Stricter Control Urged in Tobacco Availability

Researchers who sent an 11-year-old girl into 100 stores to buy cigarettes to dramatize the ease with which children can get tobacco have called for enactment of model state laws to control tobacco use among minors--and significantly better enforcement of existing laws.

The project, undertaken by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, involved cigarette purchases made by a sixth-grade schoolgirl. She was successful in her attempts in 75 of the 100 Massachusetts stores she visited under supervision of project investigators.

Report Published

A report of the research study was published in the June 26 Journal of the American Medical Assn. The researchers, led by Dr. Joseph DiFranza, noted that 10 states don’t legally bar children from buying smoking materials and that, of the 40 states that do have laws of some sort, most don’t enforce their statutes effectively.

Only two states, DiFranza said in a telephone interview, have anything approaching effective programs--Oklahoma and South Carolina. California authorities, he said, have never made an arrest under laws here that bar sales to anyone under 18.

Team Urges Enactment

The DiFranza team urged enactment of new state laws that would: outlaw possession of tobacco by children completely, a stricture now in effect in only 12 states; prohibit tobacco use on school grounds; prohibit tobacco sales to people under 21; require school courses in the health hazards of tobacco; outlaw cigarette vending machines and reward informers who turn in anyone selling tobacco to minors. Enforcement of the laws would be significantly strengthened.

“We need to put some teeth in state tobacco laws and make them enforceable,” DiFranza said. The research report concluded: “Given that only 10% of current smokers began as an adult, enforcement of minors’ tobacco-access laws presents a unique opportunity to deal a mortal blow to this fatal addiction.”