Use of cigarettes and other tobacco products to engage in a habit that almost always leads to addiction.

Every day 3,000 young people light up their first cigarette; every year a million teenagers become regular smokers. Adolescent smoking has risen steadily throughout the 1990s, following a sharp decline in the 1970s that leveled off in the 1980s. A 1994 report by the office of the U.S. Surgeon General found that approximately 28% of teens smoked in 1991 and 1992. By 1995 a survey of high school students released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the prevalence of teen smoking had increased to 34.8%. The study also found that smoking was most prevalent among white teenagers (38%), followed by Hispanics (34%), and blacks (19%). In addition to smoking more, teenagers are also starting to smoke earlier. The average teen smokes his or her first cigarette at the age of 13, becoming a regular smoker at...