Smokers today are increasingly under attack on all fronts. Identified as a menace to society, they are derided for their selfishness and frequently made out to be criminals of the highest order. Recently travelling to Australia where smoking is strictly forbidden in all but a few select places, soon to be even prohibited on public beaches, I wonder whether in time entry into Australia will come to depend on your smoking record. ‘Sorry mate, no smokers round here, security please’. For years now they have been cited as weak willed, inferior beings and yet despite all the overwhelming statistics that expose the great risks of smoking the number of teenage smokers is still on the rise. Is this surprising? Not exactly given that adolescents consider themselves to be immortal and frequently embrace anti-social behaviour in the spirit of teenage rebellion.

As a young kid I simply could not understand the logic of smoking cigarettes. The idea that people would choose to blindly smoke regardless of their health truly puzzled me and I wondered whether the warning signs imprinted on the billboards were not clear for all to read. It just did not make any sense to me and I was deeply shocked when I soon discovered the full extent of its fatal effects during one of my first biology lessons at school. Reading through the pages of my textbook that were filled with images of blackened lungs and frightening statistics, my troubled thoughts quickly focused on my mother who was a heavy smoker at the time. Worried and upset, I returned home that day with one purpose in mind which was to make her stop smoking. To my great relief this she did though in a sick twist of irony I soon grew up only to start smoking as soon as the hormones kicked in and teenage insanity set in.

Teenagers are always in a great rush to grow up and given that adolescence is a time when risk taking and rebellion is invariably practiced, the connection between smoking and anti-social behaviour is a potentially powerful lure that dangerously plays into the hands of the tobacco industry. On the one hand not only does it fuel the lie that associates smoking with rebellion by shifting its appeal in line with its social unacceptability but equally so it incites fierce opposition from smokers across the globe by making a mockery of their addiction. Exposing the dangers of smoking is one thing, though condemning smokers as anti-social beings hell bent on the destruction of humanity is counterproductive as it only turns them into the tobacco industry’s staunchest campaigners for its social acceptability. By hardening the lines between smokers and non-smokers, tobacco companies have profited from the confusion this creates in the minds of impressionable teenagers once the debate on smoking spirals out of control and becomes one that is fought on the lines of human rights and other such nonsense. The tobacco companies must be having a laugh at our expense as adults across the globe are embattled in a war that has lost sight of its objectives. If adults cannot seem to decide whether smoking should be acceptable or not who do you think suffers? Teenagers of course who are always searching for answers and often quite innocently fall into the fatal trap of trying out that first cigarette and it is unsurprising that 90% of all smokers start during their teenage years.

Tobacco companies are in effect no different to any other company that is forced to adapt its strategy in light of the changing market. As the number of adult smokers is on the decrease the industry has for many years now turned its attention to teenagers who are its primary targets. Get them whilst they are still young and innocent is the underlying agenda and given that smoking advertising is now banned from billboards, the tobacco industry has once again reverted to movies as its main medium of subtle indoctrination. Despite the self-imposed ban instituted in 1989 that prohibited tobacco companies from paying to have their products in film the last time so much smoking was promoted in movies was in the 1950’s when figures from the Golden Age in Hollywood started dying from smoking related diseases. Major blockbusters such as Titanic, Lethal Weapon, Men in Black, Charlie’s Angels, Jerry Maguire, Thelma and Louise, Pulp Fiction, Beverly Hills Cop are but a few of the many movies that have advertised smoking in some form or another. Let us not forget Basic Instinct of course in that now infamous scene where Sharon Stone seductively smokes her cigarette as she is being interrogated, much to the frustration of Michael Douglas who is also struggling to beat his smoking addiction. That the movie industry is serving the interests of the tobacco industry is clear given the added fact that teenagers are frequent moviegoers and are according to statistics 16 times more likely to try smoking if they see one of their favourite stars doing the same on the big screen.

Hollywood movies have the immense power of creating an illusion yet in the words of the American thinker, poet and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The believing we do something when we do nothing at all is the first illusion of tobacco”. The idea that connects smoking with rebellion is nothing less than absurd though even more so is its connection with sex that is today harnessed as an advertising prop for every conceivable product be it toothpaste or fast cars. Cigarettes and cigars needless to say have forever been cited as symbols of virility and while Freud did once say that: “A cigar is sometimes just a cigar,” frequently they are perceived otherwise as Bill Clinton most certainly did.

The reality is that smoking is a terrible and impotent addiction that offers a flawed sense of empowerment and a delusional sense of adulthood. At a time when I thought that I was taking control of my life and looking to assert my independence and yes rebel, I actually compromised my freedom by succumbing to a great big lie. As I sit here puffing on my cigarette I wonder to what extent I too deluded myself into thinking that smoking was an extension of my personality, when in fact smoking is only likely to contribute to impotence and shrinkage of manhood which is surprisingly not cited more often as a persuasive reason for giving up smoking.

The reality is that millions of people fool themselves into thinking that they will never get hooked or somehow miraculously avoid illness despite all the evidence to the contrary that estimates that as many as 60 million people worldwide have died from tobacco related illnesses between 1950 and 2000. That is an astonishing statistic that is far too easily overlooked by smokers though that is the heavy cost of addiction. Blinded by the lunacy of our actions we smokers endorse each other’s madness and seek comfort in it and the very idea that it will not happen to me is a powerful one that lies at the heart of human survival. It is one of our greatest strengths that has preserved soldier’s sanity during time of war and provided men and women with the courage to persevere during times of difficulty and yet it is one that tobacco companies have corrupted in the most perverse of ways.

We are fooled into thinking that cigarettes fill a void when in reality they create it and the only way we can continue to fill that void is by smoking cigarette after cigarette until our lungs turn black and our bodies cannot take anymore. So to all you teenagers out there watching movies or just hanging out do not fall into the trap of trying that first cigarette because before you know it you too will become a slave to an absurd and suicidal addiction.

Ed.note: Michael Farrugia graduated from Edinburgh university with an MA in Italian and European history and has recently completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the London School of Journalism.Smokers today are increasingly under attack on all fronts. Identified as a menace to society, they are derided for their selfishness and frequently made out to be criminals of the highest order. Recently travelling to Australia where smoking is strictly forbidden in all but a few select places, soon to be even prohibited on public beaches, I wonder whether in time entry into Australia will come to depend on your smoking record. ‘Sorry mate, no smokers round here, security please’. For years now they have been cited as weak willed, inferior beings and yet despite all the overwhelming statistics that expose the great risks of smoking the number of teenage smokers is still on the rise. Is this surprising? Not exactly given that adolescents consider themselves to be immortal and frequently embrace anti-social behaviour in the spirit of teenage rebellion.

As a young kid I simply could not understand the logic of smoking cigarettes. The idea that people would choose to blindly smoke regardless of their health truly puzzled me and I wondered whether the warning signs imprinted on the billboards were not clear for all to read. It just did not make any sense to me and I was deeply shocked when I soon discovered the full extent of its fatal effects during one of my first biology lessons at school. Reading through the pages of my textbook that were filled with images of blackened lungs and frightening statistics, my troubled thoughts quickly focused on my mother who was a heavy smoker at the time. Worried and upset, I returned home that day with one purpose in mind which was to make her stop smoking. To my great relief this she did though in a sick twist of irony I soon grew up only to start smoking as soon as the hormones kicked in and teenage insanity set in.

Teenagers are always in a great rush to grow up and given that adolescence is a time when risk taking and rebellion is invariably practiced, the connection between smoking and anti-social behaviour is a potentially powerful lure that dangerously plays into the hands of the tobacco industry. On the one hand not only does it fuel the lie that associates smoking with rebellion by shifting its appeal in line with its social unacceptability but equally so it incites fierce opposition from smokers across the globe by making a mockery of their addiction. Exposing the dangers of smoking is one thing, though condemning smokers as anti-social beings hell bent on the destruction of humanity is counterproductive as it only turns them into the tobacco industry’s staunchest campaigners for its social acceptability. By hardening the lines between smokers and non-smokers, tobacco companies have profited from the confusion this creates in the minds of impressionable teenagers once the debate on smoking spirals out of control and becomes one that is fought on the lines of human rights and other such nonsense. The tobacco companies must be having a laugh at our expense as adults across the globe are embattled in a war that has lost sight of its objectives. If adults cannot seem to decide whether smoking should be acceptable or not who do you think suffers? Teenagers of course who are always searching for answers and often quite innocently fall into the fatal trap of trying out that first cigarette and it is unsurprising that 90% of all smokers start during their teenage years.

Tobacco companies are in effect no different to any other company that is forced to adapt its strategy in light of the changing market. As the number of adult smokers is on the decrease the industry has for many years now turned its attention to teenagers who are its primary targets. Get them whilst they are still young and innocent is the underlying agenda and given that smoking advertising is now banned from billboards, the tobacco industry has once again reverted to movies as its main medium of subtle indoctrination. Despite the self-imposed ban instituted in 1989 that prohibited tobacco companies from paying to have their products in film the last time so much smoking was promoted in movies was in the 1950’s when figures from the Golden Age in Hollywood started dying from smoking related diseases. Major blockbusters such as Titanic, Lethal Weapon, Men in Black, Charlie’s Angels, Jerry Maguire, Thelma and Louise, Pulp Fiction, Beverly Hills Cop are but a few of the many movies that have advertised smoking in some form or another. Let us not forget Basic Instinct of course in that now infamous scene where Sharon Stone seductively smokes her cigarette as she is being interrogated, much to the frustration of Michael Douglas who is also struggling to beat his smoking addiction. That the movie industry is serving the interests of the tobacco industry is clear given the added fact that teenagers are frequent moviegoers and are according to statistics 16 times more likely to try smoking if they see one of their favourite stars doing the same on the big screen.

Hollywood movies have the immense power of creating an illusion yet in the words of the American thinker, poet and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The believing we do something when we do nothing at all is the first illusion of tobacco”. The idea that connects smoking with rebellion is nothing less than absurd though even more so is its connection with sex that is today harnessed as an advertising prop for every conceivable product be it toothpaste or fast cars. Cigarettes and cigars needless to say have forever been cited as symbols of virility and while Freud did once say that: “A cigar is sometimes just a cigar,” frequently they are perceived otherwise as Bill Clinton most certainly did.

The reality is that smoking is a terrible and impotent addiction that offers a flawed sense of empowerment and a delusional sense of adulthood. At a time when I thought that I was taking control of my life and looking to assert my independence and yes rebel, I actually compromised my freedom by succumbing to a great big lie. As I sit here puffing on my cigarette I wonder to what extent I too deluded myself into thinking that smoking was an extension of my personality, when in fact smoking is only likely to contribute to impotence and shrinkage of manhood which is surprisingly not cited more often as a persuasive reason for giving up smoking.

The reality is that millions of people fool themselves into thinking that they will never get hooked or somehow miraculously avoid illness despite all the evidence to the contrary that estimates that as many as 60 million people worldwide have died from tobacco related illnesses between 1950 and 2000. That is an astonishing statistic that is far too easily overlooked by smokers though that is the heavy cost of addiction. Blinded by the lunacy of our actions we smokers endorse each other’s madness and seek comfort in it and the very idea that it will not happen to me is a powerful one that lies at the heart of human survival. It is one of our greatest strengths that has preserved soldier’s sanity during time of war and provided men and women with the courage to persevere during times of difficulty and yet it is one that tobacco companies have corrupted in the most perverse of ways.

We are fooled into thinking that cigarettes fill a void when in reality they create it and the only way we can continue to fill that void is by smoking cigarette after cigarette until our lungs turn black and our bodies cannot take anymore. So to all you teenagers out there watching movies or just hanging out do not fall into the trap of trying that first cigarette because before you know it you too will become a slave to an absurd and suicidal addiction.

Ed.note: Michael Farrugia graduated from Edinburgh university with an MA in Italian and European history and has recently completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the London School of Journalism.