Tobacco Documents Online

NUb U 4 Wy3 INVESTOBS BIISIZIESS DAILY F>I<IDAY AUGUST 4, 1995 NATIONAL ISSUE CAN GOV'T STOP KIDS' SMOKING? Friends, Family More Helpfnl When KNCking Habit by"a.s &uian Dancw- Smokin' in the boys' rom se= back in vogiu agatn. A widely ripotted University of Mie6ipn study noted a 30% jump in making atttottg eiOt4-Qaden. It has set off alann bells in Washington as Pteeideat (hntoa's tam mulls a new approach to tquluins tobaooo and kids' aotaato it. F.atier tAia wmaxt. Foo1d asd Deug Adminiattatiom head Datid Kessler said the FDA had the powa to replat" tobaoera. And. weitiat in tite New England Jounnl of Mediatte, Kesskr said be hoped tdat youth making would =o the way of smallpox aad polio.~_. His IoRy ;oai and the caetpaips to follow Wcsly wlp fall short, thoug6: Cioverttmmt eltortt to fi jht to0al ills have had limited suocess at best. That may espediUy be trtte of atteatpet to shape teoa conduct. Dnokiag, having iot and smoioal ate untonuaate, mod- etn teen rites of pasrage Long-teem tr+atd: in these ataa have heeu downward. 8ut it is ttta+a oftat friends and fatttily who aee rapoatiEiR aot the gowromeot. Consider taat deieldag. Federal ruira forced stata to set a aniform legal age of 21 in the midJOR md Washington spends mota than S! billion a year on akohol and subwnoe abua proaaau. Yet in 1994 mote than half tbe higlt- sdtool sanora reported uaa6 akohol the prior mont6, the Departmeat of Health and Hnam SetYima said. As for dtnt tne, the Michigan andy shows that among high-school sa+iora surveped from thi elasw af 1991 aar 1994, the peranta=e who hd smoked marijuana in the past 30 days rase from 13.8% to 19%. For 10th-;radets. the usage rate I :nt from 8.7% to 1 s.a'/. from 1991 to 1994. EiBhth-graders led the groups surveyed with a 144N. increafe. . W ashington can't ntaks much pro- ;tess apinst teen sex, attter. In this yar i budget, the White House asked for more than S300 taillion for family plammn` and venereal disase: prosrams run by HHS, not including AIDS spendin;. 77ut's up froat S22S million in 1991. Yet the Centers for Disean Cottttoi eeports that rates of sexual iarneaurm atnon>< nomarrwd 14. to 21-year-old ntale: and feneala weee 62.7% and 5a.7y., respectivdy. And the percentage of moms ueda IS has held steady for the last decade at just under 5%. It is making that has. Washington upset rigltt aow -this despitea drop io neokin=actost dt a¢ Q+oups.. HHS says the paanta,e of smokers aged 12 to 17 dropped from ooe in four in 1974 to ono in 10 in 1993. Among adults, smahers dropped from mots tsau 37y. to 25y. over thesame titae. Survey tanta thow that the pereent- qs of kids with a ltslf-pack-a-day ltabit hu dropped moie t6aa a point in the las<decadeaswell. Sti!!, the Uniressicy of Michigan study doet show an uptick in the last few yeaca. For iastattoe, raatdteei found that 18.6% of eighth-graders bad at least one agarette in the paor 311 rays, up ftom 143% in 1991. Among bigh- school semots. 31.2% said they had lit up in the past month, up from 27.8•/% in 199t. Among eighth- and t0th-gtadai. Michigtn nesat+dxes found roughly a 16y% tix in the number who smoke at kafthalf aprdc a day. . A Gafa,ar othets harw said that apte:<e stno(t- iag ia a iataw.y to Gtrther drug us& Lloyd: D. Jotrnston~ who red tbe Uoirar :q oE Miehipa's surray team, said cipnette making and maqluana use. "aae very bigltly correlated." "'iflhat yott think about it." said: Johiuton.. "in order to smoke man- juao~a, yotm6ttas mttit lattt to take imoks into their lunp, whidth is not a noeaal behavior for any species CiP- raa! smoking ptnvides emlleot ttain- intjutt for that" Sn the Michigan data may ovetstue tbe hroblem. Many kids u+e not habitual uat: L Many simpiy etpet9meat. - : V1'lfat defttes a cattent smoker difien bedran adults and children. A child is so Ltbd.d when be has temolced ooe or mora aatettes in tbe past 30 dsys. Aduta, on the other hand, are smor• ee1< when they have tmoked 100 cip .. .~`..,.~"r`~ T < ~~.. . --•. :~ ~~' ~~ :i.~"'- . ..+. w Cont'd)

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