I can remember riding my bike to the Casey’s store down the street nearly every Saturday morning during those early summer days. My non-gender oriented posse and I lived on the edge.

We peddled at life-threatening speeds over gaping sidewalk cracks and past ferocious dogs to pick up our favorite weekly treat.

First rip of the pack delivered the candy’s hot pink tip trademark. The pencil-thin white sugar candy sticks that crumble in the mouth with a taste and consistency similar to chalk resembles one distinct flashback to rebels like myself; the popular era of the candy cigarette.

While packs of brands like Lucky Lights, Kings, Camales and Ralettes once seemed to portray a certain air of James Dean cool, the tasteless candy seems to have lost its luster to the kids of today.

Until recently I didn’t even know the fake cancer sticks were still on the market.

But good old Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has launched his anti-smoking drive attack onto the defenseless and historic candy cigarette.

Miller feels that this American fossil of candies may be a reason so many teens smoke today.

Bob Brammer, Miller’s spokesman, told a Des Moines Register reporter, “Our concerns are whether candy cigarettes may foster the youth’s interest in tobacco cigarettes.”

Is Miller really that hard-up for things to fill his agenda?

For the past year, the attorney general’s office has spent the Iowa tax payers’ dollars on trying to gain access to information from two New York-based corporations which make the confections.

He claims the producers are reluctant to share documents about their marketing strategies.

When was the last time you opened up a magazine to see countless ads for a candy cigarette? Do you think a lot of thought goes into the placement of the phony fags among all the other candy by the cash register?

Apparently the state of Iowa is alleging the candy companies are partially responsible for the number of smokers who started before they were 18 years old.

Hey, maybe we should stop serving soda in a can to every kid who is under 21. We wouldn’t want to be encouraging the enjoyment of a cold and refreshing beverage in a can.

It could lead to preconceptions that it would be acceptable to partake in the occasional cool one later in life.

Oh, and what about that fake vomit that is always so popular?

Are we laying the foundations for a society bent on practicing bulimia?

Let us not forget those grossly oversized bright red wax lips. We might as well just be bottling sex to teenagers.

Miller and his cronies have found studies that candy cigarettes could even encourage children to eat tobacco.

More than 8,000 children younger than age 6 were reported to have mistakenly eaten real cigarettes in 1996, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

This sounds to me like a call for parenting evaluations, not a mob-like connection between Skoal and a candy company.

Here’s a plan: Let people think for themselves. Put out the information, educate people and let them make their own decisions. America needs to quit trying to push all of our problems underground.

Mr. Miller, why don’t you call up Kenneth Starr and waste the tax payers money somewhere else?

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Ellyn Peterson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Algona.