Over the past several years, working to eliminate youth access to tobacco meant checking up on retailers to make sure they are in compliance with tobacco sales laws. This has been a successful approach and has helped to reduce youth access to tobacco at retail locations.

However, kids are still finding ways to get tobacco. Many recent studies show that teens are increasingly relying on social sources such as friends, family, and other adults to provide them with tobacco.¹ In fact, a recent survey of kids in grades 8-10 (ages 13-16) found that 74 percent of the kids who have ever smoked obtained their most recent cigarette from a social source. In addition, younger and less experienced smokers seem to rely more regularly on social sources than older, more established smokers.²

In 2004, Public Health - Seattle and King County’s Tobacco Prevention Program (TPP) conducted focus groups with local teens and young adults about their own experiences and attitudes around tobacco use.

An unexpected finding was how clearly youth seem influenced by the mixed messages that they receive from the adults in their life about tobacco use. Adults often say don't smoke, but the smoking laws are not actively enforced and have little consequences when they are enforced. It is also clear that smoking provides a place to "belong" for teens who may feel like they don’t fit in, and that the “culture of smoking” extends past the age of 18 where it influences the decision to buy tobacco for an underage friend.

More research needs to be done to help develop new policies and interventions that are aimed at changing social norms around tobacco use. TPP hosted a national conference that focused on this emerging problem.

For more information about the conference, visit www.accessconference.org

References:

¹DiFranza JR, Coleman M. Sources of tobacco for youths in communities with strong enforcement of youth access laws. Tobacco Control 2001;10:323-8.
²Forster JL, Wolfson M, Murray DM, et al. Perceived and measured availability of tobacco to youth in fourteen Minnesota communities: the TPOP study. American Journal of Preventative Medicine 1997;13: 167-74.