They think it's cool.
Some adults think it's cute.
Everyone experiments with tobacco, they say. But a growing number of Lake middle and high school students are joining a drive to change attitudes about tobacco and discourage their classmates from lighting up. Ashley is a member of Students Working Against Tobacco, a statewide group that now has 22 chapters in Lake County. An estimated 400 students belong to the Lake groups, and more are being recruited. The statewide effort is financed by money that big tobacco companies are providing the state as the result of a lawsuit over the medical expenses tied to smoking deaths.