In this extract from July’s legacy, a 1990 current-affairs programme, a group of teenagers talk about smoking. Later in the same documentary, health campaigner Dr Papaarangi Reid suggested another reason why young Māori women found it hard not to smoke: ‘There’s a lot of bad buzzes out there, and one of the few good buzzes is getting together with your mates. The group thing becomes very important if you get individual knocks all the time … if 75% of the peer group’s smoking, do you participate and strengthen that bond or do you not and perhaps put yourself on the outer? It takes a strong person to make that choice to become part of the minority … you’re in a situation where [the group’s] strength is very important to you. It’s hard to say no in that situation.’
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