Blame the weather

Liberals will say literally anything if there is the remotest of possibilities that they can blame somebody's bad behavior on climate change or George Bush. In this case they get a two-fer...

BEAUMONT, Texas — Teenagers in a southeast Texas county were more likely to smoke cigarettes if they or their family members were affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita, according to a university study.

The study by the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston surveyed more than 5,100 middle school and high school students in Jefferson County six to nine months after the hurricanes made landfall.

Alfred L. McAlister, a behavioral scientist and an author of the study, lectured thusly...

"The physical damage was easy to see, but the psychological damage from the hurricanes was pretty well hidden. The hurricanes had an emotional impact on the youth and we need to recognize that and give them the help they need. Otherwise, they use tobacco as a crutch and then they become addicted."

In case you don't see what's going on here, blaming addiction on the weather is a way to get the government(taxpayers) to fund still more failed anti-smoking programs for teens too stupid to not smoke. Of course dumb liberals have already blamed Katrina on Bush so they get twice the bang for their buck here.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that any human reacts to stress by starting smoking if they didn't smoke already. Smoking is a choice stupid people make, unrelated to anything but peer pressure, bad hollywood examples, and weight loss. Absolving teens from having made stupid choices only encourages the making of more stupid choices. If you don't believe that, take a look at the startling rise in teen pregnancy rates that started, surprise, precisely after the government(taxpayers) coughed up millions for unwed mother assistance programs...programs which removed even the slightest hardship associated with unwed teen breeding.

Here's a stupid teen now...he looks really stressed out about Katrina and Rita.