A capsules in developing countries has saved an estimated million lives since 1993, at an annual cost per child protected of less than a dollar. Students in 40 school districts were tracked over 15 years into young adulthood. The intervention group had the same rates of smoking by seven different measures. I suggest the authors of the study read Malcolm Gladwell's new book, The Tipping Point. Adolescents do not smoke because it is cool, he says, they smoke because people viewed as cool smoke.
Smoking is part of adolescent experimentation and rebellion.
We can never change the facts of adolescent development. Kids will try smoking, no matter what. However, the majority of them will not continue to smoke, and we can do things to make cigarets less addictive and lower the rate of those who continue. For example, reducing the amount of nicotine per pack of cigarets to 5 mg has been shown to dramatically lessen the chance of addiction. A new treatment for the pesky little warts known as molluscum contagiosum is on the horizon.