MANY TEENS TRY, FAIL TO STOP SMOKING

ATLANTA -- Four years after taking his first puff, 18-year-old Benjamin
Ledford can feel the effects of his pack-a-day habit -- shortness of breath
when he goes roller skating or plays basketball.

The high school senior from Chattanooga, Tenn., says he keeps lighting up
because he's addicted. And he's far from alone.

One in three high school students who try smoking even once develop a daily
habit before they graduate, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reported Thursday.

Like Ledford, most high school smokers say they've tried to quit. Most fail.

"It's a very bad habit. It's so incredibly addictive," Ledford said. "The
first thing you notice is you start to want one really bad when you don't
have one."

The study shows that many smokers develop a pattern of nicotine addiction
and have a desire to quit in their teens, said Michael Eriksen, director of
the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health.

"We had thought that this process of experiment, becoming addicted and
trying to quit played out over decades," Eriksen said. "What we're finding
is that this process really occurs before high school graduation."

Seventy percent of 16,000 students surveyed nationwide said they had smoked
at least once, the CDC said. Almost 36 percent of students who had tried
cigarettes said their habit escalated to smoking at least once per day.

Nearly 73 percent of daily student smokers said they had tried to quit, but
only 13.5 percent successfully stopped.

"I've never quit an entire week," said Ledford, who has tried to stop cold
turkey twice. "If you don't have a cigarette, it's not like you're really
hungry, but you get real tense."

The study was released as Congress debated anti-tobacco legislation that
would impose a $1.10-a-pack tax and levy stiff fines against tobacco
companies if teen smoking fails to drop dramatically.

"The findings underscore the need for Congress to pass comprehensive tobacco
legislation this year . . . that will significantly reduce teen tobacco
use," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

Previous studies had estimated that 33 percent to 50 percent of people who
experiment with cigarettes become regular smokers.

Researchers can show that smoking quickly loses its cool for many teenagers,
but they keep puffing because of nicotine addiction, Eriksen said.

"They started to smoke because they want an image, they want to make a
statement, they get seduced by the advertising," he said. "But after a few
years, they realize it is costly, it is messy, it interferes with
performance and it no longer gives them the cachet it gave them when they
were 12 to 13 years old."

White students were the most likely to become daily smokers after their
first puff, at nearly 42 percent. Almost 15 percent of blacks and 24.5
percent of Hispanics who tried cigarettes eventually smoked daily.

Students in all 50 states were surveyed in 1997. Students were considered
daily smokers if they had ever smoked at least once a day for a period of 30
days.

The report counted former smokers as those who had quit for at least 30 days
before they were surveyed.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett