By Margo Snipe
ST. PETERSBURG — Heroin. Alcohol. Cigarettes.
The latter sounded the least harmful to 12-year-old Corben Arnold.
That morning at school, officers from a substance abuse prevention program gave a lecture. “No one grows up wanting to be addicted,” they said.
But that night, Arnold smoked a menthol cigarette from a pack of Pyramids in his friend’s garage.
In the 25 years that passed, Arnold smoked a pack of menthols a day, quitting occasionally. As a young man, the athlete put down the packs for baseball season. Then he picked them up again.
“I could turn it on and off,” said Arnold, a 42-year-old voiceover artist.
