Study Links Candy Cigarettes to Smoking

[TechBear_Seattle]

Put this in the category of "Things everyone has known for decades but which has only now been proven true."

Study Links Candy Cigarettes to Smoking

Candy cigarettes predispose children who play with them to smoke the real things later, new research concludes.

The look-alikes made of candy or gum are marketing and advertising tools that desensitize kids and open them moreso to the idea of smoking later on, says study leader Jonathan Klein of the University of Rochester. Candy cigarettes cannot be considered simply as candy, Klein said.

The findings, from a nationally representative sample of 25,887 U.S. adults who were surveyed online via a Harris Poll, are detailed in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.

The study is the first to show a statistical link between a history with fake cigarettes and adult experiences with real smokes —22 percent of current or former smokers had also regularly consumed candy cigarettes, while only 14 percent of those who have never smoked had eaten or played with candy cigarettes often or very often.

The article continues at http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070618/sc_livescience/studylinkscandycigarettestosmoking

Come to think of it, I haven't seen candy cigarettes in years, although they were very popular back when I was a kid. Are they still being made and distributed in the US?

[Donnachaidh]

1. I haven't seen these in years, possibly over a decade or more

So why exactly are they doing this study NOW?

[LeighAnn]

2. They call 'em "Candy Sticks" now.

I don't even think they have the little red "cherry" on the end anymore, or the "filter". They used to be amazingly lifelike.

[Donnachaidh]

16. I remember them from when I was a kid

Aside from the pink colour, they were pretty lifelike. But they also had Winston ads during the Flintstones cartoons - WITH the Flintstones smoking!

[LeighAnn]

18. Tasty, too! And here's that commercial on YouTube

Thanks to our good buddy Ebaum

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oZsaHLjy9f4

LOLOLOL!!!

[gollygee]

3. I still see them

We used to get those all the time when I was a kid. Of course, my parents smoked and we thought it was cool.

I don't let my daughter get them.

[devilgrrl]

8. You see them where?

I haven't seen them since the 70's. Then again, I haven't exactly been looking either. :silly:

As for the candy alone, I liked the way they tasted and crunched in your mouth. I'm sure there's a way the same candy can be sold without referring to them as cigarettes.

[gollygee]

14. A couple of shops in southwestern Michigan

I've seen them around here.

[Zensea]

4. Sugar -- the gateway drug!

followed next by cigarettes

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Correlational data, of course.

It could be, for example, that smokers are more likely to give the play-cigs to their kids, and kids of smokers are more likely to smoke because of having the behavior modeled for them by their parents, so the candy cigs aren't part of the causal chain.

Nevertheless, why take chances? I don't see any redeeming value in the candy cigs, & wouldn't mind at all if we did away with them.

BTW--Betcha the tobacco cos. have good data on this.

[peace13]

9. Best thing to do is...

if you don't want your kids to have them don't buy them. Why legislate. I hate those paraffin lips but I sure don't want my congress critter trying to decide if they should be sold.

[Ariana Celeste]

11. precisely

Kids like to model themselves after their parents- that's what they know. And if their parents smoke, of course candy cigarettes will look appealing. If their parents smoke, more then likely they will be smokers themselves down the road.

I used to buy candy cigarettes as a kid. My parents are smokers. I wonder which one really influenced me to one day become a smoker, seriously.

[Occulus]

19. I know what it was that influenced ME

It was getting secondhand smoke from two people smoking about a pack a day from each the time I was brought home from the hospital as an infant after being adopted to about the time I was fourteen or fifteen. :grr:

And I used to tell them when I was a kid that they should quit and I swore I'd never do it myself. I wonder at what levels inhaling even secondhand smoke becomes addictive...

[napi21]

6. Yea, sure. That why I play with my revolver too! I loved playing

Lone Ranger & Tonto when I was a kid! :sarcasm:

This is just another study that doens't make any sense! Of course everybody has to jump on the "No Smoking" train now, huh?

I played Superman too, but I never jumped out of any windows!

A good talker can claim almost any study is valid if you're gullible enough to believe them!

[noamnety]

12. I don't get your reaction

Shouldn't we ALL be on the discouraging-kids-from-smoking train?

You make that sound like it's a bad thing.

[napi21]

15. The bad thing, IMO, is for everybody to be trying to blame smoking on

any dumb reason they can think of. And yes, I think blaming it on candy is one of the dumb ones!

Blame it on "Social promotion", motivating ads like the Marlboro Man, parents smoking, peer pressure and things like that at least makes sense. When people start to promote silly reasons, the whole program loses it's integrity.

[Occulus]

20. Then again, for a kid, this isn't bad logic:

These are candy cigarettes. They taste good.
My mom and dad smoke cigarettes. They must taste good too.

That's why candy cigs are a very bad idea: it gives the child positive reinforcement (in this case, a pleasurable flavor) that cigarettes are good. The fact that candy cigs used to look so much like the real thing is direct evidence of the attempt to make kids think exactly that.

There is nothing silly about it.

[Breeze54]

21. My Dad smoked 3 packs a day and I ate candy cigs. (Dial Up pics)

But I think my Dad and two brothers and one sister smoking and friends smoking
and peer pressure were the reasons I started smoking. Not the candy cigs! ;)
And probably advertisements, like that; "We've come along way, baby!" Virginia Slims ad!

[peace13]

7. Ha!

We had those. My dad smoked and one day when I was five I asked him if I could take a puff. I coughed and hacked and gagged. It was the best thing for me. I have never tried to smoke again. Of course it didn't stop me from smoking the 'candy stiks'. Good grief, we used to pretend to smoke with empty fingers. Should we cut the kids fingers off if they try this today? Peace, KIm

[gatorboy]

10. Overexposure to plumber's backsides have also been linked to actual crack smoking.

It's true!

[Breeze54]

22. lmfao!!

omg!! :rofl:

[LeftHander]

13. Philip Morris makes them I bet...nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Filtered on unfiltered?

[EFerrari]

23. Doug wrote a whole bit about this years ago.

Candy cigs, powder you do through a straw, pills on strips. He was right. :crazy: