Don't Get Hooked Minute

This Minute is meant for Scouts BSA.

a big fishhook
a piece of cloth

(Stick a fish hook in a piece of cloth and show how difficult it is to back out the way it went in. )

Scouts, it was easy enough to poke this fishhook into the cloth, but you can see how hard it is to back it out. It's just like a bad habit - awful easy to start, but awful hard to stop. Some kids your age have started to smoke, use drugs, drink, and other bad habits. It was easy to start - as easy as it was for me to put the fishhook into the cloth.

Across our land millions and millions of smokers have tried to stop smoking and have failed. The same thing is true for drug users. They just couldn't get the hook out.

If it's so hard to stop and if so many want to quit, then why start - why get the hook in - in the first place? Some people think it's cool to smoke or use drugs. Take a look around you. Look at who is smoking and ask yourself if you want to be more like that person or more like yourself.