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"My daddy taught me smoking is not good for you. I believed him
in 1955 and I believe him today. I don't believe sucking up smoke of any
kind is good for you ... If you are 21 and want to take a drink, smoke a
cigarette, eat saturated fat, break into caffeine and coffee, I think that's
bad for you ... There will be some adults that want to do it. It's a free
country. If (they) want to do it, (they) can do it" (Virgil Goode,
speaking before Connie
Jorgensen's class at Piedmont Virginia Community College, April 15, 1998).
"I do want to see tobacco to continue to be grown in
Virginia and to benefit the
Virginia economy ... If we could grow coffee in Virginia, I'd like to
see us grow coffee, even though that's not good for you. We have a lot of
dairy cows and people that drink whole milk. I think you ought to drink
skim milk myself. And I support the dairy farmers. I was responsible for
a bill to make milk the state drink in Virginia. That was in the early 1980's
... So I am concerned about the tobacco legislation and its impact on the
tobacco growers in Southside Virginia" (Virgil Goode, speaking before
Connie Jorgensen's class at Piedmont Virginia Community College, April 15,
1998). "If you make under age smoking against the
law that's fine." said Goode. Goode does not think the Joe Camel ad
and the Winston Cup are as big an influence on smoking as peer pressure,
though he admits they may have an indirect influence through peer pressure
(Virgil Goode, speaking before Connie Jorgensen's class at Piedmont Virginia
Community College, April 15, 1998). He says, "if
you want to be serious about underage smoking, what you ought to do is what
Virginia did with drinking. If you smoke a cigarette, you lose your license
for six months. That will grab your attention won't it ..." Goode said,
under such a plan, 14 and 15 year olds who don't have a license yet would
have to wait until they are 16 years and 6 months to get their driver's
license after the first cigarette and until they are 17 years old to get
their license after the second cigarette" (Virgil Goode, speaking
before Connie Jorgensen's class at Piedmont Virginia Community College,
April 15, 1998). "Rather than focus on advertising,
we need to focus on responsibility. If you are smoking and under the age
of 18 and the national will is to determine that's not good for you, we
should put some penalties on you; that's my view ... (Virgil Goode, speaking
before Connie Jorgensen's class at Piedmont Virginia Community College,
April 15, 1998). "The first student that asked a
question responded to Goode's proposal 'that getting caught smoking while
underage would mean the loss of driving privileges' said something like
'...I'm sure glad I'm 18...'" (Connie Jorgensen, 1998).
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