perhaps be even more true in places with wholesale, town-wide bans, due to the likelihood of such towns being populated with repressed busibodies). So, there is no reduction in the number of people who try smoking and smoke socially - just a reduction in the number of teenagers who volunteer that they are smokers in one particular place in the country.

Edit: And, as an aside, I think that teens are less interested in glamor than in rebellion.

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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

OSB, you make excellent points as usual. I had never heard of the term smirting but I certainly have done it. Last thursday I was at my local watching the NHL playoffs and because Anchorage Alaska has turned from a good hard working and hard partying blue collar town into a haven of yuppiedom, one can no longer smoke in bars. But it does provide for an excellent much quieter opportunity to engage in conversation with like minded people, or the chance to get some digits for a late night hookup at closing time.

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