Tobacco-related deaths far outnumber the combined deaths related to AIDS, homicides, alcohol, illegal drugs, car accidents, fires and suicides.
Tobacco is readily accessible to kids, both from vending machines and over the counter.
Although state laws forbid the sale of tobacco to minors, these rules are frequently weak and unenforceable, and therefore do little to prevent sales to minors. But ask a smoker when he or she began to smoke. Chances are you will hear the tale of a child. Tobacco products contain the highly addictive drug nicotine, and nicotine addiction most often begins in childhood and adolescence. Recent data from the American Council on Science and Health and the American Medical Association estimate that more than three million youths smoke, and another one million use smokeless tobacco.