Some years ago, to my distress, one of my sons began to smoke. "Can you believe it?" I hyperventilated to a friend. "I tell you, I could kill him."

I don't know what could have stopped him from addicting himself. Maybe nothing at all. But study after study has shown that the single most powerful deterrent to smoking is raising the price of a pack of cigarettes, says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Every day, 3,000 teens under 18 smoke their first cigarette, according to the American Lung Association in Washington, D.C. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that teen smoking has risen for five years in a row.