With a Marlboro cigarette luxuriously dangling out of the corner of her mouth, senior Jen Hart* feels like a thirty-something businesswoman on a New York City penthouse balcony celebrating closing a $1 million deal. Wisps of smoke swirl into her nose reeking of sweet nicotine and deliver a buzz almost strong enough to make her forget where she really is: alone on a dim patio outside a house party among wilting potted plants and crushed Bud Light cans. Hart smokes cigarettes solo on mostly the outskirts of parties or on her balcony after her parents are asleep. Either way, she feels cooler than an 18-year-old high school student. “When I’m holding a cig, I feel sophisticated,” Hart said. “Like one of those pretty women in an old vintage ad.” As studies show and students report that smoking cigarettes is increasingly “cool” again, experts warn against the harm cigarettes continue to cause teens. Teen smoking nationally dropped to an all-time low of 2% in 2021 — down from nearly 23...