Many teens want to break their addiction to smoking, but few cessation programs are geared towards adolescents, the Baltimore Sun reported March 31.

Maryland smoker David Owens, 18, was so desperate to quit that he voluntarily joined a program designed as punishment for kids caught smoking in school. Later, he was one of the first to enroll in a voluntary version of the program.

"There's a definite trend in that more and more youth are thinking about quitting," says Jan Kilby, who teaches the class. "Almost everyone who has gotten caught [possessing cigarettes] has tried to quit."

Some schools, as well as Baltimore County, refer youths caught smoking or possessing tobacco -- a violation under Maryland law -- to smoking-cessation classes.

Eric Moolchan, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Teen Tobacco Addiction Treatment Research Clinic, said that teens, like adults, have a tough time quitting even with the aid of a cessation program. Kevin Ferentz, a family medicine professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said that adolescents often feel immortal, and don't experience the negative health effects that motivate many adults to quit.

But two-thirds of kids age 17 or younger say they have tried to quit and failed, usually going cold-turkey. "It shows that we really need [cessation] programs," Moolchan said.

Research by Moolchan published last year in the journal Pediatrics found that nicotine-replacement therapies like patches and gums were safe for teens to use, and that patches combined with therapy worked better than just patches or gum.

Teen smoker Jessica Weiss, who attended smoking-cessation classes after being cited for tobacco possession by police, is still struggling to quit. "I do eventually want to quit or at least have more control," she said. "I don't want to be old and dying of lung cancer. If the [cessation] program was something that was offered once a month, I would definitely go."