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How to get 7th graders to smoke

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Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#81

Post by RhysU »

nobleach wrote: post #5

Show them a Quentin Tarantino film? ...or any film for that matter where the main characters seem so "cool, unfazed and untouchable". To a young (mostly male) mind, that's the ultimate goal; to be in charge. For most beginning smokers, it's not about the inhalation of tobacco, but the subversive "screw the rules, those don't apply to me" façade. This might sound obvious but, if we want 7th graders not to glorify smok…

Smoking by most teenagers is easy to solve: Make all cigarettes hot pink with garish other colors in ugly, ugly patterns. Teenagers don't like looking conspicuously ridiculous.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#82

Post by pjc50 »

aeonik wrote: post #39

It's pretty funny in a sad way to me that this article talks about how little we know about human behavior and struggling to find answers about why the kids had a backfire effect. I remember these programs, and I remember how they made me and my friends feel. But nobody asked us, lol. I'd even try to tell people I thought, but instead of listening to us, we were admonished. The problem is that these programs are full…

Indeed. People want "reproducible" campaigns, but that necessitates being entirely one-way. As soon as you start having a real connection with other humans it's non-reproducible.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#83

Post by itronitron »

gwbas1c wrote: post #67
nobleach wrote: post #5

Show them a Quentin Tarantino film? ...or any film for that matter where the main characters seem so "cool, unfazed and untouchable". To a young (mostly male) mind, that's the ultimate goal; to be in charge. For most beginning smokers, it's not about the inhalation of tobacco, but the subversive "screw the rules, those don't apply to me" façade. This might sound obvious but, if we want 7th graders not to glorify smok…

The ultimate thing that convinced me not to smoke was watching my uncle die of lung cancer, and being unable to quit the thing that was killing him. I'm somewhat relieved that tobacco references are considered "adult" now in entertainment. The amount of smoking I saw in movies and TV (and around my uncle) normalized it for me, even though I knew how unhealthy it was.

For my high school cohort the video interview of the person still smoking after having had a laryngectomy really drove home the powerlessness of addiction.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#84

Post by kenjackson »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #68
kenjackson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they are usually addictive. Almost every person I know who smokes says they derive little pleasure they once did, but are addicted to nicotine and can’t stop. And as a non-smoker, it doesn’t look fun, but I trust it was at one point in their life - I guess.

Right, I was a smoker for many years, the but the actual conversion rate of "drug users" to "drug addicts" is surprisingly low. The overwhelming majority of people who smoke their first cigarette will not die a smoking related death. And cigarettes are probably the most extreme example. How many people who try cocaine end up being the poster case for DARE? It's virtually no one. The risk analysis for having fun with…

I think our samples must be different. Admittedly I have small samples of cocaine users, but the behaviors for them are consistent with the mainstream literature. Maybe just a bad sample, but it’s good enough for me to avoid it.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#85

Post by asdfgrasdf123 »

alt227 wrote: post #73
devoutsalsa wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking Is Awesome, by Kurzgesagt - In A Nutshell, touched on how smokers eventually need cigarettes just to feel normal. https://youtu.be/_rBPwu2uS-w?si=hR0J-eqBBUOjVtvd

> touched on how smokers eventually need cigarettes just to feel normal. This is the same for every addictive substance, no?

I was amphetamine addict, I used daily for a year, very excessively in later stage. When I stopped I felt normal, it was not fun but I did not need amphetamine to get through the day. There is no physical urge to use more, you do it because you like it. It is very different with opiates I heard, but you said every. The word addiction pushed me towards drugs because I thought if I can stop any time it is not addiction and it is fine.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#86

Post by YesBox »

patwolf wrote: post #22

This brought back memories of the D.A.R.E. officer coming to my elementary classroom to give us the "don't do drugs" speech. At the end of the speech with feigning hesitation he'd pull out the drug briefcase to the cheers of the kids, like a band holding out their best song for the encore. "This here is methamphetamine, aka crystal meth or speed. If you see a man running down the street with the strength of a bear, t…

I had the briefcase experience (except it was a portable glass display case with every drug under the sun). Looked like a bunch of candy to me as a kid. I think they even had a fake version placed next to the real thing?

One thing they did that has stuck with me though was this plastic bag contraption with some material inside to represent the human lungs. There was a hole at the top which the DARE officer placed a lit cigarette, then began (somehow) pumping air from the hole down into the lung material. I remember watching the material quickly go from white to brown and tarry. By the time the cigarette was out, she looked us all in the eyes and said "this is what smoking does to your lungs"

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#87

Post by [deleted] »

alt227 wrote: post #73
devoutsalsa wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking Is Awesome, by Kurzgesagt - In A Nutshell, touched on how smokers eventually need cigarettes just to feel normal. https://youtu.be/_rBPwu2uS-w?si=hR0J-eqBBUOjVtvd

> touched on how smokers eventually need cigarettes just to feel normal. This is the same for every addictive substance, no?

[deleted]

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#88

Post by cess11 »

prophesi wrote: post #28
sandworm101 wrote: post #7

Question: Do people who vape spend more or less money than people who smoke? I have some vapers that work for me and they talk about vape like wine people debating grapes. They seem willing to pay insane amounts of money for their hourly fix. So I wonder whether "big tobacco" sees every smokers as potential vaper. Both are nicotine addicts. Perhaps the demonization of smoking will improve sales in the vape business,…

If they're buying disposable vapes, then it's likely on par with cigarettes in terms of price. That industry has been working hard on getting disposable vapes that last long enough and contain as much nicotine as possible. In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal. If they're going custom then the upfront cost will be a lot more,…

"In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal."

What do you mean by this? Why would you buy less than 50 mg at a time?

I use snus, and I'd guess it's several mgs per pouch, and I buy something like 200-250 pouches at a time because I'm not a heavy 'snusare' so one roll at roughly 30 bucks lasts more than a month. 50 mg would be, what, like two-three packs of cigarettes?

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#89

Post by jawns »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #9

The main reason that it's hard to change people is that they resist manipulation. This is hard to see if you only consider well-meaning attempts to change people, which you might not consider manipulation because that word has a negative connotation.

And yet ... look at how much manipulation happens at the political level.

I find myself constantly wondering how people can be so gullible as to buy the drivel they're being fed.

Re: How to get 7th graders to smoke

#90

Post by quacked »

pjc50 wrote: post #76
quacked wrote: post #40

At the core of the problem is that social services that address the physical consequences of smoking (mostly medical professionals and financial counselors) are run by people who believe that everyone ought to be treated similarly and have similar opportunities, regardless of behavior. Smoking is considered "a problem" to society because intelligent, caring people that notice that smoking injuries and medical conditi…

> imprison or exile smokers, refuse medical treatment to smokers .. doesn't work in the rest of the war on drugs. But on the other hand, if you care that little about their outcomes that you're willing to do those things, why are you doing them in the first place rather than leaving them alone?

If it doesn't work in the war on drugs, then why is the drug epidemic worse in the US than it is in Asia?

The reason the US is losing the war on drugs is not because harsh measures don't work, it's because the measures in the US are inconsistently applied by incompetent and corrupt leadership and agents.

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