Legislators unveil teen anti-smoking campaign

Iowa legislators hope to have teenage “evangelists” spread the anti-smoking mantra. The state’s new anti-smoking campaign centers around the idea of establishing teen clubs around the state. Representative Dave Heaton, a republican from Mount Pleasant, is the key architect of the plan. He envisions the plan as changing the attitudes about tobacco.Heaton says punishment doesn’t work — but peer pressure does, and that’s why he’s convinced anti-smoking clubs will work to cut Iowa’s smoking rate. The state is putting up about nine-and-a-half-million dollars for the program and the feds will probably chip in about six million more. A new state commission will administer the program — and one-third of the commission members will be kids.