Recent data shows that children are getting ready access to tobacco products. Far too many of them are buying tobacco products even though they are too young to do so. It s a crime to sell tobacco products to anyone who is underage, yet many underaged children still are buying tobacco. We must be more vigilant in requiring identification, and we must do a better job of educating children on the danger of tobacco. We must do a better job of counter-advertising against Big Tobacco, and we must challenge our communities to improve.
Life is a wonderful and fragile thing.
As any adult knows, you feel virtually indestructible in your youth. But age brings the reality that you won t live forever, and you want the chance to breathe in every bit of joy that life can give you. Begin a tobacco habit at an early age, and you are taking the most deadly gamble with your life. That's the price of tobacco. More so than any other problem, tobacco leaves a blood trail across the youth of this country.