Center for Tobacco Treatment Research and Training (CTTRT) Blog

What is Kick Butts Day?
Kick Butts Day is a National day that raises awareness of preventing tobacco use among teens.  Youth meet face-to-face with state representatives and senators, departments of public health leaders and professionals. These are people that can help create change to reduce the influence of tobacco on youth in the communities.

Who attends Kick Butts day?
Approximately 200 youth from Massachusetts chapters of the The 84 Movement  attend Kick Butts Day every year. The meeting is held at Massachusetts State House where the youth are accompanied by their health professional mentors. 

What is The 84 Movement?
The 84 is a statewide movement of youth fighting tobacco in Massachusetts. The 84 represents the 84% of Massachusetts youth who did NOT smoke cigarettes when the movement began.   To learn more and how to get involved, please visit their website.

Kick Butts day Focus this Year
This year, the focus is on kicking JUUL, the popular e-cigarette among the youth nationwide.  According to the CDC, JUUL is a brand of e-cigarette that is shaped like a USB flash drive. A single JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes. It also comes in kid-friendly flavors and it’s small thus easy to hide. E-cigarettes pose serious health risks to youth and kids.

Across the US, e-cigarette use among high school students rose by 78% in 2018. In Massachusetts, 20.1% of high school students use e-cigarettes, while 6.4% smoke cigarettes. Tobacco use claims 9,300 lives in Massachusetts each year. It also costs the state $4.1 billion in health care bills (campaign for tobacco free kids). This year’s Kick Butts Day was a call for action to youth, policy-makers, state leaders and senators at every level.  They all need to do their part to reverse the youth e-cigarette epidemic and continue driving down youth tobacco use.