Anti-Smoking Bill Would Assist States That Bar Sales to Youths

States that prohibit tobacco sales to minors and enact other anti-smoking provisions would become eligible for $100 million in grants under legislation introduced in the Senate Thursday.

Sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the bill would reward states that bar the sale of cigarettes to youths under 18, restrict vending machine sales of cigarettes to places where minors are not permitted and end the distribution of free samples of cigarettes.

Other provisions provide grants for states that ban smoking by minors in schools. The grants, to be funded through a 1-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax, would be used for enforcement of the state laws.

The Senate will not act on the bill until the fall.

“We need to send a message to children--smoking kills,” Lautenberg said at a press conference.

Young people who smoke are “a tough group to reach, and education alone won’t do it,” said former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in urging support for the bill, which is also endorsed by the American Heart Assn., the American Lung Assn. and the American Cancer Society.

Four out of five current smokers began before they were 21, Koop said.

Gary Miller, spokesman for the Tobacco Institute, called the legislation “a solution in search of a problem,” noting that many states already have adopted such laws but are not enforcing them.

Miller said that tobacco advertising is designed to “enhance brand loyalty and induce market shifts. Advertising doesn’t cause kids to smoke.”

Lautenberg said he is optimistic about the bill’s chances for approval because he believes the tobacco lobby’s influence is waning.

“There’s a real momentum growing in this country, an understanding of how dangerous smoking is,” Lautenberg said.