THE power of smoking is still a massive draw for teenagers, with 13,000 a year still experimenting with or taking up the habit, at a time when adult smoking is at an all-time low. Punitive approaches to helping young people to quit have only had limited success.

Scotland can be proud of its success in reducing smoking over the last couple of decades but the tobacco industry has never given up on its relentless efforts to keep young smokers addicted as they quickly become the lifetime smokers of the future, so ensuring a profit stream at a time when the writing is on the wall for the future of this goldmine of the past.

For more than 30 years I ran health workshops for young people including the topic of smoking. In the two-hour workshops they identified the reasons they smoked, or not, as well as what was stopping them from quitting or deciding that they were not interested in quitting.

Consistently across Scotland I found the same barriers to quitting for young people. The first was if they were living in a smoking home it was against the family culture to stop. So I agree that an approach to quitting needs to include working with families not just the teenagers.

I found too that the myth that smoking relaxes you and calms you down was a major reason for smoking and continuing. Once young people understood the nature of the drug nicotine was that it is a stimulant with a very short time span, they could start to consider quitting. Nicotine makes you immediately high, but within minutes dumps you back down, forcing you to puff on to get the high you seek. That cycle continues as long as you continue with this highly addictive drug.

I then explored with young people what they could do to relax and calm them down that did not require the expensive habit of smoking. They usually came up with lots of creative solutions that would work for you, without prompting from me, such as go for a walk, have a drink of something non-alcoholic, relaxation or meditation apps. Listen to some music.

They also liked the idea of saving up the money they would have spent on smoking for a treat like concert tickets or stuff for their mobile phones. It turns out too that many of the non-smoking young people already used the cash they would have spent on smoking for clothes, music, phones and other healthier treats in their lives.

The reasons that many young males gave for keeping smoking was that they consumed their cannabis along with tobacco. I don’t believe that problem has been explored enough by smoking cessation providers.

The most common point that young women made about smoking was that it helped to keep them slim. Also that if they smoked they would have smaller babies so childbirth would be less painful. The figures for young women continuing to smoke when pregnant in Scotland are a major concern. These very powerful myths that have to be addressed if young women are to be supported to quit smoking.

Max Cruickshank,

117Ascot Court, Glasgow.