Cigarilllos are the smaller versions of cigars, still generally made from natural tobacco, wrapped in tobacco leaf - unlike cigarettes, and sometimes called seven-minute-cigars ...for their burn time...
But many of them now come in flavors that anti smoking groups thought were enticing kids to smoke them... including peach, wine, grape, and chocolate.
Research from CASE Western Reserve University says about 3.7 percent of seventh- and eighth-graders reported smoking cigarettes, compared to 6.7 percent smoking little cigars in 2010, . In 2011, the high school student smoking rates were 11.4 percent for cigarettes and 16.9 percent for cigarillos.
Much of the appeal is the price. Taxes from the state will equalize the rate at 37% - the same as for cigarettes. Currently cigarillos are taxes like cigars and chewing tobacco, at only 17%.
Yearly revenues from cigarettes taxes exceed $1 billion in Ohio, but the state spends little of that money on prevention.
Read Ellen Jan Kleinerman's Article.
