Good hustle, team: turns out the number of young Aussies sucking back hot sticks like it’s a national sport has dropped by more than 70% over the past twenty years.
Just like that!
The latest data to come out of NSW shows a huge decline in durrie-lovers Down Under, and it’s being used to highlight the success of price increases, plain packaging laws and education campaigns.
Anita Dessaix from the Cancer Institute of New South Wales is rightly hyped about the findings, saying “Twenty years ago we had smoking amongst 12- to 17-year-olds sitting at about 23.5 percent and we’re now as low as 6.7 percent.”
Probably an accurate depiction of Anita at present.
Gone are the days of yonder, when youths across the country would collectively park their BMXs out of sight, swagger into 7/11, plonk down their parents car keys and ask, in an unnaturally deep voice, for a “twennie pack of winnie blues thanks, mate,”. Nope, turns out the 14-year-olds of 2016 are more interested in other, cooler stuff, with the average age of initiation into smoking rising to 16-years-old.
“We know that increasing the price of cigarettes is extremely effective, and continued and sustained investment in public education campaigns have been quite effective.” Dessaix said.
People have started getting really pumped and calling the findings early signs of a potentially smoke-free generation. Jury is out on that one, but the tobacco industry is for certain doing this rn:
Source: ABC.
