Every day, more than 6,000 adolescents under the age of 18 years in the US try their first cigarette and more than 3,000 adolescents under the age of 18 years become daily smokers. The younger people start smoking cigarettes, the more likely they are to become addicted to nicotine. Seventy percent of adolescent smokers wish they had never started smoking.
Young people underestimate the addictiveness of nicotine.
Nearly 75 percent of daily smokers who think they will not smoke in five years are still smoking five to six years later. Teens who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. Smoking is associated with a host of risky behaviors, such as fighting and engaging in unprotected sex. Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke.