I'm a non-smoker. I believe in anti-tobacco campaigns. I believe in taking down big tobacco's hold on my age group. How far can you walk on campus without seeing or smelling smoke? I'm not against these people, the smokers, but I'm here to point out how tobacco companies try to trap you and how support of big tobacco, in any way, contributes to the deaths of 52 Ohioans every day.
I'm sure all of you have seen flyers for Fallfest. (People probably approached you at the top of Morton Hill, despite your attempts to avoid eye contact so they wouldn't give you their handout.)
For those of you who don't know, Fallfest is being put on by a large smokeless tobacco production company. But why? To try and get smokers and non-smokers alike to try its products maybe? Whether you use tobacco or not, your presence at Fallfest shows support for products that can kill. I am not here to try and stop people from supporting their favorite bands, but rather to ask them to enjoy live entertainment, music and festivals not sponsored by tobacco corporations.
Smoking is a choice isn't it? An entire generation of young people is making the choice to become the first Ohio generation not addicted to tobacco. They are looking to us as role models ... or rather should we be looking to them? After all, we as college students are not out of the grasp of big tobacco. In fact, our age group, 18-to 24-year-olds, is being targeted as the next generation of tobacco users. Ohio has ranked in the top five states for the prevalence of smoking rates among 18-to-24-year-olds. In fact, the rate among this group has topped 40 percent in recent years even though Ohio law prohibits smoking in university academic buildings as well as some other campus locations.
So show your support for a tobacco-free generation by enjoying local music without patronizing tobacco-sponsored events.
-Stephen Ashcraft is a sophomore integrated language arts major. Send him an e-mail
at stephen.ashcraft@ohiou.edu.
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