October 13, 1999
Web posted at: 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT)

In this story: Researcher blames state lawmakers Feds: 19 states are 80% compliant Who profits from underage smokers? RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A privately funded report suggests kids still find it easy to obtain cigarettes despite a 1992 federal law pressuring states to crack down.

Dr. Joseph DiFranza, a researcher with the Family and Community Medicine Department at the University of Massachusetts, said at a Wednesday news conference that the government's tally of state performance shows very little risk for retailers who fail to block tobacco from reaching children.

"Kids learn from other kids which stores are willing to sell, and if you have a community where 20 percent of the merchants are willing to sell tobacco to kids, the kids have no trouble getting to the store," said DiFranza.

"It used to be smokers would walk a mile for a Camel, and maybe now they have to walk a mile and a half, but they're willing to walk to the store and find the store that will sell them tobacco," DiFranza said.

In a report he wrote for The Substance Abuse Policy Research Program, sponsored by the Robert Wood Foundation, DiFranza estimated about 1 billion violations across the country each year of a law restricting the sale of cigarettes to minors.

"I find evidence of possibly about a thousand episodes in which merchants were penalized for selling tobacco to kids, said DiFranza. "So just roughly about a billion packs of cigarettes and a thousand penalties means if you sell tobacco to kids the likelihood of getting penalized is about one in a million."

Researcher blames state lawmakers

DiFranza suggested the findings are a poor report card for the only federal law against underage tobacco sales -- the 1992 Synar Amendment, named after late Rep. Mike Synar (D-Oklahoma).

The law links the distribution of federal grant money financing mental health and substance abuse programs with state efforts to discourage teen smoking.

DiFranza said he believes the law's effect has been undercut by state legislatures unwilling to strongly fight underage sales by tobacco retailers. He also blamed the Department of Health and Human Services for halfheartedly threatening states with sanctions for poor compliance.

Feds: 19 states are 80% compliant

But the head of the HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said great progress has been achieved in reducing youth access to tobacco. Administrator Nelba Chavez, in a letter to DiFranza before she had received his report, said 19 states have already met an 80 percent compliance goal.

"All states now have laws making it illegal to sell or distribute tobacco to minors," Chavez wrote. Her letter characterized as "extremely successful" state efforts to measure and improve compliance with efforts to block tobacco sales to minors.

DiFranza, who distributed copies of the Chavez letter at the news conference, disputed the conclusion. He said most states still fail to spend enough on inspection and enforcement against tobacco retailers.

Who profits from underage smokers?

An earlier study led by the same researcher found underage smokers to be lucrative for both the tobacco industry and for federal and state tax coffers.

That study, published in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found underage smokers provided $80 million in profits for tobacco companies, $222 million in federal taxes and $293 million in state taxes.

CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.

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