A classmate told me how good it felt to smoke with the big kids once, how exciting it was to fit in with the crowd. This was around six years ago; rates today show that the same does not happen as often as a parent would fear.

According to the CDC, surveys have shown that an average of 15% of high school students have at least admitted to using tobacco products in 2013, which was when this survey was last taken. As upsetting as that might be (250 people smoking in our school of nearly 1700 students), about half that have kicked the habit in last sixteen years, when it was an astounding 36% of the average high school body.

Speculated causes of this reduction have been anything from a generation influenced by DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) to the elimination of cigarette marketing to the younger demographic by cartoon cigarette mascots and candy or fruit flavored tobacco products. Other plausible causes would be the national banning of smoking in public schools in 1994, an intensive hike in price due to federal taxes, and an improved effort in replacing cigarette misconceptions with the harsh fact of its effects on human health.

These attempts at putting out teenage smoking stem from the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act put into action by President Obama on June 22, 2009.

In a negative twist related to the decline in teenage smoking (although with no direct statistic between the two as of yet), students will choose smoking marijuana or other illicit drugs over cigarettes, which are perfectly legal to anyone eighteen and above.