STAY CLEAR OF CIGARETTES, LIPINSKI URGES TEENAGERS

Olympic medalist visits Inner Harbor for tobacco tax rally.

Star skater Tara Lipinski braved the chilly rain yesterday to bring a
simple message to a few dozen children slipping and sliding across a
wet ice rink in downtown Baltimore:

Skating is cool. Smoking is not.

It was a terrible day for ice skating, at least outdoors, but the
16-year-old Olympic gold medalist had a different purpose in mind when
she stopped by the Rash Field rink at the Inner Harbor. Huddled under
an umbrella, she joined a half-dozen student leaders from across
Maryland in rallying to raise the state's cigarette tax to discourage
teen smoking.

"I have seen and met too many kids who smoke," Lipinski said, as
damp-haired children and television crews crowded around her. "The
fact is that if someone does not become a smoker by the age of 19,
they will likely never begin this unhealthy -- and potentially deadly
- -- habit."

Anti-smoking activists are pushing legislation to increase Maryland's
36-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes by an additional $1.50. The
proposal, which will be introduced in the coming General Assembly
session, is being pushed as a way to price cash-poor teens out of smoking.

The higher tax is expected to be a tough sell, however, even with the
support of Gov. Parris N. Glendening and numerous lawmakers.

Similar legislation died in committee in the last session. Some
lawmakers oppose raising taxes at a time when the state has a large
budget surplus; others say that cigarette prices have gone up already
as a result of the national multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement.

Lipinski isn't legally of age to buy a pack of cigarettes. But as the
national spokeswoman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids she has
experienced firsthand the difficulties of taking on the tobacco
industry. She campaigned on Capitol Hill last summer for the passage
of landmark anti-smoking legislation, only to see it collapse under
the sustained attacks and advertising of the tobacco industry.

"We tried," Lipinski said with youthful optimism, "and we'll just keep
trying."

That's why, she said, she took time out from rehearsing yesterday for
the "Discover Stars on Ice" skating exhibition. After her speech,
Lipinski signed autographs and hugged young admirers. She said she has
no regrets about turning professional, a move she made this year after
becoming skating's youngest gold medalist at the Winter Games in
Nagano, Japan.

"I'm still skating as much as when I was an amateur, but there's a
little less pressure," she said.

In the crowd of soaked children around the ice rink was Aziza Alaoui,
7, who dreams of soaring and spinning across the ice one day like Lipinski.

"She's such a great skater. She's the best. She should always be in
first place," she said.

But Abbey Wilson, 17, hoped the little girls would remember something
else about Lipinski. Wilson, a senior at Severna Park High School, is
the legislative leader for the Maryland Association of Student
Councils, which backs the tobacco tax increase.

"People look at her and think, `If I want to be successful, this is
what I can do,' " she said.