Searcy (LP) —The number of middle and high school students in the US who use tobacco dropped from 4.7 million in 2015 to 3.9 million in 2016 according to a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. The findings come from students’ answers to questionnaires from the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Tobacco is known to be a very addictive product, not for the tobacco itself but for the chemical within it. People often start using tobacco products because of the amounts of stress they have or because of peer pressure. Alex Dillard says, “I got started when I got out of foster care and I had a bunch of stress on me. Someone told me it helped, so I started.”  —— believes that most of tobacco users get started purely from “Influence.”  Tobacco is famous for stress relief and even being used when a person is bored. ——, a non user says, “No amount of stress will make me even want to use tobacco.”

Today, tobacco is starting to be replace by vapor products such as mods and Juuls and even by nicotine gum, nicotine pouches, and patches. All of these products as well as tobacco cost lots of money. “I imagine I spend around 1000 dollars yearly on tobacco products” Alex informs. 

Many people are aware of the risk of using  tobacco products but simply are not worried about them. Alex says “Yes, I know the risks,” but also tells, “No, I am not worried about them.”  The risks include mouth cancer for dip and lung cancer for cigars and cigarettes. Other products contain the same risks. 

People often ignore what is said about tobacco, but will regret it when a illness or cancer arrives. Tobacco is nothing to play around with or think is safe.  If used, make sure to take care of the body.