Smoking

[Anonymous]

My teen has taken up smoking and says it's ok because potus does it- it's the craziest thing. How to I combat this/ we love the Obama family.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I got the same line about pot when I found out my son is using it. Everybody makes mistakes, and I'm sure Barack is telling his daughters it was a mistake to start smoking.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, your kid knows this is a crap excuse.

I would point out that Obama smokes because smoking is addictive and quitting is really hard. I bet Obama wishes he had never started smoking in the first place. Also, where does your teen get the money to buy cigarettes? Obama is an adult who can legally purchase them. A teenager is not.

[Anonymous]

Oh man. Well, as someone who took up smoking in high school and then quit when I graduated knowing FULL WELL it was a stupid idea (I had asthma, fercrissakes), I'm not sure what you can do to combat this. I will say that it's a LOT less socially acceptable now than it used to be when I was in high school in the late eighties/early nineties. And yeah, they card now.

One tactic you might try is the "don't be a corporate stooge" angle. Try talking about Altria's (Phillip Morris's parent group) executive compensation (in the millions range) made off of folks who are going to get lung cancer. It can't work any worse than anything else you might try.

[Anonymous]

11:47 again. I just remembered a conversation I had a short time ago with my 13 year old about some of the stupider decisions I made as a teen. When he asked me why I did these things, the best answer I could come up with was that I don't know, exactly, but I didn't have a crystal ball back then and when I did things that have no doubt shaved some years off my life, I didn't know who I would be cheating out of possible extra years of me. E.g., him, his dad, my husband, my friends. I told him that I wish I could undo those decisions knowing what I know now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh man. Well, as someone who took up smoking in high school and then quit when I graduated knowing FULL WELL it was a stupid idea (I had asthma, fercrissakes), I'm not sure what you can do to combat this. I will say that it's a LOT less socially acceptable now than it used to be when I was in high school in the late eighties/early nineties. And yeah, they card now.

One tactic you might try is the "don't be a corporate stooge" angle. Try talking about Altria's (Phillip Morris's parent group) executive compensation (in the millions range) made off of folks who are going to get lung cancer. It can't work any worse than anything else you might try.

This strategy of letting them know that they are being manipulated by the tobacco companies has been shown to work with teens - also gory photos of what happens to you when you smoke also can make a difference with teens - like the ad of the woman smoking through a hole in her throat...

[Anonymous]

I thought Obama quit. Is he smoking again? Haven't seen any pictures of late.

[Anonymous]

I'm confident the OP is a troll.

Anonymous wrote:I thought Obama quit. Is he smoking again? Haven't seen any pictures of late.