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Editorial: Get creative to get kids off cigarettes The (Tacoma) News Tribune April 14 Think of it as a "drug court" for underage smokers. In Washington state, minors caught with tobacco products face fines of nearly $100, when court costs are thrown in. But the Puyallup, Tacoma and Peninsula school districts have turned those fines into the stick of a carrot-and-stick strategy. Instead of paying the fine, teenagers are allowed to take a course on the health effects of tobacco use. And it's working. In Puyallup, roughly half the students who take the course stop smoking; others report that they smoke less. In Tacoma, the program appears to be contributing to a significant drop in the rate of smoking among middle- and high-school students. This education program is funded with grants from the state's tobacco-settlement payments. It is hard to imagine the settlement money being put to better use. The classes are far more likely to change behavior than mere citations - which most police officers consider a low priority in any event. And health lessons are bound to be more effective than suspensions, schools' traditional response when students are caught with tobacco on campus. These districts' creativity in dealing with teenage smokers is to be applauded. Tobacco use is an addiction rooted in adolescence. A mounting body of research shows that people who don't pick up a smoking habit before the age of 18 are unlikely to become addicted to cigarettes. That's because smoking triggers the creation of special nicotine receptors when the brain is developing. The brain of an adolescent smoker thus becomes, in effect, hard-wired to crave tobacco. Any educational program that prevents this is saving lives. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -