Smoking is a Terrible Habit

Do you remember that little PSA that used to air in the 70's? "Smoking is a terrible habit...For a chipmunk, or a squirrel or a rabbit!" I wonder if my children would be influenced by fluffy little woodland animals warning them of the dangers of smoking? Our school system doesn't think so, I guess.

My son informed me yesterday that yesterday his middle school held an assembly about smoking. The featured speaker told the tale of how smoking had affected his family, with much of the emphasis of the story on his younger brother who took up smoking at the age of 8. The story unwove as the man went on to tell of his brother's fight with alcohol and drug addiction, his multiple, unsuccessful visits to rehab and his current 20 year sentence to prison for robbery; a crime most likely committed to help fund his addiction.

This sad tale was hugely impactful to my child. He left that assembly yesterday fully convinced that if he picks up one cigarette, he will end up in jail. As tempting as it was to leave him with this impression, I did have to explain a few things to him about addiction. At the dinner table, we talked about many different types of addiction from food to shopping, gambling to drugs. We talked about how that some people's brains are wired differently and how very difficult it is to overcome any type of addiction.

The last point I made was how terribly devastating addiction is. Recently, many young adults in Northern Virginia have been run through the court system, facing charges relating to their various roles in a heroin ring. Between the players in the ring and the victims who died from using the drugs, there were maybe 20 people who were severely affected by the group. I made the analogy to my son's reading class and told him that the size of the heroin group was the same size of his reading class. That meant that most of his reading class would be in jail and the rest would be dead. I asked him to think of all the friends, family members, teammates, etc that 20 people could have. We determined it was a pretty big group! I pointed out to him that was how many people were impacted by this drug ring, and that all those people suffered a devastating loss.

I am so lucky that my son is so open with me about what happens at school. I could easily have missed the opportunity to have a follow-up conversation with him at home since I don't recall any communication from the school that this assembly was occurring. I plan on contacting the school and urging them to be sure to give parents the chance to have these conversations by keeping us informed. I hope you will do the same.

Enjoy your day.