FLAVORED SMOKES APPEAL TO TEENS

ATLANTA - The smoke wafting through some of the nation's hippest
teen hangouts doesn't always smell like Marlboros or Camels anymore.
And, although the cigarettes are thin and hand-rolled, it doesn't
smell like marijuana either.

This scent is sweeter, exhalations of strawberries, chocolate and
vanilla.

>From Atlanta's Little Five Points to New York's East Village to San
Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, hippie wannabes are lighting up bidis --
flavored cigarettes imported from India.

``They're dessert with a cigarette,'' says Leah Parrish, 19, standing
outside a tobacco store in Little Five Points.

Bidis -- sometimes called beedies and about half the size of regular
cigarettes -- are filled with tobacco flakes, hand-rolled with a
greenish-brown leaf, tapered at both ends and tied with a tiny,
colored thread.

Bidis cost less than regular cigarettes, averaging $2 for a pack of
20.

And they're drawing youngsters to smoking even better than Joe Camel,
some health officials say. Teens say they're cute, trendy, less bitter
and more natural than domestic smokes.

A survey last year found that 58 percent of students at four San
Francisco high schools had tried bidis.

Sold in specialty tobacco and cigarette stores for several years,
bidis now are popping up in gas stations, convenience marts and
grocery stores.

Anna Falcone, tobacco buyer at Junkman's Daughter, a clothing and gift
shop in Atlanta, said bidis are a top seller, outpaced only by clove
cigarettes.

``It's just a little bit more exotic,'' she says. ``They're smoking a
little brown cigarette that smells like strawberry.''

Federal health officials and anti-smoking activists say many
youngsters don't realize that unfiltered bidis are even more dangerous
than regular cigarettes.

Despite containing less tobacco than a U.S. cigarette, an unfiltered
bidi ``releases at least two to three times more tar and nicotine,''
says Samira Asma, an epidemiologist with the Atlanta-based Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

Bidis have been made for centuries in India, where they are known as
the ``poor man's cigarette.''

Darryl Jayson, spokesman for the Tobacco Merchants Association, an
industry trade group, said it's difficult to determine how many bidis
are imported because they are counted under different tariff codes.

And even with the growing popularity of bidis, all imported cigarettes
make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. tobacco market, according to
the Specialty Tobacco Counsel, based in North Carolina.

Three major importers, Kretek International of California, Quintin USA
Inc. of Colorado and Smokers Choice of California, who also sell bidis
on the Internet, refused to comment on their sales.

According to stores, the most popular flavors are vanilla, black
licorice, strawberry, dewberry, clove and cinnamon. The different
flavors are a pleasant change from the regular fare, smokers say.

``It's not like picking up a Marlboro,'' Ms. Falcone
says.

Ashley Woodall, a 22-year-old Atlanta restaurant employee, says
strawberry bidis are her favorite.

Bree Strahan, a high school senior in suburban Atlanta, says she like
bidis, but they're not strong enough for her. And it's sometimes tough
to keep them lit.

``I could never smoke them instead of a regular cigarette,'' she
says.

The popularity of bidis doesn't surprise anti-smoking activists, who
say the Indian cigarettes should be more closely regulated and should
cost more to keep them out of the hands of teen-agers.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating reports that many bidis
are sold without the required warning labels.

``They're horrible,'' says Ron Todd, director of tobacco control for
the American Cancer Society. ``It's just unfortunate that they're
finding their way in the hands of children.''

It's just another gimmick, says John F. Banzhaf III, executive
director of Action on Smoking and Health, a Washington-based
anti-smoking group.

``Everybody's looking for some way to make a new cigarette and get a
niche market,'' he said. ``They'll put chocolate in it, they'll put
vanilla in it.''