Development and environment are key components of nicotine addiction. As to development, adolescence is a critical time for smoking onset. Most smokers begin smoking in their teenage years and about 90% of smokers express regret about ever starting (Fong, et al., 2004). Smoking-related deaths are top causes of morbidity (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005). Those who have not smoked by age 19 are unlikely to become life-long smokers, and have much lower rates of smoking-related morbidity (Curry, Mermelstein, & Sporer, 2009). On the environmental side, remarkable shifts in public policy have contributed to a stark decrease in smoking among adolescents (Monitoring the Future, 2007; Nelson, et al., 1995). This change has been attributed to increased knowledge about harmful effects of smoking, government informational campaigns, advertisement bans, pack warnings, cigarette taxes, severe restrictions on where tobacco can be used, and more (Cummings, Fong, & Borland, 2009).
