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Message from the President: Cigar Use Creeping Up Among Teens  
This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Study which reports health risk behavior surveillance data for high school students, 9th through 12th grade. While cigarette use did not change significantly between 2009 (19.5%) and 2011 (18.1%), in 2011 cigar use did surpass cigarette use in five states: Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Sold in all states, cigars, including little cigars and cigarillos, are heavily marketed and appeal to youth with their sweet flavorings and low prices compared to cigarettes. Public health advocates should pay close attention to youth cigar use as this data may signal the start of a disturbing trend. Nationwide, 13.1 percent of students currently smoke cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars, compared to 18.1 percent who currently smoke cigarettes.
According to the survey:
- The prevalence of current cigar use was higher among male (17.8%) than female (8.0%) students;
- The prevalence of current cigar use among high school students ranged from 5 percent in Utah to 18.3 percent in South Carolina;
- Current cigar use was higher among white male (19.0%), black male (15.1%), and Hispanic male (17.2%) than white female (7.5%), black female (8.5%), and Hispanic female (9.1%) students; and
- Current cigar use surpassed current cigarette use among black students (11.8% vs. 10.5%).
While Legacy has urged the FDA to act fast and regulate cigars, cigarillos and little cigars to prevent teens from using these addictive tobacco products, tobacco control groups nationwide should be ready to address this problem. We have great examples to follow in states that are already addressing teen flavored cigar use and other emerging tobacco products through campaigns like Manipulicious in Wisconsin, The Cigar Trap in Maryland, and OPPOSE in Massachusetts.
Young people move fast, and the tobacco industry moves even faster. To keep pace in this fight, we must adapt to reach teens with every tool in our arsenal. For more information about cigars and little cigars, click here.
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Smokers Can Win Free NRT with EX®
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as nicotine gum, lozenges, and patches can double a smoker's chances of quitting, yet many smokers cannot afford to use it. To show smokers how important it is to a comprehensive plan to quit smoking, EX is giving away a three-month supply of NRT to one registered BecomeAnEX.org user each week throughout the month of June. EX users can increase their odds of winning free NRT by reentering the sweepstakes every hour up to ten times a day. One winner per week will be selected at random.
Contestants can click here to enter to win.
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On the Road Again with truth®
The iconic big orange "truth" truck embarked on its 13th annual nationwide summer tour on Saturday, June 16 in Salt Lake City.
truth, the nation's largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, will hold more than 80 events over the next four months, visiting more than 60 cities and towns in 28 states. Every year, young adult truth "tour riders" interact with teens across the country at local stops of popular summer music tours, theme parks, sporting events, and gaming conventions. The tour will also make some first-ever stops - in Little Rock, Ark.; Agawam, Mass.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Saratoga, N.Y.
This year two crews of tour riders will appear at:
- Vans Warped Tour - an annual summer music festival;
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD presents the Birdhouse Left Coast Tour 2012 - Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and his Birdhouse Skateboards team showcase skatepark street skating at skateparks along the West Coast;
- Six Flags - the world's largest regional theme park company;
- Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival - now in its third year, a heavy metal music and lifestyle festival;
- Gen Con Indy 2012 (Indianapolis) - Gen Con Indy is the largest consumer hobby, fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention in North America; and
- New York Comic Con (NYCC) - the East Coast's biggest and most exciting popular culture convention.
For teens that cannot make it to a tour stop, thetruth.com will continue to serve as a "virtual tour experience." The site features videos, photos from the tour zone and glimpses of life on the road. In addition, a new truth Facebook page will focus strictly on the Vans Warped Tour, allowing teens to learn more about the music festival itself and truth's presence on the festival. Free tickets to Vans Warped Tour stops can be won online via a Facebook sweepstakes.
Read more about the tour here.
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Comedians "Tweek" Smokers in New Online Comedy Series 
This June, Legacy teamed up with comedians Randy and Jason Sklar to help fans quit smoking with a heavy dose of humor through a new original online comedy series. The Tweekly News takes a weekly look at all things trending in pop culture through the lens of online social media hub, Twitter. For the show, the Sklar Brothers will host a weekly "Time to Re-Learn" segment where they will offer humorous advice to stars via Twitter, including how to re-learn life without cigarettes using EX (www.BecomeAnEX.org). Like many Americans, Randy and Jason's lives have been impacted by tobacco as they watched their grandmother pass away after years of suffering with smoking-related emphysema.
"EX is all about helping smokers re-learn their lives without cigarettes. One step in their process is separating the cigarette from the trigger- like if a smoker always lights up while drinking coffee, if they practice waiting five minutes after having coffee before they light up they can start to break the connection between coffee and the cigarette. And we hope that if we can provide a distraction from smoking by making fun of the mindless drivel that celebrities tweet for five minutes, we can actually do something good," said Jason.
In addition to the "Re-Learn" segments, each Tweekly News episode will begin by notifying viewers that it is being "brought to you by EX," and end with a call-to-action for viewers to visit BecomeAnEX.org/Sklar for exclusive content and outtakes.
Following each Friday premiere, all ten episodes of the series will be available on BecomeAnEX.org/Sklar as well as on demand at www.MyDamnChannel.com/TheTweeklyNews.
Follow the series on Twitter @TheTweeklyNews for updates and @TheEXTeam for information about the EX plan.
Read more about this initiative here.
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Women's Policy Inc. Briefing Addresses Tobacco's Toll on Female Smokers
In June, Legacy, Women's Policy, Inc. and the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill to take a deeper look at the unique challenges women face when it comes to smoking cessation, nicotine addiction and the negative health consequences of tobacco use.
Legacy was joined by Dr. Nora  Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who featured her groundbreaking work on drug and nicotine addiction on the brain. While women are less successful than men with nicotine replacement therapies (like the patch or gum), they may be helped by addressing non-nicotine factors. Women are also prone to have greater rates of stress, depression and weight concerns when trying to quit, suggesting that they might respond better to cognitive behavioral therapies and cognitive restructuring regarding risks of smoking.
Legacy President and CEO Dr. Cheryl G. Healton noted that the profile of today's female smoker is in stark contrast to 20 years ago when she said she smoked. They are more likely to be less educated and of low income status; nearly 45 percent of women with GEDs are smokers compared to less than 10 percent of college educated women who smoke. In order to improve women's health and ultimately save lives, Dr. Healton urged that public health and policymakers need to work together to improve the availability and accessibility to comprehensive cessation services. "We know what works...I'm proof positive that quitting is possible," she said.
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Communities Protest Family Dollar on World No Tobacco Day
On Thursday, May 31, 2012 several local community groups around the country used World No Tobacco Day to speak out against a recent decision by Family Dollar to market and sell commercial tobacco products in its stores. With over 7,000 locations nationwide, Family Dollar is one of the largest discount chain stores in the country. Legacy joined with other national organizations including Break Free Alliance and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in sending a clear and consistent message to Family Dollar regarding the adverse public health impact of their decision.
Using a new toolkit developed by Legacy, several local groups used World No Tobacco Day to take action in Milwaukee, WI, New Orleans, LA, Little Rock, AK, and Washington, D.C., with significant participation in each location. Two of these demonstrations were youth-led events organized by current and former Legacy Youth Activism fellows. In addition to holding signs, groups collectively distributed over 300 palm cards asking people to sign online petitions and to directly call Family Dollar to express opposition to its decision to sell commercial tobacco products.
Legacy was proud to support these local efforts and will remain committed to efforts that reduce tobacco marketing and access particularly in communities with high disparity rates in tobacco use.
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Training the Next Generation of Tobacco Control Activists
Advocacy, Education, Organizing and Service. These are the four tenets of the framework for Legacy's Youth Activism Fellowship (YAF), an 18-month leadership program for young adults committed to tobacco control. Now half way through their term of service, the 2012 cohort gathered in San Francisco to further their training towards a collective mission to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.
During the multi-day gathering, the fellows tapped into the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and oriented with the staff and leadership of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco. The training also covered non-legislative policy advocacy, grassroots organizing and project planning. These gatherings facilitate the exchange of valuable ideas and encourage dynamic interaction that culminates towards the end of the meetings - skills that will enhance the application of their individual local tobacco control projects. Several of the Fellows will be working toward passing tobacco-free policies within local college campuses.
The Legacy Fellows will meet next and present at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Kansas City, MO in August, 2012.
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Low Smoking Rates Among Some College Students Not to be Taken "Lightly"
Much of the research around smoking and tobacco control deals with heavy use of tobacco, but a new report released this month suggests that what we might deem as "social" smoking warrants a closer look, especially among our nation's young people.
Dr. Amelia Arria of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and her colleagues examined the tobacco use patterns over time among college students in order to provide more insight into this population. They found that while many college students smoke, few smoke daily or are nicotine dependent. Of college students who smoked during their first year of college, the largest group comprised "low" smokers. Moreover, for many low-level smokers, light tobacco use remained stable throughout their four years. While on the surface it might seem like this would be good news for public health, it is important to recognize that even "light" smoking can have adverse health outcomes for these young smokers.
Read more from Dr. Healton's blog here.
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Setting the Stage for a Life-Saving Effort
Theater fans have a new opportunity to save lives and money by buying Broadway show tickets at Givenik.com. Givenik.com is a new way to get discount tickets, premium seats and group rates to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. As a beneficiary, 5 percent of every ticket purchased supports Legacy's work.
To purchase tickets, visit www.givenik.com, and designate "American Legacy Foundation" as your charity of choice -under the "Health" section.
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