By Charlotte Webster-
Smoking among under aged children is not being tackled enough in the Uk.
The same can probably be said about under aged smoking in America and many other countries. America is a far bigger country than the Uk, with wider and more complex issues. Our concern with the high level of underage smoking in the UK is mainly because we are based in the Uk, and it is easy to see how smoking at such a young age leads to other things.
Very young teenagers smoking in the UK are everywhere, they are not hard to find. They hang around parks, sit on benches in town centres, and ruin their health prematurely whilst the rest of society goes on as though nothing is happening. One of the obvious reasons might be that many adult smokers today themselves started smoking under the age of 15. Therefore they find it unnecessary or hypocritical to take issue with those 12 or 13 year olds who give in to the influence of their unchecked friends. Many of them will stunt their growth in the process, but this is not an object to those babies who have barely lived on the earth.
Once children begin smoking cigarettes, they easily progress to an experimentation of cannabis since they believe they will appear weak if they don’t join their crowd. Instead of them to see their peers who indulge in smoking and drinking as being badly developed and treading a dangerous path, they want to be a part of it. A survey conducted by the eye of media.com shows that at least 75% of teenagers who are 14 and under smoke cannabis as regularly as they can get their hands on it. It keeps them high, occupied, and part of their blind group. They are easy to detect, police monitoring cctv cameras in most town centres would easily spot them, but rarely bother to confront them. Police will tell you they have far more important crimes to attend to than confront a bunch of harmless teenagers smoking in a corner peacefully.
This cultural trend is dangerous because unless serious steps are taken to frustrate the ugly practise of young teenagers smoking, society will continue to degenerate to higher lows. Teenagers who smoke cigarettes and cannabis, will easily try cocaine if brought their way. Cocaine has become a widely used drug in society, consumed by many professionals despite the obvious health risks and its illegal status. Rebellion against the law of the land has become the norm in a society where many fingers are pointing against the government for having its own selfish agendas for making drugs illegal. Alcohol is more dangerous than many drugs, its consumption is expected to be in moderation. Moderation is still not a notion incorporated in the drinking habits of those heavily indulgent drinkers who would rather compete on rounds to prove their resistance levels. Resistance to alcohol is a purely hypothetical concept in many respects because society has evolved in a way that has made it common practise for people to go out to drink with the sole intention of getting completely drunk and wasted.
The resulting violence that has led to many facial lacerations of poor unsuspected victims, or even death, is presumably never part of the original plan. Many young teenagers smoke out of sheer boredom. That’s how it starts until it becomes a crippling habit that must precede and follow meals, done when waiting for a bus or driving . The eye of media.com a few months ago proposed for the full effects of smoking to be taught as part of the education curriculum in all primary and secondary schools to give a re understanding of its effects to children from a young age. Some secondary schools teach this in physical education(PE), but it needs to be taught as early as primary school. If children are taught about the harmful physical effects of smoking from young, they will be put off.