Teen smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teen smoking - Essay Example As a child, I remember waking up to my father coughing uncontrollably. I would always dutifully ask if he was okay, to which he answered yes, silencing any of my lingering objections. What could I have done differently? After reflecting on my fathers death, I have come to realize that if the laws were written in such a way to impose severe punishment upon teenage smokers, no one else would have to die from this slow-killing diseases. With laws in place to catch early users before they become life-time users, a multitude of future smokers would be avoided due to such laws. Why not treat cigarette smoking like one would treat alcohol use ? Our laws governing alcohol use is such that no one under the age of 21 can buy or consume alcohol Similarly, if an adult over the age of 21 facilitates a minor with alcohol, they can be charged and fined up to $1,000 for each minor that they outfitted with alcohol. If a teenager spends a night in jail for smoking illegally, then perhaps he or she would think twice about ever picking up a cigarette again. Additionally, the tacking on of fines to a minor who has used a fake ID or a proxy to ascertain cigarettes. Usually when someone is forced to pay a fine for a misdemeanor or is placed on probation, their likelihood of doing the same thing again becomes minimal. Alternatively, perhaps the police should fine the teenager. In â€Å"Teen Smokers Should Worry About Fines,† Eric Zorn suggests, "This isnt a new idea. PUP laws-so named because they ban the purchase, use and possession tobacco by minors-have been around for decades. Chicagos dates to 1992 and calls for a $25 fine for the first offense"(1) Certainly if these fines are the law, Ive never been aware of it - principally because the cops do not enforce the statutes. In the Zorn article, Professor Leonard from DePaul University in Chicago reveals that if the PUP laws had been successfully enforced, numerous teenagers would have quit long ago - or perhaps