Topic - Teen Smoking. Why do teenagers still smoke?
Sure, while they know that heavy smoking is fatal, they don’t know that light or intermittent smoking is also very harmful and can cause serious disease.
Max doesn’t relate to the horrifying statistics because the parts of his brain that evaluate risk and long-term consequences won’t mature until he’s in his 20s.
He doesn’t stand a chance against the advertisers who spend $9 billion a year targeting him with sexy, glitzy ads.
He doesn’t know that nicotine stimulates feelings of pleasure and changes his brain to make him even more vulnerable to nicotine addiction.
Now, e-cigarettes make smoking seem less fatal. They have less stigma, but they still deliver nicotine. They’re legal for teens to buy and more kids are using e-cigarettes than tobacco because they can.
Max needs to know the health risks and your disapproval of all smoking.
