Like other states, Virginia has strict age limits to buy cigarettes and alcohol. But young people often have little trouble purchasing those products: About one of every eight stores inspected by the state sells tobacco and booze to underage buyers. The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage control has a program to see whether alcohol and tobacco retailers abide by the law and to crack down on businesses that sell to underage buyers.

“ABC’s underage buyer program for alcohol and tobacco began in 1998 and employs more than 100 underage buyers throughout the state of Virginia,” said Carol Mawyer, a public relations specialist at the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. “They earn an hourly wage of $9.98.”

For ABC inspectors, that’s a good investment – because the underage undercover agents are effective in catching retailers who flout the law.
Between July 2009 and February 2012, the state conducted more than 9,700 underage buyer inspections. Thirteen percent of the time, retailers failed the inspection by selling to the underage buyer or committing another infraction, according to an analysis of the data by Capital News Service.

In the Alexandria region of Northern Virginia, 17 percent of the businesses failed inspection. In the Richmond/Fredericksburg region, the failure rate was 16 percent. The Roanoke and Southwest Virginia regions had the lowest failure rates – 9 percent.

Under state law, it’s illegal to sell tobacco products to people under 18 and alcohol to people under 21.

Applicants must look their age to be considered for the state’s underage buyer program.

“Candidates must be 15-17 years to qualify for the tobacco program and 17-19 years to qualify for the alcohol program,” Mawyer said. “Underage buyers ‘age out’ at 20, not 21, because we prefer that all court cases be completed before the underage buyer turns 21.”

Special agents, who are sworn police officers from ABC’s Bureau of Law Enforcement, are responsible for conducting criminal investigations, with emphasis on sale to underage or intoxicated persons. They also investigate complaints that relate to licensee misconduct.

These special agents supervise the undercover operatives as they enter different establishments. That way, the adult agents are on hand to witness the sale.

“Underage buyers use only their true state-issued ID to purchase alcohol or tobacco,” Mawyer said. “If the underage buyer is asked for their ID, they must show it. And if asked their age, they must be truthful and state it.”

Selling alcohol to a minor is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Class 1 misdemeanors are punishable with up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Stores that violate the law also face civil penalties and can have their ABC license suspended. The penalties can be stiff: A Henrico County convenience store that sold to an underage buyer was fined $10,000, and a cafe in Centreville, in Northern Virginia, was fined $8,000, according to ABC’s data. Both retailers were repeat offenders.

Overall, convenience stories, grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses with ABC licenses failed inspection 13 percent of the time. But one category of retailers rarely failed: the liquor stores operated by the ABC agency itself.

“ABC stores have had a 98 percent compliance rate for the past three years,” Mawyer said.

ABC is continually recruiting teenage operatives for the alcohol and tobacco underage buyer inspection program.

One of Maine’s most popular beaches is asking sunbathers to snuff the cigarettes. Old Orchard Beach has posted signs requesting beachgoers to extinguish cigarettes before hitting the beach. The signs say, in English and in French, “Please do not use tobacco products on our beach.” The Town Council passed a resolution in November that made the beach a voluntary smoke-free zone.

Hattie Simon, one of four local students who proposed the no-tobacco policy, tells NEWS CENTER “this effort has really come a long way and I think it’s our greatest accomplishment in Old Orchard Beach especially for me.”

Simon has been named the receipient of the 2012 Eastern Regional Youth Advocate of The Year Award by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Simon was nominated for the award by the Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) for her leadership and tireless tobacco advocacy efforts. She will receive a $2,500 scholarship and a $500 grant Simon will be flown to Washington, DC on May 16th to attend the Youth Advocates of the Year Awards Gala at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel on May 17th.

The Shell gas and convenience station at 1280 Wilbur Ave. will be banned from selling tobacco for three days later this month after a store worker was caught selling to a minor for the fifth time in five years.
If the station is caught selling to a minor again in the next two years, it could have its tobacco license pulled permanently, Board of Health Chairman Patrick O’Neil said.

The Shell station was caught in a sting on Feb. 23 by the regional Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative, which sent a 17-year-old into the store to buy cigarettes. He was sold a pack of Newports, Marilyn Edge, the collaborative director, said at a Board of Health hearing Wednesday.
The store, Edge said, has “an egregious record of sales to minors.”
It has also been caught selling tobacco to minors in October 2006, May 2007, December 2008 and October 2010, Edge said, and is the worst offender in Somerset. The townwide sting on Feb. 23 also caught Old Village Convenience at 2756 County St., and the Walgreens at 296 Buffinton St. Both were first offenses and led to $100 fines.
Randall Norman, a manager at the Wilbur Avenue Shell, told the Board of Health that when the minor asked for cigarettes on Feb. 23, the store had just received a delivery with “several orders” missing. It was “a stressful time” for workers when the minor asked to purchase the cigarettes, and the employee sold the pack without thinking, he said.
Norman said the store has always paid its fines immediately, has upgraded its software meant to eliminate sales to minors and is committed to a better sales record.
The Board of Health voted unanimously to force a three-day suspension of the Shell’s tobacco license, due to take place May 18 to 20.

In Minnesota, it is illegal for anyone under 18 to own tobacco products, or for anyone to sell tobacco products to or for them. There’s a real financial incentive for business to look the other way though, and unfortunately Redwood Falls businesses fare worse than average for the state. “We had three businesses fail the compliance checks this year,” said Redwood Falls City Attorney Patrick Rohland. “Since 1998, we’ve had up to six fail at one time. One of our goals now is to have zero failures.”

On Monday evening, a regional manager for a local convenience store chain said her stores each make an average of $1,000-2,000 per day from selling tobacco products.
She said it at a city-sponsored workshop about selling tobacco products to minors, and penalties for breaking the law.
To see if businesses follow the rules, cities are required to do yearly compliance checks of tobacco-selling businesses.
The tests are simple: a volunteer juvenile decoy is sent into a business and asks to buy cigarettes.
If the clerks don’t allow the volunteer to buy anything, the business passes.
If the clerks allow the volunteer to walk out carrying a tobacco product — for any reason — the business fails.
Officer Rachel Johnson of the Redwood Falls Police Department emphasized the compliance checks give business owners every opportunity to do the right thing.
“We don’t do anything sneaky. We don’t give the kids fake I.D.s. We let them use their own I.D., or none at all. We don’t ask them to try to look older than they are,” she said.
Statewide, of 572 compliance checks in 2010, nearly 96 percent of all businesses passed.
According to a 2010 student survey by the MN Dept. of Education, in Redwood County 56 percent of 12th grade males, and 31 percent of 12th grade females, reported they had bought tobacco from a convenience store.
There are three levels of penalties for selling tobacco products to juveniles.
The juvenile who bought the tobacco is charged with a petty misdemeanor, and can be fined up to $300 and do some community service.
Incidentally, if a juveniles uses a fake or altered I.D., it’s legal for the store clerk to confiscate it, as long as he or she turns it in to the police within 24 hours.
The clerk who sold the tobacco faces a misdemeanor charge of selling tobacco to a minor, a $1,000 fee, 90 days in jail, and possibly loses his or her job.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people every year. Every day, more than 4,000 kids try their first cigarette; another 1,000 kids become addicted smokers, one-third of whom will die prematurely as a result. By now, we all know smoking is bad for you, and teenagers are a perfect target due to our natural instinct to rebel. If you haven’t learned this in health class or taken the warning signs on the sides of cigarette packs seriously, I’ll remind you that smoking and tobacco use can cause fatal lung disease, cancer, stroke and heart disease, and can cause harm to those around you.

Of the four most prevalent types of non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, there is one risk factor that cuts across all of them: tobacco use. Now those might sound like diseases that hit hard later in life, but a new Surgeon General report concludes that smoking early in life has substantial health risks beginning immediately in young smokers, and it causes permanent damage such as shortness of breath, reduction of lung functionality and an increase of pulmonary disease.
In addition, the younger the individual is when they start using tobacco, the more likely they are to become addicted. Nearly 90 percent of new smokers try their first cigarette by age 18, and three out of four high school smokers continue to smoke when they’re older.

If the long-term effects aren’t scary enough to stay away from this stuff, then the short-term effects of nicotine use – the bad breath, smelly clothes and stained teeth – should be. And can we talk about the out-of-pocket cost? A pack-a-day smoker spends $200 per month on cigarettes; nearly equivalent to 50 gallons of gas!
Knowing all of this, why do kids start using tobacco in the first place?
The short answer: because tobacco companies want us to, and we feel pressured by our peers to do so. Magazine advertisements, movies and retail marketing has shaped a youth culture that views tobacco use as glamorous, social, grown-up and rebellious. Tobacco companies spend more than $27 million in marketing each day targeting kids and young adults. Peer pressure is one of the most widespread causes cited by young people to start smoking. Young people who have at least three friends who smoke are 10 times more likely to smoke than young people who have no friends who smoke.
Our government and nonprofits have taken the tobacco industry on with their own campaigns (not nearly as well-funded) and youth smoking rates have dropped significantly – almost by half – in the past 10 years. However, we still have a lot of work to do. In Washington, 70,000 of our youth still smoke. Fifty children in Washington start using tobacco every day and one-third of them will eventually die from it. Tobacco use, the nation’s No. 1 cause of preventable death, is a childhood-onset disease.
As a young adult myself, I think it’s our issue, so let’s deal with it in our own way.
As a volunteer with The Hope Heart Institute, I took an active role in National Kick Butts Day, a nationwide initiative to decrease youth tobacco use in the United States. I spent last Wednesday at Sehome High School, talking to students about tobacco use and how unhealthy it can be. My message was clear. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, stop. Perhaps one of the strongest facts was conveyed by showing the students typical household chemicals that are present in cigarettes. When asked to give an estimate of the number of different chemicals in a cigarette, students typically responded with a number anywhere from 10 to 100. After multiple guesses, students were astonished to learn that there are over 7,000 different chemicals in a single puff of cigarette smoke! Formaldehyde is one of those 7,000 chemicals. Many of the students recognized the chemical from biology class, where it is used to inhibit the decomposition of a specimen. I wonder what it does to your body.
Perhaps something to think about before you light up?
Justin Moore is a 21-year-old student at Western Washington University and a volunteer with The Hope Heart Institute.

A statewide no-smoking movement is gaining support from some South Mississippi teenagers. This week, the state Health Department came to Biloxi to recruit young people to join the battle against tobacco. The agency said the tobacco industry is finding new ways to entice new smokers, so it’s fighting back with its own creative campaign. “Get the creative juices flowing. You have 20 minutes starting now!” the announcer shouted to a group of excited teens.

More than 200 seventh and eighth graders had a fun assignment with a serious lesson: design their own line of clothing that explains the dangers of tobacco. The fashion challenge showed them how ordinary materials can be used to create an anti-tobacco campaign.

“About 1,200 people die every day from tobacco-related illnesses. We know the tobacco industry targets the young adults as replacement smokers. We’re trying to give these middle schoolers tools that they need to go back to reduce youth tobacco and to make changes to their communities,” said Carley Pepper, Mississippi Department of Health Office of Tobacco Control.

The state Health Department brought its Inspiring Future Leaders Youth Conference to the Coast Convention Center Tuesday.

“I dare you to blaze your own trail in to your future instead of blindly walking down a path of self destruction,” Javier Sanchez told the crowd.

The motivational speaker urged the students to become activists against smoking.

“They’ve been tricked into believing that they’re going to be cool. They’re going to have fun. They’re going to experience life to the fullest if they got the cigarette in their mouth, or they’re dipping or doing whatever the tobacco industry promotes. So we’re working hard to counter that,” said Sanchez.

Through creative techniques, the teens learned that they do have a voice when it comes to designing a healthier future.

“Drugs are very bad, and I think we should spread that more,” said Jaylen Peters, an eighth grader at Pass Middle School.

“I know tobacco use and stuff like that can harm your body. So it’s inspired me even more to go out and take a stand against it,” said Brandon Coleman, a eighth grader at Leakesville Jr. High.

The conference came on the eve of the 17th Annual Kick Butts Day. Many teens plan to participate by supporting smoke-free ordinances and spreading the message about tobacco.

Higher cost of cigarettes is the immediate deterrent. “Kapag mahal, ang sigarilyo, mas mapipigilan sa pagyoyosi ang kabataang Pilipino.” This was stressed by the National Youth Commission (NYC) today in reaction to the claims of Chita Herce, spokesperson of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation Inc. (PMFTC), the top tobacco manufacturer in the country, that education and not additional taxes will prevent young people from smoking.

“Education is vital in curbing youth smoking but it must be reinforced by mechanisms that will make tobacco inaccessible,” NYC Chairperson Leon Flores said. For the past years, the dangers of tobacco smoking have been taught in schools and have been part of wellness campaigns. However, the percentage of youth smokers continues to increase despite the education drive as well as the advertisement ban on tobacco products.
According to the 2007 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), 69.6% young people had been taught in class during the past year about the dangers of smoking. Moreover, 69.3% had been taught in class the effects of tobacco use. These numbers did not have any effect in decreasing smoking prevalence among the youth. In 2011, already 2 out of 5 teens aged 13-15 smoked.

The Philippines has some of the cheapest cigarettes in Asia and one of the cheapest cigarettes in the world. Parallel to these data are the alarming smoking rates in the country: The Philippines ranks 9th in the adult male population and 16th in the adult female smoking population in the world.
NYC Commissioner Perci Cendaña said that raising taxes right now is the most viable option to decrease the number of young smokers. “Kapag nagtaas ng presyo ang sigarilyo, maraming kabataan ang hindi na maninigarilyo.” The recent study by the University of the Philippines Communication Research Society with the support of Health Justice supports this claim. According to it, that 60% of the sample population will quit smoking if cigarettes will be priced at 5 pesos per stick.

NYC as the voice and advocate of the youth calls on the immediate passage of House Bill 5727 that will restructure the excise tax on tobacco and alcohol. The Commission firmly stands that we must maximize all means to protect the health and wellness of our nation’s youth.

An initiative to create a tobacco-free generation of youth may be rolled out in primary and secondary schools as early as next year. It will be part of the “Towards Tobacco-free Millennium Generation” campaign put together by around 50 individuals, including medical students, school teachers and a professor from the National Cancer Centre. It aims to get students born in the year 2000 and later to pledge not to pick up smoking. There are close to 7,000 smokers here who are between the ages 12 and 13, Associate Professor Koong Heng Nung, head of oncology at the National Cancer Centre, said yesterday at a media briefing.

“We are trying to focus on this group, and the dream is to reduce this number to zero,” said Prof Koong, who is the director of the campaign.

The campaign also hopes to create a ripple effect in which the students are motivated to spread the anti-tobacco message on their own.

To do so, the campaign team has invited more than 350 primary and secondary schools to take part in a youth summit next week.

The team has not fixed the programme, giving the schools the autonomy to implement their own initiatives to encourage their students not to use tobacco products.

“We want to keep reinforcing the tobacco-free message to this generation of students,” said Ms Eileen Soon, 22, the co-chairman of the summit and a third-year medical student at the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

“We hope to empower the students with the right knowledge, instead of using the usual talk-down approach,” she said.

The U.S. Surgeon General is urging states to discourage kids from smoking by implementing tobacco tax hikes, high-impact interventions, smoking bans and mass media campaigns. Each day, nearly 4,000 kids try their first cigarette and an additional 1,000 under the age of 18 become daily users, according to a report issued this week by the Office of the Surgeon General. About 3.6 million middle and high school students smoke, the report states. In Utah, more than 200,000 youths and adults continue to smoke, according to the Utah Department of Health. For every tobacco-related death, at least two youths or young adults become new regular smokers.

“We have every intention to continue our vigilance in protecting our children and addressing this leading cause of preventable death in Utah,” said Dr. David Patton, UDOH executive director.

“Working together to implement the findings of this report, we can further benefit the youths and young adults of Utah.”

The state continues to find ways to educate about tobacco and discourage its use, Patton said.

The surgeon general’s report, he said, shows that efforts over the years by Utah lawmakers and anti-tobacco advocates are working and should be a model for the nation.

In 2010, the Utah Legislature approved a $1-per-pack tax hike. In addition, it has passed comprehensive tobacco-control laws and funded effective statewide programs to keep tobacco products out of the hands of youths.

Those measures, Patton said, have helped lower the teen smoking rate from 12 percent in 1999 to 5.9 percent.

Nationally, 19.5 percent of kids smoke cigarettes.

“Studies show that when cigarettes get more expensive, teens stop buying them,” said Amy Sands, UDOH tobacco prevention and control program manager.

“We can thank lawmakers as well as the efforts of our local health departments, educators and parents for protecting the current and future health of our young people.”

Anna Guymon, Weber-Morgan Health Department tobacco-prevention and -control program manager, said the department has taken several steps to help support the cause.

For instance, she said, the Weber-Morgan outdoor smoking regulation was passed in 2009.

“This regulation protects citizens from harmful secondhand-smoke exposure in outdoor public places and reduces youth perception of tobacco use as a social norm,” she said. “Smoke-free policies are associated with lower tobacco use rates among youth.”

Staff also train teachers and future educators on the importance of promoting tobacco prevention through established curriculum, such as Prevention Dimensions, in the public school system.

The health department provides teachers with free resources such as videos, other visual aids and learning activities.

Throughout the last year, the Weber-Morgan Governing Youth Council and several other local anti-tobacco youth groups have educated the media, policy makers, their peers and the community at large on emerging tobacco products, the harmful effects of tobacco use, the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and the tobacco industry’s advertising tactics aimed at youths, Guymon said.

“During fiscal year 2011, 5.1 percent of Weber-Morgan stores sold tobacco to underage youth during compliance checks,” she said. “Since 2001, the illegal sales rate has decreased substantially.”

The Davis County Health Department is also working to combat smoking by youths. It offers a free teen tobacco-reduction program and gives suggestions on how to eliminate secondhand smoke. It offers schools tobacco-prevention materials and recognizes local retailers for not selling tobacco products to underage youths.

Despite continued efforts, the Office of the Surgeon General wants to remind the public that the tobacco industry and its marketing tools are the main causes of the tobacco epidemic.

It states that tobacco companies are as aggressive as ever in marketing products and continue to bombard youths with messages encouraging them to smoke.

While legal settlements and laws have curtailed some of their marketing, tobacco companies still spend $10.5 billion a year, nearly $29 million each day, to market cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, according to the latest data from the Federal Trade Commission.

“Policy makers at all levels must take equally aggressive action to protect our children,” states the surgeon general’s report.