Kentucky High Schools Grow Tobacco

Students at Kentucky's Oldham County High School grow tobacco on school property as part of the school's federally-funded tobacco quota that also involves 39 other Kentucky schools. Shannon White, principal of Montgomery County High School, one of the schools with a tobacco base, defended the practice: "We do anything and everything we can do to try to keep the kids from smoking."

"For example," said White, "we frequently remind the children that the tobacco they are growing is not just being made into cigarettes. It can be used to make many other fine products that society needs, such as snuff, chewing tobacco, and gourmet cigars." When White was asked how he could claim to discourage student smoking while simultaneously encouraging kids to grow tobacco, he said: "It's not like our students are a bunch of crack dealers. I mean, sure, students do grow cocaine on school property as well, but they don't sell it." He then admitted that they do sell it, but he defended the practice, saying "it's government-subsidized."