Lighting my pipe, I took the newspaper in my hands and, with great surprise, saw the headline: "Teenage smoking 'like walking corpses'". Inside, there was an accompanying editorial.

I find it difficult to describe the way I felt. Reading this kind of coverage in my local newspaper, I found myself reacting with a mixture of disappointment, rage, and amusement.

Once recovered, I could not help but sit down and write a fiery letter to the editor. That helped me put things in perspective, and got me thinking about the sad spectacle that is "the smoking issue" circa 1996.

As a reader, I found that the article conformed to the cheap, "Relentless Pursuit of Sensation" editorial trend characteristic of an intellectually deceased commercial media that seems determined to reach for an hysterical note at any cost when discussing not just smoking, but other contentious social issues.

As a smoker and parent of two teenagers, I took offense at the frightening tone of the article.

The current crusade against smoking and smokers betrays, in its intensity and in the forms it is taking, a real loss of perspective in our society about what does and does not deserve our attention and social action. The nature and the causes of that loss of perspective can be debated at length, and I won't presume to do that here.

Suffice it to say that we can regain some perspective on this particular issue by comparing ourselves to other nations -- though I have the feeling that we have the typical, immature arrogance to consider ourselves better than the rest of the world.

The exponentially-growing, frantic hysteria about the dangers of smoking has made us North Americans the laughing stock of the rest of the world -- which I travel extensively. While not insensitive to the implications of smoking, very few other countries in the world abandon themselves to the mindless, morbid crusades, and the one-sided media lynching aimed at stripping smokers of their dignity and respect as citizens, people, and parents that we increasingly see here.

Consider the rhetoric of comparing a smoking teenager to a "walking corpse" in the newspaper article I have cited. Try selling that headline in Sarajevo or in an African refugee camp, or in any other place where children are routinely in immanent serious danger of losing life and limb. Only in North America can we afford the absurdity of viewing as "walking corpses" youngsters who are likely to have many decades of life ahead of them -- even if they continue to smoke and even assuming that they die of smoking related illness.

To report subjectively dramatic statements such as "teenage smoking is a far worse problem than AIDS" so far has not been dared even by the National Enquirer.

The statement that teenagers "inhale one of the deadliest cancer-causing substances in the world", demonstrates the never-ending parrottistic attitude of the media, which uncritically repeats and sensationalize "accepted truths". Cigarettes do not contain plutonium!

If these newspapers would care to educate themselves about the far greater problem of health- endangering pollution due to the industrial and transportation sector, as well as the inanity of the secondhand smoke issue, they should read the serious, non-partisan studies that are available, and that I would expect them to print with equal zeal.

The Abbotsford News article is an all-too-common example of careless reporting, defaulting to the sensational.

Where media balance is lacking on smoking and other issues, the balance must come from us - - people who take the trouble to demand a voice. The media is merely an amplification machine with little sense of history and more respect for visceral reaction than thoughtful reflection. It spots a trend and pounces. It's in a hurry and goes for the quick hit. Thus, it's a sucker for one-sided perspectives if they are easier to obtain or more "provocatively" presented than those from an opposing viewpoint. The media is an amoral creature that simply regurgitates what we give it.

Therefore, it's up to us to point out that in Canada, a country that prides itself so much in tolerance of diversity, over one quarter of the population is constantly harassed, and legislated out of gathering places like restaurants and other public areas. The human rights issue is not considered in this. Valid, existing alternatives proposed to accommodate both smokers and nonsmokers are dismissed, in a campaign that has now assumed the tones of persecution.

In its editorial, the Abbotsford News proposes to submit kids (not mine, thank you!) to emotionally-shocking visits to the cancer ward of the nearest hospitals, where cancer victims are recruited and used to illustrate the (implied) "inevitable" conclusion of a smoker's life. Let's not forget - since we are "en route" - to show them the effects of liver pathologies due to alcohol, silicosis from occupational hazards, mutilations due to the use of violence, and all other catastrophic outcomes that could indeed be prevented. If we want to shock them and scare them, why stop with the smoking issue? Probably because that would neither create enough votes for certain politicians and bureaucrats, nor it is the object of a hate campaign business on this continent.

I believe that if there is a tremendous increase in under-age smoking as the Abbotsford News reports, it is exactly the inevitable consequence of the shrill anti-smoking propaganda to which young people are subjected.

The editorial asks why teenagers smoke. Of course, it doesn't fail to mention some of the possible scapegoats (entertainment, advertising, peer pressure, although it leaves out cigarette machines).

How blind can you get?

If we were not so ignorant about history and ourselves (that's where schools should concentrate, instead of brainwashing children about smoking), we would have already come to the realization that what's forbidden attracts.

Have these people ever been teenagers?

Imagine yourself as an impressionable teenager today, in the shadow of the baby boom. You are subjected to the relentless rhetoric of the state, parents, teachers, and media. While told by your elders that you should be creative and enterprising, you contemplate the sterility of a society gagged by "political correctness", heavily oppressed by frequently petty regulation of nearly all aspects of life, and where debate has degenerated into screaming matches marketed on the infotainment circus. You see devotion to statistics and computers as Gospel Truths without any humanistic interpretation. You see melodramatic descriptions of the spreading of evil plagues such as smoking, while the smoking age limit is increased (at least in some Canadian jurisdictions), and cigarettes become titillatingly less available.

Your elders, many of them having been either '60s rebels or (in the U.S.) soldiers putting their lives on the line in a foreign jungle in their own youth, seem obsessed with protecting you -- at all costs, from everything.

Big surprise that smoking appears cool -- it is the rebellious thing to do (and I sadly agree that there is a lot to rebel against in this society).

Teenage rebellion is a healthy stage of our growth: it teaches us to think (apparently our system does not like that anymore). No matter how much you punish them, watch them or brainwash them, these damn teenagers just won't listen. And how they savour driving that message home to us. The most effective way to thumb their noses at the older generation is to embrace behaviour we disapprove of. The more we forbid, the more teenage head-aches we induce with our lectures, the greater the temptation to rebel.

As adults, we tend to have similar reactions. I would have quit smoking years ago, but because of the prohibitions, I tend to light up each time I see the hated slant-bar disk. Prohibitions have elevated my cigarette to a symbol of my liberty. Immature? Maybe. But that's human psychology for you.

I do not advocate smoking. I simply point out that with prohibitions and bans we are achieving exactly the opposite of what may be desired. This attitude seem to stem from the ill-conceived, all-fascist concept that prohibition works in the end. It does not. Problems have to be addressed at the root with tolerance, balance, patience, and time. And in a free society the solution will respect everyone's freedom.

Any mindless intolerance breeds an equal and opposite reaction. In a few years - when these new smokers will be the generation in power - we may see smoking more widespread than ever. The efforts of the present fear-driven bigotry will be nullified, notwithstanding some basic good intentions.

We are in for a powerful backlash.

When my kids were at the age of eleven and fourteen, they asked me for cigarettes. Instead of forbidding, making faces, and engaging in pathetic "smoke-is-against-the-law"-"it-will-kill-you" routines, I went to the store and bought the most potent cigarettes available. Then I broke the law by handing them the pack, complete with detailed instructions on how to deeply inhale in order to get the maximum pleasure out of them. After lighting up and deeply inhaling, they coughed so furiously, they threw the cigarettes away. Now, two years later, they still don't smoke, even if both myself and my wife do.

It worked because, among other things, I showed them respect for their intelligence and freedom of choice.

A form of respect that our society still has a whole great deal to learn about.

Gian Turci

THE ARTICLE

Despite education to prevent smoking it's like an epidemic in Abbotsford, at an all-time alarming high.

"The shocking news is that 41 percent of the Abbotsford Grade 12 students smoke, it's far worse than we though", said John Smith, board chairman of School District 34 (Abbotsford). "in the early 1990's, the rate was about 28 percent - it went up to 35 per cent in 1994 and that shocked us - but now it's very serious," said Smith.

He was especially concerned that more females are smoking than males. And they're puffing up at a young age. Children who are 11 years of age are smoking.

In one Abbotsford elementary school, about 20 per cent of the children under the age of 13 were lighting up.

"Look at AIDS, an all the publicity it gets and yet here we have a far more serious health problem - teenage smoking - like walking corpses," said Smith.

He thinks that prevention has to start from kindergarten and elementary age by telling students about the terrible health effects of smoking.

"Think about the health effects, the premature aging, the heart disease, the deaths from the effects of tobacco. This is just unacceptable", he said.

About 90 per cent of adults who smoke start before they're 18 years of age.

The Smoking Prevention Committee of Abbotsford reported:

Twenty-one per cent of Grade 8 students smoke; 27 per cent, Grade 9; 42 per cent, grade 10; 40 per cent, grade 11; 41 per cent, Grade 12.

The Committee also found that not allowing a "smoke hole" on school property has its drawback.

Fights are breaking out and students wandering around streets are nearly being hit by cars. Administrators used to know all the smokers, now they can't name them because they are out of sight.

The committee recommended that each school develop its own protocol about smoking on school grounds.

It also advised that secondary schools should continue to offer "stop smoking" programs and inform students about the health risks.

THE EDITORIAL

The present generation seldom learn from the previous one, it's been said - and perhaps nowhere is that saying more true than startling statistic coming out of Abbotsford school district.

Despite efforts to warn kids as young as 11 on the dangers of smoking, the tobacco habit has reached almost epidemic proportions in area schools.

What is that's influencing hundreds of teenagers to light up and repeatedly inhale one of the deadliest cancer-causing substances known? Peer pressure? The entertainment media? The advertising industry? A lack of hope on what some kiss view a bleak future?

District 34 officials are still looking for answers.

Forty-one per cent of Abbotsford Grade 12 students smoke - a situation that's "far worse than we thought", according to John Smith, school board chairman.

The rate of smoking by high school seniors is on the increase, according to statistics quoted by Smith.

Only six years ago the rate was about 28 per cent. Another area of concern for school officials: More females are smoking than males.

Meanwhile, kids of both genders are lighting up at an earlier age. Children who are 11 years of age are smoking.

In one Abbotsford elementary school, about 20 per cent of the children under age 13 were lighting up.

The Smoking Prevention Committee of Abbotsford reported:

"Twenty-one per cent of grade 8 students smoke; 27 per cent, Grade 9; 42 per cent, Grade 10; 40 per cent, Grade 11; 41 per cent, Grade 12.

One would think that banning "smoke holes" on school property deter kids from lighting up. Such is not the case, according to the district. Students wandering about streets looking for a spot to smoke are nearly being hit by cars.

Administrators used to know all the smokers. Now they can't because they smoke out of their sight.

The problem has so concerned school officials that Smith has compared it to AIDS: "Yet here we have a far more serious health problem - teenagers smoking - like walking corpses.

Smith thinks that prevention has to start from kindergarten and elementary age by telling students about the terrible health effects of smoking.

Perhaps that's not enough. Maybe a trip to the cancer ward of the nearest hospital might be enough to convince most kids of the benefits of butting out.

Member of the previous generation in care there may only be too eager to warn the present one.

- Reproduced with permission of "The Abbotsford News"