Cracking Down on Young Smokers
Over the past year, a few American states have passed laws that could result in stiff penalties for minors who try to buy or possess cigarettes. Those convicted of such offences could lose their driver’s licences, face fines of as much as $ 1,000 or even be imprisoned for as long as six months. Some cities, meanwhile, are using undercover police officers to catch youths who smoke, and some schools that test students for substances such as marijuana are also screening them for nicotine. These new measures follow repeated failures in recent years to halt the growth in tobacco use among minors through educational programmes. Some other measures that are expected to reduce the number of young people who smoke include banning tobacco advertising on billboards and in some magazines, removing cigarette vending machines, ending tobacco companies’ sponsorships of sporting events and concerts and ending the sale of products such as clothing that carry brand names of cigarettes. Every US state and the District of Columbia have laws that ban the sale of tobacco products to minors. But some of the new state laws, which also stiffen penalties on those who sell tobacco products to youths, now hold young people as responsible as adults for violating tobacco laws. Text E
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