Source: www.keloland.com
Author: Katie Janssen

They look just like candy and gum; pop them in your mouth and they melt like mints. It may sound innocent enough, but they’re just as addictive as cigarettes.

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Tobacco companies are adding new products, and experts say they’re getting better at targeting them to kids. But a group of Mitchell teens is trying to see through the hype and educate parents and their peers.

They call themselves “Unfiltered Reality,” and around 300 middle and high school students are part of the Mitchell group. Their goal is to educate as many people as possible not just about what smoking can do, but how today’s kids are increasingly targeted.

“Actually make it look like candy, boxes color-coordinated with candy, gum, Tic-Tacs, make it look closer,” Zane Ireland, a senior at Mitchell High School and member of Unfiltered Reality, said.

And they have several examples. They found a can of apple-flavored chewing tobacco that looks very similar to apple-flavored mints and gum.

A small cigarillo looks just like a tube of lip balm, and the tiny cigars come in flavors like pina colada and tangerine.

And they also found a pack of cigarettes that looks a lot like breath mints, and the cigarettes even contain a mint capsule that smokers can pop to add flavor.

“Pretty colors, cool shapes and designs; more people would think it’s cool and want to try it,” Emma Kelly, also a senior at MHS and member of Unfiltered Reality, said.

The group spends a lot of time researching how tobacco companies are constantly marketing to teens, and they share their findings with anyone who will listen.

“To other tobacco prevention groups, we do them for youth, have training for our own youth and for other schools to come,” Kelly said.

They hope their work will convince teens to stay away from nicotine because no matter how pretty the package, the effects are as dangerous as they’ve always been.

“What kinds of cancer it causes, what it does on a person, the toll it takes on someone who’s around it, second-hand smoke,” Ireland said.

The Mitchell School District’s prevention specialist says more products are on the horizon: Strips that dissolve on your tongue, dissolvable toothpicks and little flavored candies that look like breath mints, all made of nicotine. Some of these products will be available in South Dakota in January.