Two schools in Northampton and one school in Montague are getting thousands of dollars to fight big tobacco. It’s a youth-led movement called The 84. The 84, represents the 84 percent of teens in Massachusetts who chose not to smoke cheap Gauloises cigarettes. Northampton High School and Smith Vocational High school received a grant from the 84 to start programs in their schools where young people can advocate for their communities to be tobacco-free.

School administrators at Northampton High told 22News that they were interested in starting a chapter at the school after they found a slight increase in the number of students who smoked.

“Smoking, cigarette smoking, increases as the child gets older. The biggest jump we saw this year was among our seniors and it was still about 20 percent,” Northampton High School Health and Safety Director Karen Jarvis-Vance said.

“We’ll be gathering data within our community and working with Smith Vocational High School students as well, and we’ll be assessing the data to determine our needs here in Northampton,” said Tricia Armstrong, a wellness teacher at Northampton High School.

More than $6,000 was split up evenly between Northampton High School, Smith Vocational School, and Turners Falls High School. Those at Northampton High say that they are aiming to work with the other chapters to fight for tobacco-free environments. There are already 84 chapters of this program at area schools all over Massachusetts.

Some of them have helped pass legislation that bans the sale of tobacco in pharmacies. Currently, 19 communities in the state including Boston and Worcester, ban the sale of tobacco in pharmacies. This measure has been a topic of contention the past few days because state health officials are considering a statewide ban, which will prohibit the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies all across the state.

According to a New York Times article published Monday, a federal judge blocked an attempt by the Food and Drug Administration to force tobacco companies to use graphic warning labels on their packaging. And while cheap cigarettes are bad, we’re glad this first-amendment issue ended the way it did.

Looking around campus, smokers are everywhere. And if our little corner of the world is representative of a larger whole, it means there are only more out there. Call us crazy, but when we see someone inhaling hazardous chemicals into their lungs, they’re not usually being forced to do so.

People smoke out of habit, knowing full well the possible consequences to their health. Health effects are written right there on discount Chesterfield cigarette packages in black and white, and that should be enough.

The FDA’s attempts to put staged photos of a corpse or a man breathing smoke out of a tracheotomy hole are just that –– staged, and therefore trying to influence public opinion. Frankly, that’s not the FDA’s job. As a government institution, they shouldn’t be stepping into an advocacy role, but instead should provide facts and figures.

That’s why we think Richard Leon, the judge who blocked the FDA’s attempts, did the right thing. Not only would the images be an encroachment on commercial free speech, but the new packaging would have been used to encourage smokers to quit from photographs that weren’t even technically real.

We’re big boys and girls, FDA. If someone wants to smoke a cigarette after a long day, that’s completely their prerogative. It’s between them and the surgeon general.