Most smoking cessation clinics and programs are directed at adults and not suitable for children and adolescents. Pharmacies are unwilling to sell them nicotine replacement therapy products. Affordability of counseling and nicotine replacement is also problematic. Even when money is available, the problem still remains as to HOW to accomplish this task. Two recent talks I gave to different age groups in neighboring schools, and many E-mail exchanges with young people writing to this web page, have brought home to me the difficulties of this work.
Advertising is an obvious method to reach our TV-fixated youth.
Public support of anti-tobacco TV, billboard and magazine advertising appears to be an effective tool, but scientific proof of it's effectiveness is not yet available. Printed brochures and books directed at young people are problematic. First, they must be age specific, since the reading level and social characteristics of children at different ages are widely different. Second, there has been a reluctance by many publishers to get into an area that they felt was too controversial. Based on this feedback, I have spent considerable time and effort trying to find tobacco-control information on the WWW that is suitable for young people.