Underage smokers in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. are more likely today than in 1995 to be thwarted trying to buy cigarettes from stores, according to data released Tuesday.
But critics said limiting legal access to smokes might be futile public policy.
A report issued by the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found the region’s tobacco retailers sell to minors about 10 percent of the time — slightly more in D.C. at 13.9 percent, and slightly less in Maryland at 9.5 percent. The numbers are down from a nationwide average of 40 percent in 1995.
The falling percentages coincide with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies showing a decline in teen tobacco use between 1997, when 43.4 percent of high schoolers admitted to smoking cigarettes, cigars or to chewing tobacco, and 2005, when 28 percent of teens admitted to the vices. Between 2003 and 2005, the number remained stable.
But the matching declines might not be related, according to several studies critical of what are seen as futile efforts to put taxpayer money toward controlling teen access to tobacco, rather than toward media campaigns and education initiatives.
“Although youth tobacco access restriction does not face strong political or industry opposition, it is likely to remain a failed strategy to control tobacco use,” found a 2007 report published in a health journal by Drs. Michael Craig and Neil Boris.
The authors analyzed five studies and found teens’ “social supply” of cigarettes overwhelm any stoppage resulting from one-time sting operations conducted by states at random gas stations and supermarkets. Effective enforcement of retailers, the studies found, would be too expensive to be politically feasible.
Susan Marsiglia Gray, who
coordinates the program that
generated the findings on retailers, said limiting access can’t stand alone.
“This is one part of a comprehensive tobacco control program. It’s essential, but it’s onepart,” she said.
