3 The Fight Against Youth Smoking
Since I took office I've done everything in my power to protect our children from harm. We've worked to make their streets and their schools safer, to give them something positive to do after school and before their parents get home. We've worked to teach our children that drugs are dangerous, illegal and wrong.
Today I want to talk to you about the historic opportunity we now have to protect our nation's children from an even more deadly threat: smoking. Smoking kills more people every day than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs and fires combined. Nearly 90 percent of those smokers lit their first cigarette before they turned 18. Consider this: 3000 children start to smoke every day illegally, and 1000 of them will die sooner because of it.