More than one in five high school students use a tobacco product: 90 percent are tobacco smokers. Teens are easily influenced by various sources, plus teens wouldn't care about smoking hazards if smoking is presented as stress reliever and fun. Smoking is still a problem among teens.

Most of the regular smokers start in their teenage years, so it's absolutely us teenager's concern. "Nine out of 10 smokers tried their first cigarette by age 18," said Tim McAfee, M.D, M.P.H, Director of the CDCs office on smoking and health (CDC press release,2014). Teenagers think they can get away with some cigarettes but unfortunately three out of four high school smokers continue smoking into adulthood. Shockingly, each day approximately 3500 teenagers start smoking that also under the age of 18.

Teens ignore the hazards and they're well aware of the supposed "benefits". Smoking teens suck in and puff out the warnings and totally forget about the long term effects when compared to their supposed fun and lifestyle. "Teens will smoke if they want to smoke regardless of the size or position of the warning," said Simon Clark, Director of the Smokers' Group Forrest (Buckland, 2015). How can we forget about being cool? Exactly, teens still consider smoking to be cool by children trying to be popular. Teens don't always party, we get bored too. However, we lack mature thinking and smoking is a way to seek out excitement.

Teens think it will help them to cope with stress. New research on teen depression reveals that those with depression are 13 times more likely to pick up smoking (Krans,2013). Nicotine makes the effects of stress less significant and can release dopamine in less than 10 seconds. A recent study by Doctor Alan Morgan In Drogheda revealed 9% of teens said they smoked because of addiction whereas 34% said they did it because of stress. Stress is a huge factor, another reason to argue against homework. Smoking does relieve stress, it does so in the unhealthiest ways imaginable.

Smoking parents or elders in family can have a huge impact on their growing teens. Parents have a more significant influence on their children than they think. If parents are going to tell their teens to avoid smoking and smoke themselves then guess what? Their teens are going to  have one thing to say: If they do why shouldn't I? Current teen smokers are hugely influenced by their elders according to research from Purdue University. 75.7% of daily smokers had a parent, stepparent or guardian who smoked. "We should encourage doctors to ask about a family history of smoking because if there is then that person is more likely to be a smoker," said  Dr John Spangler, Professor of Community and family medicine (Reinberg,2014). Adults play a huge part, when they stop smoking the benefit will extend to the coming generations.

How can we forget about the media?! Media is powerful enough to psychologically affect teens. For each additional 500 smoking scenes teens had seen in movies they were 33-49% more likely to smoke in next 2 years. On-screen smoking puts hundreds of thousands of young Americans at risk of addiction, disease and premature death (Targeted News Service,2014) . Every "like" and every "share"on a smoking picture on social media makes it seem like no big deal, it shows that smoking is normal. "Online behaviors should be considered a viable source of peer influence and that increased efforts should focus on educating adolescents on the negative effects of risky online displays," says the report published in the Journal of Adolescent health by researchers from University of Southern California. Media is one concrete reason why smoking is still a problem among teenagers.

Numerous people blindly claim the use of E-cigarettes as being being a significant factor in decline of traditional cigarettes but little do they know that scientists say that regardless of its product nicotine is always terrible for the teenage developing brain. E-cigarettes are a pathway to other nicotine products, it leads more than it discourages. Studies carried out by researchers from the University of California found that students who have used E-cigarettes in the past find it harder to quit smoking. Furthermore, E-cigarettes produce the same dangerous chemicals which are found in cigarettes.

Is smoking still a problem among teens? Yes! Smoking is still a problem among teenagers. Despite the progress, our teenage brain is somehow attracted to smoking related activities. Are there any other healthy substitutes to smoking? No, we have been tricked. Every smoking related product contains nicotine and it's a deadly cycle. We should do what we can to help our peer decide their own fate. We shouldn't wait for a profound reason to avoid all smoking products; any reason would do. Because it's all a cycle.