I’m jealous of your cigarette

I remember being five years old and waiting for my mom to leave the room to check the laundry on a summer day while the sun shone in through the blinds. The light was gleaming and reflecting off a pack of Matinee extra mild king sized smokes that I was anxious to pick up, draw out a single cigarette and put it between my lips to smoke.

At that moment I was a movie star with a distinct but disgusting taste of tobacco on my tongue.

From talking to Wendy Josephson, professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg for my recent article in The Uniter about changes to cigarette packaging, I began to wonder if the decision of my parents to quit smoking was the major influence of why I never became a smoker.

According to Youth Smoking Survey of Canada, an article written by Warren Clark for Stats Canada, 23 per cent of youth smokers come from a home where both parents smoke compared to 10 per cent of youth smokers who come from a home where neither parent smokes.

When I was around 12 years old, my dad quit smoking cold turkey and my mother filtered it out of her life.

This could explain why my sister, who is five years older than me, took up the habit and I did not.

The same report says that 84 per cent of Canadians who have ever smoked in their lives begin before the age of 20, relaying that it is less likely that a person starts the older they get.

Josephson said that the new labels, which will be in full circulation by July 2011, will most likely have an indirect – but direct – effect on reducing the number of people who smoke.

“It makes it much harder defend your smoking habit against your kid’s objections. I think people would be less likely to smoke around their kids or leave their packs around the house,” she said, referring to the graphic nature of the new warning labels that will cover 75 per cent of the package.

Adults can’t hide everything from their kids, as Josephson explains, the new warning labels will be everywhere and leave an impression on those who see them.

“Most kids don’t think smoking is a good thing, seeing those packages makes them much more strongly against smoking,” she said. “Because it’s a message that’s presented at point of sale and at point of smoking, it seems likely that it would be quite effective.”

Although, parents are certainly not always the biggest influence. Clark’s article attributes ‘biggest influence’ to the friends and company we keep.

When I was eight years old, one of my best friends was standing on a bench smoking with her older sister.

She grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “If I ever see you smoking, Lauren, I will beat you up.”

And that was good enough for me.

Aside from acquiring a few close friends who smoke, smoking in my adult life has been nothing more than a casual novelty.

I’ve smoked slims while watching the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea in Southern France, posed for a risqué photo smoking in the girls room at Readymix and taken a puff here and there while sharing the night with friends.

It’s these times that bring me back to the feeling of five-year-old Lauren; holding the cig to my lips and breathing it in while I giggle, knowing that I’m doing something I shouldn’t.

So the argument it would seem, for me, is that I am thankful to my parents and friends for influencing me not to smoke - because it makes smoking that much more enjoyable the rare times that I do.