While the odds of winning the lottery may be long, smoking offers a nearly guaranteed payoff in cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Tobacco is marketed especially to members of our society disadvantaged by race, gender or social class. Members of these groups seek relief through cigarettes from hopelessness rooted in the fabric of society. Ingesting nicotine becomes a form of self-medication that the individual pursues to reduce the impact of society's ills. Ingesting nicotine becomes a form of self-medication that the individual pursues to reduce the impact of society's ills.
Many young people begin smoking for reasons that blend liberation and rebellion.
On this campus I think the extent of smoking by students has risen significantly in the eight years I have been here. It is heartbreaking to consider how many students will be ensnared forever by their unfortunate choice of liberation methods. In fact, three-quarters had already joined the ranks of users by age 17. According to social scientists, smokers are in for a constellation of disadvantages. Impediments such as peer pressure, poor school performance, economic dissatisfaction, parental smoking, and an external locus of control make a person much more likely to be a smoker.