Young people protest tobacco companies

INDIANAPOLIS -- An anti-smoking group comprised of high school and college students protested tobacco companies by throwing mock body bags on downtown streets.\nAbout 350 young members of the group Voice attended the Sunday protest, saying they wanted to take a stand against tobacco companies using Indiana as a testing ground for new products.\nThe students brought coffins and mock body bags to symbolize deaths caused by smoking. They also planned to march with a caged guinea pig to show resentment of being used as a testing ground, but the cold weather kept the animal inside.\nAdam Ludwig, 22, said the group's criticism isn't of smokers but of cigarette companies that market to young people.\n"It's their next potential customer," he said. "We always say that when they kill off their current customers, they have to find new ones to market to."\nCorey Scharbrough, 17, of New Castle, held a 3-foot-long black coffin at the protest.\n"Smoking is horrible," he said. "It's just ruining people's lives and costing us money."\nIndiana has the second-highest adult smoking rate in the nation, trailing only Kentucky. Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation says 27 Hoosiers die each day from smoking-related illnesses.\nThe smoking rate among high school students decreased 32 percent from 2000 to 2004, but that wasn't enough for the young people marching on a windy, 41-degree day.