THE FAULT IN OUR DRUNK CIGS

*Cough cough*...we should probably stop.

Words by Qiong Wu

Art by Lilly Chidlaw-Mayen and Lindsey Smiles

When considering that anti-nicotine public service announcements practically raised the current generation of undergraduate college students, it seems only logical that very, very few of us would ever take up the habit of smoking cigarettes. These PSAs used to be practically everywhere — on the television, in unskippable advertisements played before YouTube videos, in middle school health classrooms, you name it. All of us have memories of these disturbing yet educational videos.

SU senior Olivia Budelman remembers seeing a lot of anti-smoking announcements from a young age, including videos that would show someone smoking and then reveal that they had no teeth or deteriorated lungs. Like Budelman, the message that smoking causes numerous negative effects has been ingrained in all our heads from a young age.

So why do so many of us smoke?

Though SU policy attempts to create a smoking and tobacco-free campus by banning smoking on all University property, this policy is largely ignored as students continue to smoke anyway. Alayah Trinidad, a freshman in the Whitman School of Management, says she has seen other students smoking around campus since the first week of school.

According to Professor Dessa Bergen-Cico of the Department of Public Health at Falk College, a Spring 2021 survey of SU student substance use revealed that about 40% of SU students had used nicotine products such as cigarettes in their lifetime. This figure can be compared to just 33% of undergraduate students across the country, according to a 2019 American College Health Association survey.

SU’s higher-than-average nicotine use parallels its higher-than-average use of other drugs, including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, prescription stimulants, and hallucinogens. Bergen-Cico attributes this to our campus culture, also noting that drug use generally tends to be higher at institutions that offer D1 sports teams.

This campus culture also manifests itself in the form of the “drunk cig”, which is when students smoke a cigarette, specifically when drunk or otherwise not sober, typically on weekend evenings. As Bergen-Cico explains, “for people who are regular users of nicotine products, [nicotine use] often goes hand in hand with certain triggers or behaviors, such as drinking.” When people drink, their tendency to take risks increases; for some, that means smoking cigarettes.

But what drives students to take this particular risk? In the case of previous generations, it’s easier to explain the commonplace nature of smoking cigarettes because information about the harmful effects of cigarettes was not as widespread. Having grown up watching countless anti-smoking public service announcements, we don’t really have that same excuse. Though some students have taken those messages to heart, others do not seem to have them at the forefront of their minds. What drives students to open that first pack of cigarettes, and to light that first one?

It is possible that for college students, the sudden freedom that comes with leaving home is a key motivator. Students can now try new things that were previously much more difficult or even impossible to do at home, cigarette smoking being one of them. There is always a general tendency to gravitate towards things that are considered “taboo,” which for some college students may include nicotine and other drugs.

According to the same SU survey cited by Bergen-Cico, the results showed that less-thanweekly use of nicotine products was similar between first, second, third, and fourth-year students. This data is consistent with the theory above; an equal number of students probably try nicotine each year but don’t really get into it — thus the irregular, less-than-weekly use. However, the survey found regular, daily use to be highest among first-year students and seniors.

This distinction could be attributed to the stress of transitioning between different stages of life: for freshmen, the transition from high school to college; for seniors, the transition from college to whatever lies ahead. Sophomores and juniors, however, are more “secure” in that they are more sure of what they are doing right now and what their next few years will look like, thus having, in general, slightly less of an incentive to smoke. Yet, without access to more survey data spread over several years, it is impossible to make any definite claims one way or another.

Another possible contributor is the influence of the cigarette-smoking habits of other countries. SU students who go abroad may become immersed in an environment where smoking is just more common. Budelmann, who studied abroad in Santiago, Chile, during the Spring 2022 semester, attests that some host families smoked cigarettes in their homes. Spending time in an environment where cigarette smoking is much more common and accepted, such as going abroad or even just going on vacation, may also influence students to smoke.

Though our generation is more aware of the adverse effects of cigarettes, there may be a more accurate statement. A better way to phrase it could be that we are aware of the negative effects of smoking, but we are not always entirely conscious of them. In other words, though we know the risks of smoking, we aren’t always actively thinking about it (possibly due to an under-developed prefrontal cortex) and, therefore, don’t see it as particularly dangerous.

As Bergen-Cico put it, there isn’t “as much emphasis on the dangers of nicotine” as in past decades due to a decline in the frequency of antismoking PSAs. There used to be a lot of money available for this programming through settlements made with major tobacco companies for knowingly selling potentially addictive and harmful products without informing their consumers. But there has not been as much funding in more recent years. Another issue is that it has become increasingly difficult for people to get together and watch television simultaneously on the same platform, like cable TV, due to the rise in popularity of many different streaming services. Advertisements on these platforms are now more targeted at selling products; public health communication has been disrupted by the lack of a way to reach people universally.

A study published in the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors Journal titled “Effectiveness of antismoking public service announcements on children’s intent to smoke” found that when shown anti-smoking PSAs, young children had reduced intentions to smoke, but this effect did not last for a long time. Perhaps growing up seeing these PSAs over and over helped to reinforce the anti-smoking sentiment for some, but not for others.

“I hated cigarettes as a kid and that just always stuck with me,” said Steinhart. “The perceptions I had as a child are difficult to break out of today.”