Teen Perspective
These articles about teen issues were written by student journalists and appeared in the Chronicle, the newspaper of Barron Collier High School, Naples, Florida.
Katie S.
Take a deep breath. On that cold winter day, you sense nothing but a fire burning and & what is that, root beer? No, that fire isn't in the fireplace, but on the end of a cigarette that's new to the United States.
They may be sweet as candy, but they are still just as deadly. Indian bidi, popular among teenagers, wasn't big in the United States until recently. It is hand-rolled and wrapped in a leaf and looks like a joint. To make it worse, this lightweight new form of a cigarette comes in different flavors, for example, root beer, grape, vanilla, and chocolate. Sold in such places as health food stores, this new fad costs about a dollar less per pack than regular cigarettes.
They may be cheaper, but they're definitely not as appealing as they sound. Studies have shows that after smoking these Indian bidis, volunteers' blood showed higher nicotine levels than after smoking regular cigarettes. The addictive nicotine in the dark Indian tobacco may contain as much as three times the amount of nicotine than that in American-grown tobacco. The outer wrapping of the Indian bidi comes from a plant known as the tendu. It creates an even worse situation while smoking than the usual paper of the regular filtered cigarette. The plant is nonporous, meaning it doesn't even allow outside air to be mixed with the inhaled smoke to dilute it.
Hopefully, the research that the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) will discourage further use of this hip new product. Bidis may be smaller and weigh two-thirds less than the average cigarette, but can be just as dangerous, if not more. Don't fall for these sweet flavors; there are still those hidden dangers that are going to be noxious and eventually deadly. Think before your future goes up in smoke.
Inquiries? Please contact Dr. Jami Jones