Tobacco Resolution

The Centers for Disease Control says more than 2.5 million Floridians are smokers. A number of anti-smoking groups are still trying to reduce that number.

Middle and High School students met at Springfield City Hall Monday to ask city officials to support Tobacco Resolution 11-04.

The Resolution is a statewide initiative from Students Working Against Tobacco or SWAT. It calls attention to tobacco companies marketing of so-called candy flavored tobacco products.

SWAT members say the tobacco companies are using the candy flavored product to market directly to kids. They’re hoping the resolution will have some influence on retail stores.

Lauren Coffman, County Representative "It's to urge to stop the sale of candy flavored tobacco. Within Bay County, the average initiation rate for tobacco is the age of eleven." Flavored tobacco can be Kiss cigarettes or GLamour cigarettes.

Many are divided on new cigarette labels

Kerry "Smokey" Hicks, owner of the Smokin' Fisherman in Clermont has on his counter a cigarette pack from Mexico, which shows the image of a dead baby lying on a bed of cigarette butts.

"I think it's stupid. How many different ways are they going to tell people cigarettes are bad for your health? It's foolish," Hicks said.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government is going to take cigarette warning labels a step farther by including a graphic photo of the negative health effects smoking causes.

The nine new images, which include a man with a tracheotomy smoking, a man with an oxygen mask and a sewn-up corpse, will be printed on the top half, both front and back of the packs. The images must appear on cigarette packs by the fall of 2012.