Lubbock Regional MHMR Center Fights Youth Tobacco Use

March 30, 2004

Lubbock Regional MHMR Center supports thousands of kids across the country who are taking part in Kick Butts Day, a nationwide initiative that makes kids leaders in the effort to stop youth tobacco use. Throughout the year, young advocates take part in a variety of activities to protect kids from tobacco, including working with elected officials to develop policies that reduce youth tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke and educating their peers about tobacco companies’ deceptive marketing practices.

On March 31, elementary, middle and high school students across the country are organizing Kick Butts Day events to fight youth tobacco use.  Young people will participate in a variety of Kick Butts Day activities such as surveying tobacco advertising in their communities; urging local officials to support anti-tobacco ordinances; and tossing caps, hats, jackets and other items carrying tobacco brand names into giant dumpsters.  In 2003, thousands of kids carried out more than 1,500 events.  We expect this number to increase in 2004. 

“Kids are a powerful part of the solution to reducing youth tobacco use,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which coordinates Kick Butts Day.   “For Kick Butts Day 2004, kids are sending two important messages: they want the tobacco industry to stop targeting them with advertising and they want elected leaders at all levels to do more to protect them from tobacco.”

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people every year. Every day, more than 4,000 kids try their first cigarettes; another 2,000 kids become addicted smokers, one-third of whom will die prematurely as a result.

For more information about tobacco use cessation/prevention, contact Glenn Larsen, Prevention Resource Center* Coordinator for Lubbock Regional MHMR Center @ (806) 766-0306.  For information on the national initiative, visit the Kick Butts Day website at kickbuttsday.org.

*Lubbock Regional MHMR Center’s Prevention Resource Center is funded by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Addiction.