S.F. TEENS TRYING HIGH-NICOTINE `BIDI' CIGARETTES

Strawberry scented cigarettes, shaped like marijuana joints and spiked with
extra nicotine, are being sampled at an alarming rate by San Francisco
teens, a new survey shows.

The cigarettes, called ``bidis'' -- also ``beedies'' and ``beadies'' -- are
manufactured in India and are widely available in grocery stores in
paper-wrapped bundles of 20 for as little as $1.25 a pack.

Results show that 58 percent of students surveyed at four city high schools
had tried bidis at least once and that two-thirds knew someone under the
legal age of 18 who had purchased them.

``I knew a lot of people were smoking them, but I didn't know the numbers
were so high,'' said Frederick ``Junior'' Johnson, 16, a McAteer High School
student who has worked on the project since February.

The study found that 40 percent of the 461 students surveyed smoked bidis
more than once.

``It's been out there, but it is growing into a bigger problem,'' said Johnson.

The survey was conducted by young people them selves: Five teenagers at the
Booker T. Washington Community Service Center in the Western Addition and
two students at Galileo High spent 10 months on the project.

Ebonne Smith, project coordinator for the community center, said teenagers
found bidis widely available, particularly in the Western Addition, Haight,
and Tenderloin neighborhoods.

Smith's young investigators found that the required Surgeon General's
warning label was missing on seven out of 10 packs of bidis and that young
teens who tried to buy the products succeeded 24 percent of the time.

As a result, the youth center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade
Commission last month against the makers of the cigarettes. ``They said they
are looking into it,'' said Smith.

Representatives of the Federal Trade Commission could not be reached for
comment.

Bidis are a particularly potent form of tobacco, sold inexpensively.
According to Susana Hennessey of the San Francisco Department of Public
Health, each bidi, hand-rolled in a brown leaf called tendu, contains 7 to 8
percent nicotine

- --compared with 1 to 2 percent in American cigarettes.

A reporter picked up six packs of bidis from a Union Square market for $2.50
each. ``Yes, they are very popular, particularly among the teenagers,'' a
clerk volunteered.

Bidis have been on the American market for at least 40 years. But as
American cigarette prices rise and young people search for new fads, the
crudely rolled cigarettes from India are a growing trend.

``It's an issue of peer pressure,'' said Johnson. ``It is kind of like
clothes. You see somebody wearing something you like and you want to wear
something like it too.''

Maurice Evans, 16, said the bidi manufacturers add flavors to make the harsh
tobacco more appealing. ``They've got strawberry, chocolate, mango and
vanilla,'' he said.

Evans said he knows one friend who has smoked 20 packs of bidis. ``He's
addicted to them. He wouldn't listen. It went in one ear and out the other.''

1998 San Francisco Chronicle

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett