Today, when you walk into a convenience store, you are confronted with a wide range of tobacco products in flavors you never imagined. Wild cherry, grape, and even mango flavored products are stocked on store shelves every day and are displayed right next to our children’s favorite candy brands.
These aggressively marketed, cheaply priced products need to be seen for what they really are deadly addictive tobacco products. We can’t allow our teenagers to be lured into smoking and becoming addicted to tobacco.
We should do more to support tobacco prevention and control in Wisconsin, and prevent our youth from becoming lifetime consumers of a deadly product.
Each year in Wisconsin 7,400 kids, under 18, become new daily smokers. The Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network (WAATPN) as well as other residents of Wisconsin, think our state should spend at least 20 percent of tobacco tax revenue on tobacco prevention programs. That is an idea we should all support.
Let’s stop our youth from becoming addicted to tobacco I encourage our legislators to make a solid investment in Wisconsin’s future by taxing flavored cigars at the same level as cigarettes and allocating more of our states tobacco tax revenue to tobacco prevention and educatio .
Jamar Wills, Program coordinator
3000 N. Sherman Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53210,
414.447.5323 ext. 227
JamarW@Boys- GirlsClubs.org
