Who Should Be Held Accountable? 

Imagine that you are a young individual and you smoke so much that you die. Did you know that smoking cigarettes causes nearly one in five deaths in a year? Who do you think is responsible for this result in our society? Some individuals believe that it is the tobacco companies and teenagers themselves that are responsible. Some may argue that the teachers, parents, and lawmakers are responsible for teen smoking. People that disagree with this opinion have many statistics to back them up. For example, 800 people are currently sick to the point where they could die because they smoke too much. In this article it states, “That’s why companies use appealing advertisements and other techniques to manipulate kids into buying a cigarette. For instance, one brand developed flavored cigarettes and promoted them with fun, tropical images. Another brand advertised with hip-hop themes.” This shows that people who sell cigarettes are trying to show fun things so more young people will be interested in their product. 
Smoking can cause cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. Not only that, smokers will most likely exhibit unhealthy symptoms. These symptoms include coughing, low energy, respiratory difficulties, and poor circulation. The author in this article states,” Doctors believe it is inevitable that smoking will eventually lead to an accumulation of health problems.” Logically speaking, do you think that a parent, teacher, or lawmakers would want a teen to do something that can affect their life in a negative way? Lawmakers do things for your safety, a parent’s job is to protect you, and teachers are supposed to educate you for the better.  
As a teenager, your brain isn’t fully developed. A teen might feel pressured by their friends to smoke. Another reason they might start to smoke is they want to act “cool”, but do not realize the consequences until it is too late. In the article it briefly talks about smoking keeping them calm. Does that make it okay? Men and women who believe that teachers, parents, and lawmakers are the cause to this direction our society is leading into argue that those people can do something about it, and they are not. In the website tobaccofreekids.org it says, “Young kids’ naive experimentation frequently develops into regular smoking, which typically turns into a strong addiction-well before the age of 18-that can overpower the most well-intentioned efforts to quit.” Meaning that these teenagers are somehow getting their hands-on cigarettes and getting addicted before it’s even legal. That is not anybody else’s fault because they chose to do it.  

Teenagers MUST stop this before it is too late. However, if teens do not stop smoking, they risk a lot of negative effects for their body and their future is ruined. Teens and tobacco sellers are responsible. Do you agree? Who do you believe should be accountable for this issue?