A new Canadian study finds that teen smokers often underestimate the addictive power of smoking and only realize they are hooked on nicotine after the fact, the Canadian Press reported July 16.

Researchers found that young smokers often want to quit within months of starting cigarette use, but don't realize they are addicted until they have been smoking for two years or more. And at that point, smokers may lack the confidence to quit: researchers found that while 70 percent of teens wanted to quit, only 19 percent successfully stayed abstinent for 12 months or more.

"Kids are experiencing symptoms of dependence with really low exposures to cigarettes, and beginning to experience this difficulty of quitting very, very early on," said study lead author Jennifer O'Loughlin of the University of Montreal. "For kids, there's no window of opportunity that you can kind of experiment with cigarettes and get away with it."

Experts said that the best way to fight youth smoking is to delay the onset of first use of tobacco through higher taxes and other methods.

The research was published in the American Journal of Public Health.