TEENS AND TOBACCO

With the fine investigative reports on drugs in Juneau, the Empire has once
more provided a significant public service. Perhaps our community is now
more broadly aware of the issues associated with illicit drug use. Perhaps
an increased awareness will lead to positive action. One should not ignore
the irony, however, in the page one photograph that accompanied Tuesday's
installment, "Teens and Drugs." Watching other students display their drug
paraphernalia, a young person in a blue jacket is holding his or her
filtered cigarette. I suspect that student is unaware that more Americans
will die of tobacco-related illness this year than from drug abuse and AIDS
combined. Few parents would knowingly give their children OxyContin,
cocaine, ecstasy, or other hard or recreational drugs. Yet, parents,
siblings, other relatives, peers and older friends are the major sources of
tobacco products for Alaskans under age 19. More than 2,000 young Alaskans
become newly addicted to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco each year. That
addiction brings with it an increased risk of premature death, debilitating
illness, significant financial drain, and increased social rebuke and
humiliation.

It is widely believed that nearly 90 percent of adult smokers actually
became daily tobacco users before they celebrated their 19th birthday. An
overwhelming majority of those same adult smokers would quit - if only they
could overcome their nicotine addiction. If a young person reaches
adulthood without becoming addicted to tobacco, he or she will probably
never start. Unfortunately, it is probably too late for that blue-jacketed
student with the yellow stained fingers, annoying cough, smelly hair, and
fewer places where he or she feels welcome. What a shame. What an unnoticed
tragedy.

LeRoy Davis

Juneau