LEWISTON – Jimmy Slocomb, 20, is trying to quit smoking.

“It’s the hardest thing in the world,” he said. “It’s one of the most addicting things there is out there.”

“I have a 7-month-old baby. I’d like to be there for him as I get older,” Slocomb said.

As he spoke, his fiancee, Abigayle Daniels, 19, held their son.

She quit smoking 17 months ago when she was pregnant. She’s encouraging him to quit.

The day before Valentine’s Day, a stop-smoking Web site was unveiled: www.helptoquit.info. It’s designed for smokers ages 18 to 25.

The Web site was designed after Healthy Androscoggin conducted a survey of young adults who live and work in Androscoggin County and don’t go to college. “We suspected a high rate of tobacco use and binge drinking, but we didn’t have any hard facts,” said Angela Westhoff of Healthy Androscoggin.

The survey polled 218 young adults between 18-25.

“We were shocked to find that 59.9 percent use tobacco,” Westhoff said. That’s almost three times the state smoking rate of 20.8 percent. “We’re concerned by that.”

The same survey showed that 38 percent said they had engaged in binge drinking in the previous 30 days, and on average they down 6.6 drinks per sitting.

Of those polled, more than 30 percent have tried to quit smoking, and 22 percent plan to quit. That shows there are people who need help, Westhoff said.

In focus groups, many said they weren’t motivated to quit for their own health, but they did want to quit when they became a parent. They said they wanted support to quit to be free and close by. Other feedback from young smokers included, “‘You need to gross me out, make me think twice about that cigarette, because man, it’s so good to me,'” Westhoff said.

From that, Healthy Androscoggin came up with the interactive Web site offering easy-to-grab information, phone numbers and resources, graphic images on what smoking does to the body, charts showing how much can be saved by quitting, anonymous questions smokers can ask of experts, and blogging.

Westhoff said she doesn’t know why the smoking rate for local, noncollege young adults surveyed is so high. It could stem from tobacco marketing, and she said there’s a clear link between poverty and tobacco use.

Slocomb agreed.

Low-income people smoke “because they’re too stressed out,” he said. “They don’t have money, so they take the easy route out.” When he’s walking on the streets, Slocomb said, “I see this all the time. All of my friends, very few don’t smoke.”

He started smoking at 12. At 20 he has less energy. He doesn’t like how he smells after smoking.

Before anyone starts “you might want to check out what it does to you,” Slocomb said. “I didn’t really care too much when I started. I wish I did. … Your insides is pretty much what you’re gambling with.”