This is a story about Stephanie. When she was 16 she had her first cigarette, in the back of her friends car. Her friend lit up a cigarette for herself and then offered Stephanie one. Stephanie knew that smoking was bad for you, but everyone else she knew had tried it. She wanted to feel like she fit in. She smoked the cigarette and thought to herself, “Hey, this is pretty cool. I feel so relaxed. Two years later, Stephanie was a senior and smoking a pack a day. She found it hard to make it through her eight hour school day without having a smoke. She knew she was addicted, but liked the fact that she was part of the smoking crowd in her school. Four years later and about 450 packs of cigarettes later, Stephanie was in college, and addicted as ever. She knew she wanted to quit, but didn’t think she could hack it with all the stress of college. She wished that she had never had that first cigarette when she was 16, because she wouldn’t be addicted now. If there had been a law, prohibiting teenage smoking, she never would have started. According to the National Institute of drug abuse, each day, 3,000 teens smoke their first cigarette. That is more that one million annually. Despite government attempts, teenage smoking is rising in alarming numbers. In fact, in Ohio 35 percent of high-school kids smoke. A number way above the 24 percent of adult smokers. Ohio needs a tough law to prohibit teens from smoking, so that these percentages will be smaller in upcoming years. The government needs to target teenagers, because they will become the future smokers. Instead of concentrating on addicted adults, they should be preventing young people from starting. It is hard to get adults who have been smoking for numerous years to stop. It’s much easier to prevent youth from starting. In January of 1998, cigarette manufacturer, Philip Morris, admitted that the company had monitored the smoking habits of people as young as twe...
