#Statement: “Yeah, it’s 4 a.m., and she’s out there / With the razor-sharp tongue stuck to skinny cigarettes” — “Mean girls” by Charli XCX For the past few weeks I’ve felt a little insane. I have been chasing a phantom phenomenon, something I knew was happening but that I couldn’t find any data to support. Unless I really am going crazy, I think you’ve probably seen it too: In the past year or two, cigarettes have made a strange comeback among Generation Z. I noticed it first during the summer before my freshman year of college when a pack of cigarettes suddenly became an essential nightly staple for my friend group. When I got to the University of Michigan, the situation was the same. Someone would casually break out a cigarette at a house party and lure half the group into a line of supplicants eager for a hit, joking that drunk cigarettes didn’t count or pointing out that they’d die whether they smoked or not while holding the lighter’s flame to the tip. After I noticed this, I...