Getting to a place of stability
CC BY-SA Guma89
This respondent was a foster youth who recently transitioned to independent status in terms of the state. She had been on the streets in the past, but she currently lives with her girlfriend and attends a vocational program to be a chef.
She said she smokes to relieve stress. “The City is losing manners… value and dignity,” she feels, and she said there isn’t much respect anymore. She smokes when feeling disrespected, and got a cannabis card to keep from “spazzing out” from work stressors.
She gave up drinking recently, but is surrounded by people who still imbibe and says she experiences pressure to go out socially where she may be tempted to drink. When she drinks, she smokes more. She said she’s not ready to quit smoking yet, but she is monitoring her smoking. She also enjoys vaping, but says vaping is, “kinda like halfways…not as fulfilling as a whole cigarette.” She noted trends that at first vaping was supposed to be better for you, but that now it seems e-cigarettes are not as good for you.
For single Black mothers and young Black men, she believes, it can take a long time to get to a place of stability (financially, emotionally and with family) to feel able to quit. By the time one gets to that place, generally one has children already, and they’ll have seen what you’re doing and be emulating it. Of kids, she noted: “You see it, you do it.”
