Up In Smoke

Girls' Life, April, 2001 by Audrey D. Brashich

You pride yourself on being a pretty smart chick, right? You don't quake in the face of math homework. You're pretty sure that WWF stuff is way fake. And you know if you wait a couple weeks before you splurge on those cute Steve Madden sandals, they'll be marked down to half price.

So, if you're so smart, why would you smoke cigarettes? Despite known side effects, like cancer and lung disease, smoking is on the rise among teens. In 1991, 28 percent of high schoolers had smoked in the last 30 days. In 1999, that percentage rose to nearly 35 percent.

All this wouldn't be so shocking if it weren't for one key factor--over $250 billion (that's billion with a B) was given to state governments by the tobacco industry to do things like educate teens about the dangers of smoking.

Some heartening news? In states like Mississippi where teen-focused campaigns like Question It run, smoking is down 21 percent among youth. And Florida's antismoking Truth Campaign definitely struck a nerve--lighting up is down 40 percent among middle-schoolers since the anti-tobacco ads started running.

But the real force behind the change could be teens themselves. More and more, the vocal opponents of smoking are the very people tobacco companies are trying to seduce, and they are taking a stand against one of the deadliest killers in our country. Meet the girls behind the smoking fun:

Sarah Schulman, 16

Sarah was only 7 when she saw image on TV of a smoker's lungs covered in black tumors. Monumentally grossed out, Sarah wrote a letter without any help from her parents to the Texas Department of Health to ask how to get involved in the state's campaign against tobacco use. You might think the government would ignore some pesky kid, right?

Well, about a month later, the Department of Health invited Sarah to participate in "undercover buys." Seven-year-old Sarah would go to bars and convenience stores, while health officials and police monitored whether or not she was asked for proper ID before buying smokes. Since the legal purchasing age for tobacco is 18, you'd think mot places would do a double take at a kid slapping down a couple bucks for a pack of cigs. Surprise! It seems the idea of someone younger than Haley Joel Osment smoking like a chimney doesn't bother many tobacco vendors.

"I had a 100-percent success rate buying cigarettes when I was 7," says Sarah. "No one every stopped me." One time, Sarah walked right into a bar in the middle of a sunny afternoon, pushed her way through crowds of adults who were smoking and drinking, bought a pack of cigarettes at the vending machine, and walked out without anyone even saying a word. "I wasn't even carded to get into the bar, let alone for buying cigarettes," recalls Sarah.

Sarah's latest project is Game Over, a tobacco use prevention program. Game Over helps student from first to 11 grades plan activities--like visiting throat cancer patients at a local hospital--to raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco. Why the name Game Over? "Tobacco companies have to stop gambling with our lives," says Sarah. "It's like a competition: the anti-smoking crusaders against the cigarette manufacturers. And we are going to win."

Amy Wesolowsk, 13, and Krisy Chemier, 14

Another group going to war against cigarette manufacturers is C.O.S.T. (Children Opposed to Smoking Tobacco). C.O.S.T.'s mission is to get tobacco out of the hands of kids. After noticing that cigarettes are often in the same aisle as candy and toys, C.O.S.T members like Amy and Krissy (pictured below) now lobby their town councils to ban self-serve vending machines.

"Just think how much harder it would be for teens to score a pack of smokes if they had to ask the cashier, who is supposed to ask for ID," says Amy.

Krissy is also fired up about REBEL (Reaching Everyone by Exposing Lies), a group that unites teens against tobacco use from all over New Jersey. REBEL encourages teens to think about the motives of companies that market harmful products to kids. "Tobacco manufacturers don't care about us," says Krissy. "All they want is our money."

To ensure that no one cashes in on kids, REBEL has launched a letter-writing campaign to people in high places, asking that a law be passed prohibiting mini-marts from putting cigarette ads in their windows. What keeps Krissy so involved? "Eighteen percent of the eighth-graders at my school are smokers," she says. "I want to help lower that number, and I don't want to be part of that scary statistic." And she doesn't want you to be either.

Dana Davis, 17

Dana got involved with tobacco awareness seven years ago when her grandfather died from cancer brought on by a lifetime of tobacco use. "My grandfather even smoked while lying in the hospital bed," says Dana.

Now, Dana combines her love of singing (she's also a country recording artist) and storytelling with her unique talent as a ventriloquist to get across the message that kids don't have to smoke. "We live in the tobacco belt of the south, where a lot of kids think they have to smoke because they grow up around it," she says. "I try to show them, through stories involving puppets and my grandfather, that you don't have to ever start." Dana and her sidekick puppet, Ruth, have performed for more than 80,000 kids and teens. Check out www.danadavis.com to chat with her and maybe get her to speak at your school.