In Grandma Lee's restaurant in Yellowknife Centre, 16-year-old David Russell takes a drag on a cigarette and blows a smoke ring across a table while his friends mirror his actions.

"They're easy to get," Russell says of tobacco cigarettes, which are illegal to sell or give to anyone under 18 years old. "Everyone around smokes."

Through the blue-tinged air, Kyle Galbaransingh explains that even though his grandmother died of heart disease, he has not been persuaded to kick the habit.

"It's not addictive because when there are non-smokers around I don't crave a cigarette. It's not like in school -- I'm waiting for the bell to ring."

Smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema and a raft of other diseases, but teens like Galbaransing have smoked for years and continue because, among other reasons, it provides them with smoke-breaks from work.

"It's easy to go off for five minutes and say, 'I'm just off for my smoke break.'"

Laws banning those younger than 18 from smoking do not appear to be working.

Health and Social Services health promotion officer Rick Tremblay says 46.3 per cent of NWT girls aged 15 through 19 smoke, as do 16.8 per cent of girls aged 10 through 14.

"This is from a four-page questionnaire that was answered in the schools," he says.

NWT boys rank lower with 13.9 per cent of boys aged 10 through 14 smoking and 38.9 per cent of boys aged 15 through 19 admitting to taking up the habit.

Ambre Bodnariuk, 16, who has smoked since she was 11, says that from what she sees, girls smoke more than boys.

"It's addictive," she says. "Once you start you can't stop and sort of depend on them."

One trait Bodnariuk shares with most other teen smokers is that their parents smoke.

Though the teens commend their parents for not being hypocritical, condoning cigarette use could lead to a life sentence of diseases and an increasing amount of time spent looking for areas where they are able to smoke, thanks to the wrath of non-smokers and their legal victories.