Nicotine Junior
‘WHAT do you get the 12-year-old who has everything? Little Armani already has an Asbo, an electronic tag and a crate of alcopops. Mum and dad are going to have to think hard about what to buy her this Christmas.
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Jake’s nicotine patch means he no longer has to play with matches |
And then it comes to them. But theyre too late. As the Mirror says, the school nurse has pipped them to it and just given Armani a nicotine patch.
What greater badge of honour for the little love to show off? A nicotine patch is so much more mature and grown up than a cigarette. It says you have a past. It says you were there. It says youve lived.
But the patch is not yet available to all youth who want to look older. As the Mirror reports, nicotine replacement will only being offered to secondary school children in Country Durham.
The Mail says pupils on a pilot programme had their nicotine levels assessed before class. If they have not had a cigarette,. The nurse gives them a patch.
And it worked. Of the 20 pupils on the scheme, the Mail says around half kicked the habit.
But not everyone is happy. Incredibly, the Sun (FURY AS KIDS AGE 12 GET NICOTINE PATCHES) says that not everyone is as excited as a teenager showing off her new patch.
While its hard to find any examples of the fury the paper promises in its headline, readers do hear from the Suns doctor.
Dr Carol Cooper says that nicotine therapy works for hardened smokers and that what the occasional smoker needs is willpower.
She thinks that sticking a patch on a young arm – and so keeping the smoker topped up on nicotine throughout the day – is not a good idea. Just as nicotine in cigarettes is additive, so it is in patch form.
And Martin Callanan, the Euro MP for the North East, says better to stop the young puffers from smoking with scare tactics.
Staff should take pupils on cancer wards to see smokers who can hardly breathe, says he. That would be more effective to combat smoking.
And give the youngsters who want to look cool and rebellious a day off school. Thatll teach em…’
Posted: 21st, December 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
