TITLE


By Billy Murphy

Although the massacre in Littleton, Colo. has commanded the headlines
recently, another subtle killer billows
among our young people that many barely notice: teen smoking.
Teen smoking is hardly a new problem, if a problem at all, some would say.
Yet, when you look at the larger picture concerning today's teens, the
law, and tolerance, youth smoking just might be a link
that connects just a few too many risky situations.
Georgia law clearly states that it is illegal for teens under 18 to buy
cigarettes. Punishment can be up to 20 hours of community
service and mandatory attendance at a lecture on the health hazards of
smoking.
It is a misdemeanor for any adult (except a child's parent) to buy
tobacco products for anyone under 18 or for any
adult to "advise, counsel or compel any minor" to use cigarettes or any
tobacco-related product.
Thus, every time we see anyone under 18 smoking, a law has probably been
broken, other than those few cases where
misguided parents have purchased cigarettes for their children.
Why do we tolerate teen smoking when there are laws against it?
Part of the problem is that our laws are designed to be enforced not by
the police or by the community, but by merchants. The kids know it.
The same thing is true with alcohol laws.
Just look up the punishment for a convenience store clerk who sells liquor
to your 15-year old. Odds are, you'll pay more for speeding.
I recently spoke to Jim Murray, our police chief here in Peachtree City.
He said teen smoking is something law enforcement can't fix and that
parents should have to manage.
But parents are not doing a very good job.
By some estimates, 40 percent of teens under 18 smoke regularly. The
statistics go much higher in informal polls like one a few years
back through the McIntosh (Peachtree City) High School yearbook poll in
which 60% of the teens said they smoked.
This is alarming, not only for the health problems it causes as teens
take on a deadly addiction, but because smoking is definitely a "gateway"
drug to other abuses, such as drinking.
The tolerance in our society that allows children to get away with smoking
eventually clears a path for much more serious behavior. Parents and
communities that don't realize or accept the warning signs are in for
trouble.
Everywhere you go in suburbia today, you see teens smoking illegally. I
don't want to chase after kids yelling, "Citizen's Arrest",
but ultimately I and all other adults are accountable every time we walk
past a child and do nothing to curb their unlawful activity.
This is just one teen social problem and probably not even the worst, yet
how much more can we as adults lazily accept
with a wink and a nod?
Obviously smoking can't be blamed for every social problem -- we can use
Marilyn Manson for that -- but our tolerance of underage smoking gives teens
a very subtle signal: that we as adults, either members of the community,
their family or the law will let them get away with anything.
And in our current climate, that is one concept, no matter how subtle, we
need to crush.

Billy Murphy is a freelance writer living in Peachtree City