Frank Lautenberg: “Think about it: 3,000 young people a day start smoking; over 1 million a year. One-third of them will die prematurely…”

“Think about it: 3,000 young people a day start smoking; over 1 million a year. One-third of them will die prematurely, just as sure as we are standing here, if we don't make significant changes in the way tobacco is understood in our society--1 million kids a year. Wow, that is larger than some of our biggest cities. It is certainly larger than a lot of the countries that are on this globe. It is time we reach out a helping hand and say, ``OK, we are going to help you stop before you get started on this addiction.'' I hope our friends on the Republican side will join us. It was interesting for me to see what happened on two different occasions in these last couple of weeks. One was this very day, when a senior Member of the Senate on the Republican side, the Senator from New Hampshire, offered an amendment to say that there would be no protection for the tobacco companies, that they would have to face up to what the process is--whether it is the courts or negotiated settlements, or what have you--and take their chances. It drew a lot of votes. I think there were 75 votes in favor of the Gregg amendment.”