Oral Cancer News

“They have packages that target teens by the new colors. The bright colors are coming back,” says Valley High School Raze Members Akasia Smith. “What we do is we try to tell them just because it looks pretty doesn’t mean you should do it.”

A press conference was the main activity by Raze that day. During that time, students spoke about new forms of spitless tobacco.

Snus, the new pouch form of spitless, is already available in West Virginia. However, new forms called sticks, strips, and orbs are being test marketed in states around the country like Ohio, Indiana, and Oregon.

“Orbs look like a tic tac,” explains Raze Member Zack Morris. “It comes in a case that looks like a cell phone so teachers wouldn’t be able to see it. It has about five times the amount of nicotine in one orb as one cigarette does.”

Morris also described the other forms. Strips are like mouth freshening strips except in tobacco form while sticks are concentrated, smokeless sticks of tobacco.

The kids representing Raze also held signs at the Capitol that told what county they represented. Raze has been around for nine years and is funded by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the Department of Education, and the American Lung Association.