DATE: Thursday, May 29, 1997                TAG: 9705290424

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   64 lines

TEENS: JOE CAMEL DEBATE IS ALL SMOKE LOCAL TEENS SAY CHARACTER DOESN'T MAKE THEM SMOKE, PEER PRESSURE DOES.

Teen-agers in Hampton Roads, both smokers and non-smokers, said in interviews Wednesday that Joe Camel doesn't spark interest in cigarette smoking among their peers and that banning it from billboards would be a waste of time.

``He's just a little character, I never thought anything about him,'' said Ryan Wilde, 18, a Salem High senior who started smoking Camel Lights more than a year ago.

``No one pays attention to ads,'' agreed Churee Smithers, 16, of Virginia Beach, a half-a-pack-a-day smoker who started at age 15.

The students all knew about Joe Camel, but not one thought that the character had an influence over teen-agers. Parents' habits, peer pressure and teen-age stress are far more powerful factors, they said.

``I don't think it's the advertising that gets teens smoking,'' said Ryan, who was standing outside Pembroke Mall finishing a cigarette.

``It's school,'' said one of his friends, a 17-year-old Kellam student who said his parents would kill him if they knew that he smoked.

``And peer pressure,'' said Ronald Fulton, 17, a Salem senior who started smoking at 14 and now puffs about a pack of Marlboro Light Menthols each day.

Amanda Leedom first lit up when she was 13. Joe Camel, though, had nothing to do with her decision. She thinks camels are ``gross.'' Instead, Amanda said, her peers influenced her.

``My friends weren't like, `Here do this,' '' Amanda said. ``I just saw my friends were doing it and I said, `I guess I will too.' ''

She stopped smoking in the ninth grade for pretty much the same reason: her new friends.

``I started hanging out with a new crowd and they said, `You smoke, that's not cool,' '' said Amanda, whose parents are smokers.

Like Ronald and Amanda, most teen-age smokers first lit up between the ages of 12 and 14, according to Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco, a non-profit advocacy group based in Springfield, Mass., that opposes cigarette advertising.

About 13.2 percent of Virginia's seventh- and eighth-graders reported smoking regularly, meaning at least one cigarette every day for one month, according to the Virginia Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published in 1994. About 16 percent of America's high school students are frequent smokers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports.

Ryan said he didn't really like smoking at first. But with the stresses of school and trying to have a social life in between it all, smoking became relaxing. Now he plans to quit because he said it has hurt his basketball game.

Even though all 50 states already prohibit tobacco sales to anyone under 18, minors buy an estimated $1.6 billion in tobacco products annually, government figures show. Teens said that even the combination of the ban on sales to minors and a ban on advertising wouldn't have much of an impact.

``If teen-agers are going to smoke, they are going to smoke,'' Churee said. ``It depends on who you hang out with. If your parents smoke, you will smoke. If your friends smoke, you will smoke.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Ronald Fulton, 17, left, watches Ryan Wilde, 18, take a drag on a

Camel Light Wednesday outside Pembroke Mall. ``He's just a little

character, I never thought anything about him,'' said Wilde of Joe

Camel.

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