FRIDAY, July 18, (News Locale) - Getting addicted to smoking at a young age is generally disastrous and means the habit may last life long. A new study out of Canada is indication teen smokers do desire to kick the butt, but are unable to do so. 

The study by Jennifer O'Loughlin and colleagues at the Universite de Montreal involved 319 teenagers who were asked to complete a questionnaire on their smoking habits every three months for up to five years. The researchers report some 70 percent of the teens were desirous of quitting smoking, but just 19 percent managed to achieve the target.

All participants were aged between 12 to 13 years at the start of the study. It took some 19 months for them to become regular smokers. Lead author Dr. Jennifer O'Loughlin said there were five stages that teens went through to stop smoking.

Stage 1 was where teens declared confidently they could stop smoking just one to two months after they had their first tryst with the cigarette. Stage 2 was where teens expressed a conscious desire to quit. Stage 3 was when teens gradually lost confidence in their ability to quit almost two years after the started smoking.

Stage 4 was when the teens started smoking daily and admitted it was very hard to quit. The final stage was full-blown tobacco dependence when teens had smoked daily for at least two years.

The study, published online Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, called on governments to mandate strict legislation where it is difficult for teenagers to buy cheap cigarettes.

In another study, researchers from McGill University and the University of Montreal revealed some six smoking cessation therapies are better than placebos in helping people quit the habot.

Reporting in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the researchers said varenicline, nicotine nasal spray, bupropion (Wellbutrin), nicotine patches, tablets and gum were found useful in a randomized trial of nearly 32,000 participants.