Trouble for Net cigarette sales

This is timely for the Tobacco-Free Kids Campaign's 10th-annual "Kick Butts Day," April 13: "Two weeks after credit card companies announced they would no longer accept payment for tobacco products bought online, scores of Internet cigarette merchants have effectively lost the means to do business profitably," the New York Times reports. They are "either limping along or have shut down their operations altogether." Kick Butts Day is when "thousands of young people are expected to speak out against tobacco use," according to ConnectforKids.org's latest newsletter. "The initiative empowers young people to become leaders in stopping tobacco use." Connect for Kids cites figures from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids showing that "more than 2,000 children and teens become addicted to tobacco every *day*, one-third of whom will die prematurely." The Times cites the 2004 online cigarette sales figure to have been $1 billion. The US federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says online merchants "had not done enough to comply with age verification practices," among other requirements, according to the Times.