Go Up in Smoke

The number of smokers in Singapore alone is escalating as more and more youths pick up the habit. However it is a well known fact that smoking causes various health problems and one of the most common one is lung cancer. Research has proven that smoking kills half of the world’s smokers who fail to stop smoking. 19-year-old Jourdan Tan is well aware of the consequences and has been trying to quit smoking since he was 17, but his attempts had all failed.

‘‘I have been trying to quit smoking since I was 17 because the price of the cigarettes alone is killing my wallet and besides, smoking is really bad for my health and it has been cause me constant coughs and breathing difficulty,’’ Jourdan explained.

Jourdan is a student studying in Nanyang Polytechnic’s Business Management course and he has been smoking since he was 15. He admitted he gave into peer pressure as majority of his friends smoked and he did not want to feel left out. Initially he was able to cope financially as he only receives SGD$15 a day and he was not such a heavy smoker when he first started out. But as time passed, Jourdan started to increase the amount of cigarettes he took per day from three to four sticks per day to almost an entire packet of cigarettes a day. To add salt to the wound, the government increased the price of cigarettes from SGD$6.70 a pack when he first started smoking to almost SGD$12 now in 2010.

His first attempt to quit smoking was in 2008. It was due mainly to the fact that the price started increasing during that period to almost SGD$10 a packet.

‘‘My friends and I were so annoyed that they increased the price again. It got so bad we all wanted to try and quit smoking but we all failed. Now we can barely to afford a decent meal if we were to purchase a packet of cigarettes.’’ Jourdan exclaimed.

He attempted to quit smoking again last year and in the beginning, all went well and he stopped craving for a cigarettes. However, a week later, he met up with his clique of friends and gave into peer pressure again. Jourdan said that he could not stand the sight of all his friends smoking as he felt like a social outcast.

‘‘I don’t think I will attempt to quit smoking anymore as I am comfortable with how things are now. True that it is burning a hole in my wallet but I’m working part-time now, I’ll get by somehow.’’ he explained

Other than Jourdan, there has been an evident increase in youths smoking and the government has been taking measures to discourage smoking as there has been an obvious number of areas in Singapore that are banned from smoking on top of the constant increase on taxation of cigarettes.

Hui Zhen.T