From: johnpolito@comcast.net
Date: Fri, 12/26/03
Smoking prevention takes cut
Youth programs face tougher fight after losing $2M
BY ARLECIA D. SIMMONS
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Sunday, June 22, 2003
At the age when most children are mastering multiplication and long
division, Scarlett McCart began smoking cigarettes.
A puff here, a puff there, and now her habit requires half a pack a
day at a price tag of $12 to $15 a week.
"I started in about fourth or fifth grade," McCart, 23, said during a
smoke break outside Citadel Mall. "I want to quit. But you know,
easier said than done."
South Carolina's attempt to prevent youngsters from smoking also may
be easier said than done since the General Assembly cut $2 million
earmarked for youth smoking prevention programs.
The money, which comes from the national tobacco settlement, is
funneled through the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental
Control. Last year, the agency used the $2 million it received to
advertise prevention initiatives, fund a partnership with the S.C.
Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services and begin a
program called Rage Against the Haze.
Described on its Web site as "a movement against smoking and the
Tobacco Industry's targeting of youth," Rage is a statewide grassroots
effort targeting 13- to 17-year-olds.
"The program teaches youth how to become advocates," said Ted Hewitt,
DHEC's director of public information for health services.
Rage's 2002-03 budget is $1.1 million. The program uses a Web site and
radio spots and tours around the state to reach young people. In late
June, a three-day summit youth education will be held in Myrtle Beach.
Eight youngsters from Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties are
expected to attend.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that an
estimated one-third of South Carolina high school students smoke.
While Hewitt said DHEC has not looked at how the loss of funds will
impact Rage and its other programs, Lisa Turner called it yet another
blow to the state's need for prevention efforts.
"South Carolina is 92 percent below the minimum funding suggested by
the CDC," said Turner, the director of state tobacco initiatives for
the American Cancer Society.
Turner referred to recommendations found in the CDC document "Best
Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs."
The CDC recommends that South Carolina spend at least $24 million on
tobacco control. In 2002, South Carolina spent $3.25 million in state
money from its tobacco settlement, federal money and a private
contribution. In comparison, Hawaii, which had the highest spending
level in the 50 states last year, invested $19.16 million per capita
in tobacco control.
"After the Master Settlement Agreement (national tobacco settlement)
in 1998, the next year the tobacco companies started to increase their
marketing efforts. They increased their spending by 70 percent. It was
74 percent in South Carolina," Turner said. "They are doing more to
get more customers, and we are doing less to stop people from
smoking."
Reports hold that 2,145 people join the ranks of smokers every day in
the United States. Each day, nearly 5,000 youngsters ages 12 to 17 try
a cigarette for the first time.
Ninety percent of smokers take up the habit before age 20.
Young people often start smoking as a result of social pressure and
may continue the habit as a coping mechanism, Turner said.
Sam Hersk, 26, said that's why he's still smoking, a habit he started
at 14 because of peer pressure.
"Now I'm addicted. I'm good and hooked," said Hersk, who smokes half a
pack a day. He said as a youngster, he and his friends would stand
outside of stores and ask people going in to buy them cigarettes.
"I just wanted to do it," said McCart, who said peer pressure had
nothing to do with her decision to smoke.
In middle school, McCart said, she saved her lunch money to buy
cigarettes. Getting cigarettes was easy because stores were not
enforcing the rules against selling to minors, she said.
She has tried to stop, but stress keeps fueling her habit. Asked what
advice she would give young people considering the choice, she said:
"Dumb idea. Don't even waste your money, because it is a waste of
money."
For teenagers such as Lee, a West Ashley High student who would give
only his first name, money isn't an issue. The 16-year-old said he
gets about 12 cigarettes a day from friends.
"All of my friends smoke," he said.
Jason Drown, 23, agreed that teenagers have little problem bumming
cigarettes in a school parking lot or outside the mall.
"Smoking is always going to be around. When prohibition came out, you
had people trying to get around the law. Nobody said, 'Oh don't worry
about it.' There's always going to be a problem with underage
smoking," said Drown, who started smoking at 19.
"If it wasn't a strict law or rule, people wouldn't think (smoking)
was that cool. It's the same thing with alcohol."
Drown, who abhorred smoking and hid his grandmother's cigarettes as a
child, started because it was the only way he could get a break from
his restaurant job.
Asked about what he had seen or heard on smoking prevention, Drown
said, "I hate those damn commercials."
Lee agreed that advertisements that cite statistics on tobacco related
disease don't scare young smokers.
"You can't just say something and people stop," he said.
Comments such as these may validate Turner's contention that when it
comes to smoking prevention, the state must commit to more than a
token effort.
McCart, Drown and Lee had few suggestions about what could be done to
curb teen smoking, though Lee offered this: "Stop selling cigarettes."
http://www.charleston.net/stories/062203/loc_22teensmok.shtml
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