BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
Jessica McLean knows she has a big bullseye painted on her back.
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WEBSTER |
The College Notre Dame student was on hand as the Sudbury and District Health Unit launched its Not to Kids program, which reminds both retailers and the community it?s against the law to sell or supply tobacco to anyone under 19. The program kicked off last week.
McLean had insightful, but stern words about her feelings of disgust towards the cigarette industry.
?I am a daughter, a sister, a high school student, a school president, an artist, an activist, but I am also a kid,? said McLean, who is also the local representative for the Provincial Youth Tobacco Coalition. ?I also know I am a target for tobacco companies.?
McLean, 17, wants all other youth to know they are targets as well.
?They can take a stand, like I did, and say ?no I will not be manipulated and I will be desensitized to their tactics of reaching out to us by letting kids under 19 have tobacco?.?
McLean sees many of her peers smoking everyday, but also sees a hope in the fight to keep cigarettes out their hands.
?My school is different,? said McLean. ?No one is allowed to smoke on school property, which is great because a lot of the times kids will start smoking because their friends will, and where are you with your friends ? you?re at school. So they?re easily influenced.
?I hope it gets to be socially unacceptable. I have been an activist for three years, and I have seen the difference I can make. It?s a battle that can be won. It will take some time, just like any other battle. But it?s worth fighting for.?
Local physician Dr. David Webster was also on hand. It ?makes him sick? to see a cigarette in the hands of a young person. He wants immediate action to keep tobacco out of the hands of kids.
?Everyday of my life I see, first hand, the impact and devastation smoking can cause,? said Webster. ?Smoking harms just about every organ in the body. Tobacco is treated differently because of the massive amounts of money involved with it. We have to get past this.?
The situation with tobacco use and young people isn?t completely bleak.
?The harms of tobacco is immense in our society...but there has been a change over the last 10 years,? said Webster. ?Smoking has become an antisocial behaviour. Not only is it illegal to sell tobacco to kids under 19, but it has to be seen as a social irresponsible and a serious crime. We have to show society we can stand up to the big tobacco companies.?
Attitudes have to change.
?We have come a long way in changing society?s attitude when it comes to adults not being able to smoke in airplanes, bars and restaurants,? said Webster. ?A lot of that resistance has fallen down, but amazingly enough, we have done very little to prevent these kids from smoking. A lot of people look at it like it?s kids, it?s their job to experiment, but this is a bad one because the addiction potential is equal to or greater than heroin or cocaine.
?We are here today because our leaders haven?t taken this problem seriously.?
The campaign will include running advertisements at the Silver City Cinema?s 12 screens by the Sudbury and District Health Unit reminding the community it?s against the law to sell or supply tobacco to kids under 19.
The goal of the campaign is to reduce the number of 12-19 year old kids who smoke daily to 10 per cent by 2005.
Smoking among young people remains a problem in the Sudbury area, as 15 per cent of 12-19 year old kids smoke daily.
?We?re seeing a decline in tobacco use by kids, but we need to reduce it even further,? said David Groulx, a public health nurse with the health unit.
?We need to protect our youth. They don?t realize the long-term health effects that can occur.?
