Midlands teens "Rage" against tobacco use

By Katie McKay Community activism has helped South Carolina get teen smoking under control, but a cut in funding could land one advocacy group in a bind. Cigarette smoking has been identified as the number one preventable cause of morbidity and premature mortality nation-wide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   And the state of South Carolina is still behind on tobacco control but working to catch up. According to the American Lung Association's report on the state of tobacco control, South Carolina failed every category, including taxes and youth access. With an estimated 213,380 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed in 2007 and 80 percent of lung cancer cases caused by smoking, according to the American Lung Association, teens are taking the lead in the Palmetto State to help lower the percentage of young people who smoke and are actively promoting healthy lifestyles to their peers. More than a decade ago, things were much different in many Columbia-area high schools. Neal Kelly, 31, attended Spring Valley High School in the '90s.  He said he started smoking when he was 14 or 15 because he thought it was cool. "I saw celebrities doing it. Everyone doing it,"" he said.  "The school had a place for us to smoke.  It was called the Back Porch." He says that even if you weren't 18 you could go smoke there. No one ever said anything to anyone. When they finally told the students they could no longer smoke at the Back Porch, Kelly said the students would just cup a cigarette and go outside. "The worst they would do to you was give you hours of in-school suspension,"" he said. Things are much different now.  High school campuses are smoke-free and it is much more difficult for high school students in the Columbia area to purchase cigarettes. "If they don't have an I.D., they know not to even come through my door,"" a manager at a Kangaroo Express says.  The store is located right down the block from a local high school.  She says they don't have any problem with high school kids trying to buy cigarettes. The change becomes clearer when you look at the numbers.  In 1999, the percentage of high school students in South Carolina who smoked was 36 percent, according to the CDC.  In 2007, that number was 18.7 percent. One group leading the way in tobacco prevention and control is Rage Against the Haze.  The group began in 2002 and is a student leadership program that preaches the benefits of healthy living and making right choices, such as not smoking. The Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control, a part of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, has dubbed the group "South Carolina's teen movement against tobacco use." They focus on peer-to-peer conversations and advocacy to get their message out. "The last person a teen a gonna listen to is the school," said Mary-Kathryn Craft, a spokesperson for the Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control.  She said that the group finds it much more effective to go to teens instead of waiting for teens to come to them. And it seems to be working.  Teen smoking percentages are dropping and Rage currently has a membership of about 6,000 high school and middle school students.  In 2007 alone they recruited 1,700 teens into their ranks. The organization uses many tools to spread their message.  Their web site is highly interactive and teen friendly, playing music, providing downloads and allowing teens to find information easily.  They also utilize one of the most recognizable staples in any high school now, Facebook. The group's biggest community program is the Football Tour.  Going into its third year, the Football Tour taps into what some might say South Carolina high school students love best: football. "On Friday night in South Carolina, teens are at football games," says Craft. Rage picks some of the hottest high school football match-ups around the state and goes to work. They use this venue as a platform to recruit as well as get their message out.  They set up a tailgate theme, complete with televisions and videogames, loud music, prizes, and give-aways, says Craft. Rage mostly focuses on empowering teens to make good choices and it appears they are having an effect statewide. Craft says that she knows they are making an impact and the proof is in the numbers, dwindling teen smoking percentages and soaring Rage member numbers prove this. But Rage now faces a problem.  A cut in state funding has left them in a tight spot.  Craft says they have enough money left over from last year to get through this season's Football Tour.  But they will need to hit the ground running to find more funding; otherwise the program could be discontinued. They are trying to organize groups in individual schools to keep the message they bring alive but Craft says that with no funding things like the Football Tour might not be possible anymore.