Chapter 6 Reaction

            In chapter six, there is a portion that talks about the effects of public policies and prices on youth smoking. This affects me personally because when I was younger, like many of my peers, I thought it was “cool” to smoke. I tried it and thank goodness I hated it. Smoking not only causes so much damage to the smoker’s body but it also causes even more damage to those around them. I suffer from secondhand smoke a lot of times. I have friends and family members that smoke around me and I hate it. I also have asthma so it makes it even harder to breathe. Also, being able to go to bars or billiard places is affected because many of these places still allow smoking in them.

            Many of the adults in today’s society have started smoking when they were minors. I did not know this until reading the book, but Congress enacted a Synar amendment “requiring states to enactg and enforce laws that prohibit tobacco sales to minors” in July of 1992. I was in the Youth for Youth organization in high school and I participated in Synar for about two or three years. Synar is when minors, along with an adult chaperone and a Revenue and Taxation officer go around the island to various vendors and see if the salesperson makes a sale of tobacco to the minor. If the salesperson allows the sale, especially without asking for identification, the Revenue and Taxation officer then comes and writes up the store for this violation. I used to think Synar was only something they did here on the island, but I was glad to read that they also do this in the mainland United States which is a really good preventive technique to keep kids from being able to get a hold of tobacco products.

            I believe that youth consumption of tobacco products is continuing to rise since the 1990s when public officials became aware of it. I think the government and private business owners should take more precaution and preventative techniques to help slow and eventually stop youth tobacco consumption. More places should ban smoking or have a designated area for smokers. I also think that in these designated areas there should be someone looking out for minors and if they find a minor smoking or using tobacco, to report them to the authorities or even to their parents so that it does not continue to happen in the future.