Bidis

Millions of times each day, a match strikes and a cigarette lights in the hands of a teenager. As parents, teachers and community leaders try to find ways to reduce teen smoking, teens are finding new products to smoke.

The latest craze is a small Indian cigarette called a bidi. Kids like the taste and the variety of flavors which range from cherry to peppermint. They also like the look. “It’s cool to be like a rebel, drive down the street, and smoke a bidi,” says seventeen year old Virginia. “People are looking at them like they’re smoking a joint or something.”

But behind the look and flavor, bidis deliver seven times the nicotine and two times the tar of regular cigarettes. “Beneath that attractiveness is something dangerous, highly dangerous to their health,” says Dr. Samara Asama, a researcher with the Centers for Disease and Prevention Control.

The increased danger is enough to scare some kids. “It’s crazy to smoke them unless you’re a moron and want to die,” says seventeen year old Kirk. But all kids are not easily convinced. Experts advise parents to teach kids about the dangers of smoking bidis and show them pictures and reports of people who have suffered or died from smoking any kind of cigarette.

What Parents Should Know

Many kids believe bidis are safe because they are often called herbal cigarettes. In fact, some researchers found that as many as half of kids smoking them were not aware of the high nicotine and tar content. Some kids even switch to bidis in an attempt to cut back on smoking.

The Indian cigarettes are often touted as herbal and therefore less harmful when in fact they can be much more powerful than American cigarettes. Bidis have been sold in the United States for many years and were at one time popular on college campuses, but now they are becoming trendy among many middle school and high school kids.

In the U.S. a pack of bidis can sell for just under $2.00. Kids like the variety of flavors which include licorice, cinnamon, mint, grape vanilla, cherry, clove, peppermint, strawberry and chocolate. Store owners say the bidi because of new flavors and are particularly popular among minorities. While they are often sold in bundles tied together by a string, bidis also come in boxes that are supposed to carry the surgeon general’s warning. Bidis are supposed to be taxed and should not be sold to minors.