Yet 50 to 60 young people begin smoking each day in Maryland, and 3,000 teens begin smoking each day in the United States. Smoking is expensive, and not just because cigarettes cost money. The other, indirect costs of smoking to you, your employer and society may surprise you. In the end, smoking may cost you your life. Tobacco use is mood-altering, and there are regular patterns of use that continue despite harmful effects.
Teens underestimate the addictive effects of cigarettes.
About 73 percent of teen smokers who say they think they will quit in the near future are still smoking five years later. Maryland's cancer death rate is third highest in the nation. Tobacco has been linked to lung cancer, oral cancer and many other cancers. Students who use tobacco are three times more likely to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana and 22 times more likely to use cocaine than their peers who don't smoke. You are a target.