Tobacco Documents Online

99 a"78395/-a pENVER-(tOCKYMOUMkINNEWS /M 19 190 ~ Tackling teen smokingt9s:-. THg ISSUta President out- Ilna an*to- b.cco plan L ike President Clinton, we think Americans tend to be too compla- cent about the number of kids who get hooked on c e ts who choose to medical and social cost.s (in Colorado, the combined state and federal tobacco tax i; probably already'at the necessary Icvcl, but that is not true in at least a dozen, mostly Southern, sutes). President Clinton, untonunate , would go much further. He is asking the~ood and ~rug Administration to come up with s series of re$ulationa that would ban ciga- rette adverttsing at sporting events and OUtIaW tOtHCCO aaVe[using ufi a.:"L -_- A. uu:wa..,o within 1,000 feet of schools and play- grounds. He wants to eliminate vending machines and prohibit marketing gimmicks, such as sellinX halt-packs or atngle ciga- rettes, that might appeal to teenagers. He wants the tobacco industry to pay for a $150 million anti- smoking campaign. The question, of course, is not whether to discourage stnokinq. This nation already, does that with warnings on cigarette packs and public-service campaigns against smok- ing, and the targeted efforts we advocate would increase such activity. No, the question is whether to attack the problem through unprecedcntcd govern- ment regulation, as the president suggests. Tobacco happens to be a legal product - dangerous, but legal. Up to now, manufac- turers have enjoyed the right to inform the public about the products they sell. Yet if Clinton succeeds ia itnpusing strict non- broadcasting restrictions on tobacco ads - through the ploy of declaring nicotine an addictivc drug - the door will be cracked for similar advertising gags someday on other manufacnirers. • There is no need to trash commercial free sprevt in order -to reduce tobacco consum ption, for down that road lies the loss of freedom for all. Anti-tobacco educa- tional efforts, combined with public pres- sure against irresponsible corporate mar- kCtuig, do in Lct work. Let's stcp them up. OUR V1EW: smoke presumably know Tacklo te.n the risks and have no one .moktne, but but themselves to blame not ttte Flrta for any damage to their Amendrrsd6rt health. But it's simply too easy and too temPting, in moyt communities, for young people to get hooked on a nicotine habit that most of them will later come to regret. The question is what to do about teenage smoking, espccially since the percentage of 13-, 14-, and 15-year olds who smoke has actually risen in recent years, in contrast to declining use in the overall population. Why this should be is something of a mystery. The hazards of smoking are well-known, but for whatever reason -t.- defy their parents, to conform to peer pressure, as a substitute for eatiag and gaining weight - kids do it anyway. Every day, says Clinton, 3,000 youngpc ople become regular amok- ers, and 1.000 of the 3,000 are likely to die earlier as a result. Our own approach would include tighter restrictions on cigarette vending machines (several Denver metro corn...•tnities have taken precisely such steps in recent months); more active enforcement of exist- ing laws against sales to underage buyers, CID including heavy fines for retailers who flout W the taw; emphatJc and ccouidunated public IV pressure against overt marketing of ciga- %I rettea to young people (the liquor and brrw- 00 iag industries wouldn't date tttake the sort w o•overt appeals to the youth market that, ~ tattacco manufacturers get away with all the time); a t.,l- •-o tax that covers sniukint;'s Cut back kids' smoking iio11the rights of adults I SO AY, I'EltMAPS soon, we may see a kind of final show- down on tha LS~ue of smok'ng. Medical testimony against it is tnounling, evidpnce suggesting cover u s by the tobacco industry ia coming to lighti and the number of smo~era who might rise to defend their habit is dwindling But not yet. For now, the Clinton adrninistrotion has decided to focus its ftght on a narrower tai•get: cutting down o~ smoking by minors. The president has asked the Food and Dt ttg,Admtntstratlon In frame new rules toward that end. Most of those tlrles would limit cigarette advertising and•sales in sometimes draaonian ways; It's not at all clear, however, that they ~t... ,: :. ..'°.. .,....a.~.,o wuulu do .+..........o. ;;onte of the proposed rules are perfect examples of the mis- guided belief ttiat government can micromanage every issue - that it can know theiprecise pnint at which every line must be drawn. Fur ex:unpte, oite rule would declare that tobacco ads in magazines popular Kitb y4ungsters can contain only black-and-white text. no color. no pictnrrs. What's the pnint here? If tobacco advertising is a bad thing, then,wfiy not ban it; if it Isn't, then why have bureaucrats designing cnnl4nt and laynut? Another nde would wipc out brand-name cigarette ads at all sporting events. Bttt most of the Spectatot•~s at baseball games and auto races and ko forth are adults. Yes, young people also attend, but by that reaiuning the ads would have to be banr.d anywhere any child might stumble upon them. That's going too far fnr a prod- uct Ihat is stiil legal for adult consumption. The central Qrohlem seems to be that the administratwn wants to try to keep cigap-ettes away from children when it should be trying to keep cluldrett away tt-om cigarettes. 'Ihe best way to Ju thut Is to enforce laws thkit are already on the books in every state forbidding the sale of ciga fiettcs to nunors. A Wall Streek Journal article yesterday noted that consistent enforcement b la:ul ju~isdictions can have dramatic results. In Woodbtidge, il~., a store that sells cigarettes to kids gets fined up to 5500. Be:fore th law. 87 percent of the town's stores would sell to minrns; kids se u out undercover last month found uo place that would sell to th m. The tubaccu industry sys it now recognizes its responsibility toward the ns,ubn's youth, and is going to redouble its efforts to educatu them aNuut smoking's dangers and to lir.ut their access to cigarettes. Thelindustty's history doesn't make us sanguine about those promises but President Reagan's phrase about Soviet arms agreements cu es to mind: "Trust, but verify." For now, maybe the best course is t keep up the public pressure for ical, wurkable answers to the Iiroblem--before we turn America in'•~ ^ kind of uiiti ~iu.,king t~ ~li.:c itutc