Tobacco sales to minors in the United States have reached an all time low under the Synar Regulation program, a federal and state inspection program intended to curb underage tobacco use. Although it doesn’t necessarily prove that teens are smoking less, it does show that it’s harder for underage kids to buy cigarettes. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, the violation rate of selling to underage youth has fallen from 40 percent in 1997 to 8.5 percent in the last year.
According to the surgeon general’s report, 80 percent of smokers begin by age 18 and 99 percent of adult smokers in the U.S. start by age 26. That was the reasoning behind the Synar Regulation program: if we can keep kids from smoking before the age of 18, there’s less of a chance that they’ll become smokers as adults. The program is a federal mandate that requires each state “to document that the rate of tobacco sales to minors is no more than 20 percent at the risk losing millions in federal funds for alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and treatment services,” according to the Washington Post.
“We know that if we can stop kids from smoking before they turn 18, the chance that they will become smokers as adults is actually very low,” said Susan Marsiglia Gray, who oversees the Synar Regulation program. “By reducing retail access, we’re reducing one of the ways that kids can get introduced to tobacco and become smokers. Reducing retail access is an important part of a comprehensive tobacco control program, but it’s only one piece.”
It’s a step in the right direction, to say the least!
