"I don't know why anyone would smoke them, personally," says Greg Jones, manager of Creager Mercantile, a Denver - based tobacco wholesaler. "It's probably just the way they look." Until recently few people knew what they were, but in recent months bidis have made headlines. State attorneys general, including Colorado's Ken Salazar, have urged federal officials to restrict their importation because they have become so popular with the underage youth.

Recently, Durango tobacco shop owner Don Hall stopped selling bidis at his store after agents caught him in a sting operation that targeted Internet companies selling to minors. Bidis, which minors can't legally buy in Colorado, look nothing like traditional American- made cigarettes. Some even come in kid - friendly flavors such as chocolate and strawberry, a fact that hea

"I tried them years ago and didn't really like them," he says. "The smoke smells like leaves burning in your yard. That's what I didn't like." Bidis have been popular in India for centuries, where they are viewed as the "poor man's cigarette" and cost less than a nickel a pack. Upper - class people smoked them until American cigarettes became the rage; now they are the flavored smoke of low - income and rural Indians.

lth authorities find particularly vexing. The national Campaign for Tobacco - Free Kids maintains that the flavoring is added specifically for the American youth market.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tobacco Shop, Free Kids, TAFT School, , Don Hall, Creations Broadway, Mercantile Denver, Burhams Bidis, Ken Salazar, Remy Parker, tobacco shop, don't smoke, american youth, smoking bidis, jerri's tobacco shop, jerri's tobacco,
Approximate Word count = 894
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)