Bad Ways to Be Nice” Campaign Urges Stop to Supplying Underage Youth with Cigarettes”

Perth County – Family and friends need to stop being the go-to supplier for underage smokers. A friend or relative may think they are “just being nice” for buying or giving cigarettes to a teenager. But setting someone up for an addiction, disease, or even death is a “bad way to be nice.”

The new Bad Ways to Be Nice provincial campaign is being launched to help increase awareness of the social supply problem and stop people from supplying tobacco products to teenagers.

The legal age in which a person can purchase tobacco in Ontario is 19 years of age, and yet youth under the age of 19 are still becoming addicted to tobacco.

In a routine check done by the Health Unit earlier this year, 97% of local retailers did not sell tobacco products to someone under age 19. In the 2012-2013 Youth Smoking Survey, 72% of Canadian youth say their main source of cigarettes comes from a “social source,” be it their parents, an older sibling, a relative or a friend.

“We’re calling on those who are supplying cigarettes to teens to take a stand and say “no,” and be a better role model for our youth,” says Dominique Bruce, Public Health Promoter. “Enabling them into addiction and setting them up for future health problems is not doing them a favour.”

View videos and see resources from this campaign at www.badwaystobenice.com.

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