Two cigarettes a day enough to hook young people on nicotine

Teenagers who start smoking are fooling themselves if they think they can easily quit, according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

A study, the story said, had concluded that smoking just two cigarettes a day was enough to hook 13-to-17-year-olds on nicotine.

The study, which was apparently carried out by the University of California, was said to have found that the brains of adolescents who smoked as little as two cigarettes a day responded with as much pleasure to images of smoking as did the brains of ‘heavily addicted’ adult smokers.

The story gave advice from addiction counsellor, Matthias Brockstedt, on how parents should try to dissuade young people from smoking.