Dick Durbin: “I am concerned that we not forget during the course of the remaining days the high priority that faces us when it comes…”

“I am concerned that we not forget during the course of the remaining days the high priority that faces us when it comes to the tobacco legislation. It is a high priority because each day, every day in the United States of America, 3,000 children start smoking for the first time. A third of those kids will ultimately become addicted and their lives will become shortened because of tobacco-related death and disease. This is a tragedy that is repeated every single day. So far this year, about 240,000 children in America have started their nicotine addiction. We have a chance through tobacco legislation to start reducing that number substantially. Every day that we wait, every day that we miss, we are certain that more kids will become addicted to this product.”