The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 60 percent of teenage smokers get their cigarettes from older friends and siblings.

To the Editor: Yes, jacking up the price of cigarettes may drive away a fraction of teenage smokers ("When Smoking Is a Matter of Money," May 1).

"The vast majority of teenage smokers say they get their cigarettes from adults, either relatives or acquaintances, not from stores," he said.

When Mike Doonesbury was asked to create an ad campaign aimed at teenage smokers, he suffered a morality crisis, and the hallucinatory Mr. Butts was the result.

Depression is also common in teenage smokers; teens who smoke are four times as likely to develop depressive symptoms as their nonsmoking peers.

In her complaint, Mangini alleged that teenage smokers accounted for US$476 million of Camel cigarette sales in 1992.

Childhood friend Margaret Raymond recalled that Kagan was a teenage smoker but not a partier.

Given the high number of teenage smokers today and anti-smoking efforts that may have backfired, we may face yet another generation of lung cancer victims.

Research has shown that each time the price of cigarettes goes up, the number of teenage smokers goes way down, and the number of adult smokers drops as well.

Since 1995, the number of adult and teenage smokers has declined 12.6 percent and 18 percent, respectively.