What's the best way to quit smoking?

Never start.

The primary mission of the Mesa Partnership for Tobacco-Free Youth and Community is prevention of youth and teen tobacco use. Again and again, statistics show that the vast majority of adut smokers began when they were young, and that those with the most difficult time quitting began while still in their teens or even younger. Recent medical reports on CNN and from other sources indicate that youth smoking is even more dangerous than many realized. Not only can preteen/teen tobacco use stunt your growth and harm your development into adulthood, it can cause genetic changes in lung tissue which persist throughout your entire life, giving early smokers an increased risk of cancer regardless of if and when they quit—damage that you can't undo. It is more obvious than ever that the only way to avoid the terrible consequences of tobacco use is to never start using it, period.


Youth and teens are constantly bombarded with messages about tobacco, both positive and negative. Role models on television and in film make smoking look glamorous, sexy, tough and cool. They may see their parents smoking, their friends smoking, and even their teachers using tobacco. At the same time, television and radio advertising in Arizona constantly fills the airwaves with anti-tobacco messages (most famously the "Tobacco: Teeth-Staining, Tumor-causing, Smelly, Puking Habit" ads by Reister-Robb) and warnings about laws against underage purchase of tobacco products. How can we help youth to get the right message—to sort through this barrage of information and make their own decision?