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Excerpts from: Study: Government policy affects teen smoking rate

 American News Service [10/04/00]

                          Requiring photo identification for would-be
                           cigarette buyers, raising taxes on cigarettes and imposing tough penalties
                           on stores caught selling cigarettes to minors may be having a positive
                           effect on reducing teen-age smoking, according to a study published in
                           the October 2000 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

                           A 50-state analysis - the first study ever to compare states'
                           policies with the incidences of teen smoking - suggests that states
                           with extensive tobacco control policies, such as New York, Connecticut,
                           California and Rhode Island, had significantly lower youth smoking rates
                           than states with fewer such policies, such as South Dakota, Wisconsin
                           and Kentucky.

                           "The results are consistent with the hypothesis that strong tobacco control
                           policies can influence teen smoking behavior," said lead author Douglas
                           A. Luke, associate professor of community health at the Saint Louis
                           University School of Public Health.

                           Researchers observed that states with high rates of teen-age smokers
                           tended to be more Republican-controlled states. On average, Luke said
                           that Republican-controlled states had less stringent tobacco control
                           legislation than Democratic-controlled ones. "This is not surprising, given
                           the historical relationship between the Republican Party and the tobacco
                           industry," Luke noted. There was also evidence that states with a strong
                           tobacco economy, such as Kentucky, had the highest teen-age smoking
                           rates in conjunction with lax tobacco control policies.

                         "The tobacco industry is working hard to block (efforts) to reduce
                           smoking," Luke said. "We shouldn't always assume states are doing all
                           they can and are not influenced by the tobacco lobby. The tobacco
                           industry has a lot of money and a lot of influence."