November 3, 1995

If Tobacco Killed Kids More Quickly . . .

by Martin Ackley, Consultant for Health Policy

It takes too long for teenagers to kill themselves. That’s the problem.

If teenagers could die in one night from tobacco poisoning, as they can from too much alcohol, or if when they light up a cigarette and get behind the wheel of dad’s Oldsmobile, they become a lethal threat to themselves and everyone else on the road, then we’d have something.

There would be such a public outcry that the Michigan Legislature wouldn’t have time to lunch and schmooze with Joe Camel. Michigan finally would get a law that really prevents minors from smoking.

But the problem lies in the fact that there is no imminent danger from teenagers smoking or chewing tobacco. It takes decades for young smokers to develop cancer, emphysema, or heart disease. By then they are adults, deemed responsible for their own actions, and thus are off limits to a legislature wanting less government intrusion into people’s private lives.

Michigan currently has a law prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors. The penalty for breaking it is a criminal misdemeanor, which seems harsh enough—but it isn’t enforced. Except for a few counties actively committed to the cause, there is virtually no interest in enforcing this law. Again, the legislature doesn’t see minors using tobacco as a public threat big enough to take seriously.

With law enforcement resources stretched thin and no additional funding coming from Lansing to bird-dog tobacco retailers, it’s no surprise this issue is at the bottom of law enforcement’s priority list. Neither have the courts shown much interest in convicting a store owner of a criminal offense for selling a pack of cigarettes to a teenager.

If legislators truly were concerned for teenagers’ health, they would pass a law that would make a difference. If it wished, the state could give local health departments the authority and funding to enforce the law and, as an incentive, a percentage of the fines levied and collected. Initial enforcement funding could come from the new tobacco tax increase.

For such a law to be effective there must a hammer big enough to get the attention of the retailers. Licensure is the biggest hammer there is: Without a license to sell cigarettes, stores couldn’t make money. It has worked with liquor—bar and party-store owners panic at the thought of losing their liquor license if they sell liquor to minors. It can work with tobacco, too.

House Bill 5200, introduced by Rep. Michael Nye, takes a step in that direction. It does not establish a licensure system, but it penalizes retailers that sell tobacco products to minors, by forcing them to take the products off their shelves and prohibiting them from tobacco sales for one to six months.

It is obvious that the elementary principle at work here is money, not health. A study published in the February 1994 issue of the American Journal of Public Health estimates that there were 111,568 Michigan children aged 12–18 who smoke cigarettes. A great number of teen males use smokeless tobacco. And what do we see a special legislative task force studying? the smuggling of cigarettes into Michigan. Cha-ching!