As state targets underage smokers many say efforts on wrong track

Diana Sahagun

Saturday, Aug. 22, 1998 | 5:44 a.m.

At 15, Kristen is a smoker.

She started a year ago when her friends introduced her to cigarettes in the schoolyard.

While blowing rings of smoke, a talent of which she is proud, she recalls the first time she put a Camel cigarette between her fingertips and inhaled.

"It was not a pretty sight," she said with a laugh, sitting on a bench outside Meadows mall on Valley View Drive. "I was coughing all over the place. But now it's just like second nature."

Kristen is among the 3,000 youngsters in the United States who begin smoking cigarettes illegally every day, according to a 1998 article in the Western Journal of Medicine.

She also is one of the teens Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa is targeting in a new campaign to reduce the numbers of minors buying tobacco over the counter.

A monthlong $100,000 advertising campaign aimed at reducing tobacco sales to youths in the Las Vegas Valley kicked off earlier this month. The catchy jingles and slogans have made their way onto television, radio, billboards and convenience-store doors and counters.

But will this campaign decrease teen smoking? Many believe it won't.

Some local teens recently spotted smoking outside the Boulevard Mall said they were not fazed by the new advertising campaign.

"Yeah, now it will be harder to buy smokes, but if I want them I can get them," 16-year-old Mary said. "I can always have older friends buy them for me. I really don't pay any attention to those ads (telling retailers not to sell to minors)."

In Nevada, increases in adolescent smoking have been apparent since 1991. The proportion of youths who have tried smoking has risen at all grade levels, according to the 1997 Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report published by the state Department of Education.

In 1992, Congress created the "Synar Amendment," requiring states to prohibit the sale of tobacco products to people younger than 18 and to enforce that law through random, unannounced inspections. This new advertising campaign works with that amendment.

During the next 12 months, 3,700 random "sting" operations of Las Vegas retailers will be conducted to make sure they are complying with the law, with each retailer being checked at least twice.

"With this program we'd like to put everyone on notice so they can't say the government set them up," Del Papa said. "This media campaign will go a long way in ensuring fairness to businesses."

Retailers will be fined if caught selling to underage youths. The first infraction is considered a warning, with fines ranging from $250 to $1,500. Owners eventually could lose their business licenses if they continue to sell tobacco to underage teens.

The attorney general's office has dedicated much time and money to this cause. In 1995 the Nevada Legislature budgeted $60,000 for the attorney general's office to pursue retailers selling tobacco to minors. The Interim Finance Committee approved another $234,000 last month to be shared between the attorney general's office and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Our ultimate goal is to decrease teen smoking, and this is one tool to help achieve that," Senior Deputy Attorney General John Albrech said.

But with all the money being used to make it harder for teens to buy cigarettes, some wonder what effect it will have on teens who smoke.

Sixteen-year-old Joe isn't concerned about the new campaign.

"My parents buy my cigarettes for me, so it really doesn't matter. They figure it's better than drugs."

Mandy Canales-Salazar, program director for the American Cancer Society in Las Vegas, is greatly concerned about the number of teens smoking in Nevada. Although she commends the attorney general's efforts, she maintains that they aren't enough to lower the number of teens who smoke.

"If we truly want to decrease youth smoking, we need an excise tax on cigarettes," she said. "The attorney general has an excellent approach, but we have to do more if we are serious about decreasing teen smoking."

Kristen gets $15 a week from her parents for "lunch money," half of which she spends on cigarettes. With the cost of a pack at an average of $1.50, she can afford two packs plus food each week.

"I can afford them because they are cheap. I mean, if they ran $5 a pop, then I would either have to go hungry or quit. But now they are well within my income, or my parents' income," she said with a laugh.

Government health officials last month predicted that 3.5 million Americans would quit smoking -- with youngsters such as Kristen leading the way -- if tobacco opponents succeed with a plan to double the price of a pack of cigarettes.

Albrech said he has not heard of any proposed tax increases on cigarettes in Nevada.

Does a ban on selling cigarettes to minors help decrease teen smoking? A compelling answer comes from Canada, where one of the world's toughest anti-smoking campaigns is under way.

Alarmed by the soaring cost of treating tobacco-related illnesses in its nationalized health-care system, Canada began dramatically raising tobacco taxes in the early 1980s.

According to a 1995 Business Week article, taxes had more than quadrupled in Canada, bringing the price of a pack of cigarettes to about $5. Because of these measures, "Canada has had precedent-setting declines in teen smoking," said Garfield Mahood, executive director of the Toronto Non-Smokers' Association.

Between 1979 and 1989, the number of teens in Canada aged 15 to 19 who smoked at least occasionally was cut in half to 23 percent.

According to Business Week, Canada also found that bans on selling cigarettes to minors, similar to the effort going on in Las Vegas, were notoriously difficult to enforce. Despite stiff new penalties, a University of Toronto survey in 1995 found that 59 percent of Ontario minors still routinely bought their cigarettes at stores.

The Nevada survey says 41 percent of the students who bought cigarettes in a store during the 30 days prior to the poll were not asked to show proof of age. That percentage, however, was a 50 percent improvement over 1995.

Hoping one day to be an actress, Kristen puts her talents to the test, asking adults outside convenience stores to buy smokes for her. Most of the time they comply, she said. And most of the time that's how she gets her cigarettes.

Chuck Robbins, president of Nevada Citizens United/Nevada Smokers Rights, is opposed to any legislation that would tax cigarettes.

"Increasing taxes won't stop teens from smoking," he said. "Every time there is a problem in America, it seems like they say, 'Let's raise taxes.' Teen smoking will always be here. When someone wants something, they are going to find a way to get it."

Joe, the 16-year-old smoker, agrees. He says when he's out of cigarettes, he "bums" them from older friends.

"They should just let it be. I want to smoke, I can afford to smoke, and even if I couldn't, well, I would just get them someplace else. We aren't stupid, you know. You can try to keep us from buying cigarettes, but we will get them," he said.

Robbins agrees it is important to make retailers comply with the law, but he does not see teen smoking as a big problem.

"Tobacco is an adult decision. As adults we should be able to do what we want. If you need more money to combat it, increase taxes so everyone pays their full share, not just the smokers," he said.

The National Association of Convenience Stores also works with retail outlets to stop the selling of tobacco products to minors. The association represents almost 3,600 convenience-store operators and other marketers and suppliers of petroleum products.

Lindsay Huttler, vice president of communications for the organization, said some strategies include posted signs that state the minimum age, regional training and free educational videos. She added that those are not the only ways to decrease teen smoking.

"Government and the industry can focus all we want on supply, but if we are not focusing on demand, kids will continue to smoke by accessing the product. We need to bring families and lawmakers together to make it a 'shared-industry' approach," she said.

As a result of undercover stings, new legislation, warning labels and millions of dollars spent on information campaigns, the number of teens who smoke has not changed much from more than 30 years ago, when the dangers of smoking were not as widely known.

In 1960, before there was a movement to get teens to stop smoking, 21 percent of students in junior and senior high school smoked cigarettes, according to a poll done by the Institute of Student Opinion on teenage smoking habits among 10,763 secondary-school students. At that time, only two-thirds of them believed smokers ran a greater risk of lung cancer than non-smokers.

Thirty-eight years later, with increased education and more money being spent on anti-smoking campaigns, nearly 16 percent of students smoke every year in Nevada, only a 5 percent decrease.

Kristen said she took a health class in school that informed her of the dangers of smoking, but obviously she did not take the information to heart.

"Cancer -- of course I don't want to get cancer. And I won't. I'll quit, later," she said.

Del Papa remains optimistic about the new campaign.

"I am really excited about this program," she said. "In 1993, there was a 61 percent buy rate, and in 1997, random checks at 700 locations showed that the buy rate had dropped to 19.8 percent."

Judith Wilkenfeld, an adviser to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, commended Nevada's efforts at a recent news conference announcing the new campaign.

"Excellent work is being done to keep your state not only nicotine-free but also to reduce tobacco sales to children," she said. "These rates are rising nationally, but Nevada is one of the few states which has good news to tell."

Robbins isn't as optimistic.

"Next year there will be another band of 14-year-olds who are going to want to smoke. What are they going to do then?"

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