There are many effective ways state and local officials can protect young people from tobacco. They can use funds from the states’ 1998 legal settlement with the tobacco companies to pay for tobacco prevention programs; they can increase tobacco taxes; and they can pass smoke-free laws to protect us from secondhand smoke. Consider these facts: Each day, more than 1,000 kids become new regular smokers; roughly one-third of them will die prematurely from a tobacco-related disease.
Rhonda Rudolph, Jackson Tobacco Reduction Coalition Coordinator, said, “Our youth are our future, and we need to support their efforts to become positive role models for current and future generations while at the same time encouraging and working with current tobacco users to empower them to quit and overcome their addiction to the nicotine in their current choice of tobacco product.”
For more information, call the Jackson Tobacco Reduction Coalition at (517)768-2131 or call Most Teens Don’t at (517) 205-3782.