O’Brien, E. (1998, November 30). "‘Beedies’ are teens’ newest addiction." The Boston Globe, pp. B1, B6.

OVERVIEW

"Beedies" are sweet little, hand wrapped, sweet tasting cigarettes, made in India and coming to the U.S. youth culture. They hit underage smokers in L.A. about 1993, moved on to cities like San Francisco, Cleveland, Chicago, and became popular with Boston kids in the late 1990s.

 

Hand-rolled in India, beedies are unfiltered and tapered at one or both ends and resemble a marijuana cigarette more than a machine-rolled Camel or Winston. These thin Indian cigarettes in sweet flavors like cherry and vanilla—or bidis, depending on the brand—come in pink packages that make them look more like party favors than smokes.

 

Greg Connolly heads the state’s tobacco control program for the Department of Public Health:

 

It’s a phenomenon we are just now seeing. It’s mostly in ethnic neighborhoods. It’s become sort of urban chic.

 

It’s not the main stores but small neighborhood stores that carry them because they can get away with selling the bright cone-shaped packages to children who immediately conceal them. Boston School Police Lieutenant Michael Hennesey says:

 

It’s just too bad that these stores would take advantage of the kids. We find them on kids as young as 13. The kids are smoking those more than anything else. We confiscate them all day long.

 

One 15-year-old puffing boldly on a beedie boasted:

 

I can buy them. But they always tell me that I have to come in when no one else is around.

 

Dino Lopes, 15, is not a smoker but is in the know:

 

They have vanilla, pineapple, cherry, grape, licorice, and strawberry. I never tried it—OK, maybe a couple of times, but I hated it. It gets you very light headed.

 

Jose Barros (16) sits "on a crumbling cement stairwell across from Madison Park High School in a navy Tommy Hilfiger jacket, baggy Fubu jeans, and Timberland all-purpose boots, and like boys and girls across the city, 16-year-old Barrios has in his pocket the latest fad to sweep through high schools and city blocks..." About beedies he comments:

 

They’re not really cigarettes like Marlboro that has nicotine and tar and stuff like that.

 

That’s not what health officials in California found. In fact, a beedie contains 8 percent nicotine, four times that of American cigarettes. And a beedie has twice the level of tar (a cancer-causing agent) than a Marlboro. School officials say students continue to tell them that beedies are not harmful to their health.

A San Francisco study in early 1998 surveyed 461 students in four city high schools and found that 58 percent of them had tried beedies at least once or knew of someone who had.

Reasons for the popularity of beedies?

• It’s a new fad; something new lots of kids are doing.
• They’re cheaper than cigarettes or $2 for 20 instead of $4.
• They’re sweet tasting and cool smelling, a funky odor like marijuana or incense.
• They like to think and often get blamed for smoking marijuana when they aren’t.

This writer was able to talk with two shop managers who carry beedies. Lynn Rufo of central Square refuses to sell to minors though they pester her for them; she had this to say:

 

They are a big deal. From what I can gather, the kids say they can get thrown out of places because it smells like marijuana. And a lot of them say they are not as addictive as cigarettes.

 

Joshua Digo, owner of a small shop in Roxbury, also says he will not sell to children:

 

I think a lot of business people (small store owners) think it’s not tobacco, you know. All the kids want their beedies. I tell them no, but they can get someone else to (come in and) buy it for them.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Is this new to you, or did you know all about beedies? What impressed you most here, or what do you have to add?
2. What does this article tell you about kids, about smoking, about business, and about our society generally?
3. What do you think of the marketing strategy for beedies?
4. Are inner constraints or external restraints more effective in protecting children against harmful agents?

IMPLICATIONS

1. As in the marketing of sweet wine coolers and beers to urban youth, there is a strategy here to go after youth most vulnerable—in terms of their life style and social care.
2. Distributors and sellers (or pushers) of harmful substances care about kids buying their products. Many of these kids have no one else that does really care for their welfare. Until they do, they will take what is available to make life fun, cool, and somewhat exciting.

Dean Borgman cCYS