THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110201
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Smoke poured out of 17-year-old Ross Benton's nostrils as he laughed at President Clinton's crackdown on teen smoking.
``I'm not of legal age, and look at what I'm doing,'' the Chesapeake teenager said, holding up a Marlboro. ``I don't think it's any of Clinton's business what I do with my life.''
Ross tapped his cigarette against the wall of an Oceanfront restaurant Thursday as he talked about his two-year smoking habit.
When he first started, he hid it from his parents. Now he's more open about smoking. ``They know there's nothing they can do to stop me,'' Ross said. ``They're just glad I'm not doing drugs or anything.''
Besides, he said, everyone in his family smokes. ``I grew up with it,'' he said.
All he has to do to buy cigarettes is show a clerk an identification card. ``Even though it says I'm 17, they sell them to me anyway,'' said Ross, who smokes three-quarters of a pack a day. ``They don't care.''
A few streets down the Oceanfront's Boardwalk, 17-year-old Andrea Rice and 19-year-old Kristin Quisenberry had the same reaction to Clinton's order to ban cigarette vending machines and tobacco sponsorship of sporting events.
``It won't do any good,'' said Andrea, a three-year veteran of smoking. ``I can get cigarettes pretty easy, and my mom will get them for me too.''
``My mom will buy whole cartons for us,'' said Kristin, who has been smoking for four years.
Neither of the girls, both of whom were visiting Virginia Beach from Pennsylvania, likes the idea of smoking at this point. They'd both rather kick the habit.
``We sit around and talk about how we want to quit all the time,'' said Andrea as she tapped her Newport Light's ashes along 17th Street. ``But it's hard to give up.''
``Especially when all your friends are lighting up,'' said Kristin as she drew a Marlboro to her pink-lipsticked mouth.
So if Clinton's crackdown on teen smoking won't do any good, what will?
``Make it totally unappealing,'' Andrea said, pulling another cigarette out of her backpack. ``Make it unattractive to kids.''
Kristin said she now thinks smoking is unattractive, a disgusting habit. She even tells younger children not to start. ``I feel like a total hypocrite,'' she said with a laugh.
But she didn't feel that way when she was in eighth grade. ``In middle school, it seemed so cool. That's the time they need to crack down on kids, in middle school,'' Kristin said.
Like Ross, both girls first hid their nicotine habits from their parents. They'd buy cigarettes from vending machines, smoke when their parents weren't around, then wash their hands and brush their teeth to camouflage the smell.
But soon their parents caught on, and allowed them to smoke. ``Once your parents let you smoke, that's when you get addicted. You can smoke any time you want,'' Kristin said.
All three of the teenagers said they've experienced the ill effects of smoking.
``If I go swimming or surfing, it's really hard to breathe,'' Ross said. ``If I run, or anything like that, I get tired.''
Andrea said she tried out for a soccer team but got so winded during conditioning tryouts that she had to quit. She's also had bronchitis, which she attributes to smoking.
``I used to run track, now I can't run up a flight of steps without getting winded,'' Kristin said.
Both Kristin and Andrea say they've tried to quit.
``Lots of times,'' Andrea said.
``It lasts about a week,'' Kristin added.
Both girls expect they'll quit smoking one day.
But not yet.
As for Ross, he'll quit as soon as he has a good enough reason to kick the habit.
``Like maybe if someone I'm dating doesn't like it,'' he said before heading on down the street in a trail of smoke.
KEYWORDS: SMOKING TEENAGERS by CNB