Editorial: Teach your children well

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005 | 7:38 a.m.

Most teenagers who take up cigarette smoking believe they will be young, strong and healthy forever. As smokers, they seemingly prove that belief, as they puff away and nothing happens. They still look and feel young, and they can run, climb stairs and dance as vigorously as always.

That's the insidious trap that so many teens fall into. Their young bodies are initially able to fight back against tobacco's active ingredient, nicotine, a poison so powerful that it is used in pesticides. Young smokers rarely realize they will die from the inside out if they keep it up.

Once absorbed by the lungs, nicotine moves into the bloodstream, affecting all parts of the body. The feelings of pleasure stimulated by a portion of the brain is all that young smokers feel, at first, which is why they drift into addiction.

By middle age, however, if not sooner, they begin to realize the consequences: Their nicotine-damaged organs are likely to have prematurely wrinkled their skin, raised their blood pressure, dulled their senses and sapped their strength. Many longtime smokers also learn they have weakened hearts or cancer, painful conditions that shorten their lives and leave them dependent on costly medications.

This is why there are laws against teen smoking and why caring parents and other adults who understand the harm earnestly counsel young people to stay away from tobacco products.

This counseling is having a positive effect. The National Institute on Drug Abuse announced this week that cigarette smoking is at its lowest level ever among teenagers.

While parents and other adults are getting across the message about tobacco, as well as alcohol and illegal drugs, many teens are not yet understanding that there are other ways of dying from the inside out. The report says many teens are now turning to prescription painkillers, and inhaling chemicals to achieve a brief high. Examples of potential inhalants are hair spray, gasoline, glue and spray paint. Chemicals in these products can cause permanent damage to the brain and other bodily organs.

The message here for parents is to secure their prescription drugs and to monitor their children's use of the Internet, where the drugs are easily obtained without a prescription. Most importantly, counseling should continue, and it should include the whole range of products that can, if improperly used, destroy a child's prospects for a healthy future.