They're Smoking What?

By Tim Philbin

Many years ago (more then I care to remember) teenagers who chose to smoke had a particular brand of cigarettes.

Maybe you too could name the "brand" that was the one every one had to have. It was a status symbol, the one every cool kid had. No they were not Virginia Slims. Can you name it?

If you said Marlboro you are right. It was "THE" brand, soft pack or hard.

Now the CDC has done a study to discover what we knew so many years ago that this brand was preferred by more then half of all teen smokers. And do you know why?

According to the study it's not peer pressure, preference or looking "cool". It is all the advertising done to adults that is spilling over onto teens making them smoke. You might even call it "second hand advertising". Can you remember the last time you saw a tobacco ad?

Again, more bureaucrats justifying their existence by spending our money so they can tell us what we already knew. Oh yes, now they can go after the tobacco companies for MORE money to stop this blight on the American landscape. It is also timely in that state governments are out of money.

Don't you just love when a plan comes together!