Cigarette sales to teens up sharply- Trend is blamed on budget cut

The Boston Globe ^ | May 1 2003 | Stephen Smith

[new cruelty]

The number of stores illegally selling cigarettes to teenagers in Massachusetts more than tripled in the past year, according to a new survey, after budget cuts forced health boards across the state to abandon their local inspection programs.

In an elaborate sting operation run by the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, teen volunteers were sent into shops to buy cigarettes in 68 municipalities that had stopped performing spot checks of tobacco sales. The teens were successful in 29 percent of the stores they visited in February, March, and April.

[kissthis]

This can't be....Raising taxes on cigarettes was supposed to reduce teen smoking.

[PetroniDE]

They can't smoke, but they can get abortions. Go Figure.
They can't gamble, but certain democrats want them to vote. Go Figure.

[sarasota]

Teens are going to get cigs whether they purchase themselves or not. Booze too. Some of our laws just don't stop "crime".

[Qwerty]

None of our laws stop crime. The punishments for breaking laws might deter crimes, but laws don't stop them.

[sarasota]

What happens when an underage teen buys cigs? Who gets the punishment?

[Cosmo]

I thought they were going to attribute teen smoking to their angst related too economic issues -- you know, blame teen smoking on bush and such.....stay tuned

[mr.pink]

Some fat kids would be better off smoking than stuffing their faces with junkfood.

[sarasota]

In other words, the kid commits the crime and the store keeper gets the punishment. Come to think of it, a local restaurant/bar was shut down because the bartender served one too many drinks to a customer.

[Just another Joe]

And this is with raised taxes on tobacco products AND with the settlement money from the MSA.
Where is all the money going you might ask?
Look at the pork bills for the legislatures.

If the legislatures don't want to be hypocritical (yeh, right) ALL money raised from taxes on tobacco products and the money from the MSA should go to tobacco related programs.

[DuncanWaring]

On the bright side, tobacco-tax revenues are up.

[robertpaulsen]

But the best way to keep kids away from marijuana is to legalize it and regulate it.

So much for that theory!

[bassmaner]

But the best way to keep kids away from marijuana is to legalize it and regulate it.

So much for that theory!

Up until about 10 years ago, laws against underage smoking or minors purchasing cigarettes were on the books but rarely enforced. In the years prior, the level of teenage smoking had been declining steadily, as it became less fashionable and kids were better educated about its effects. Then came the draconian laws, and guess what -- now smoking rates among minors are on the increase because of the "forbidden fruit" factor.

Laws forbidding alcohol possession/purchase by minors have, OTOH, fairly much have always been vigorously enforced, and anecdotal evidence suggests that minors find it more difficult to obtain alcohol than marijuana. So, IMO, "the best way to keep kids away from marijuana is {still} to legalize it and regulate it." This has the added benefit of ending the criminalization of adults for the sake of "the children" of Hillary's proverbial "village".

Like it or not, there will always be "forbidden fruit" factor among teenagers when it comes to age-controlled items. No matter how hard society tries to eliminate access of these items to minors, there will always be some bad apples that will get what they want. The best we can hope for is that kids get good information about the dangers of such things, not DARE-style lies and scare tactics that encourage experiments with "forbidden fruit".