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Don't Sell; Don't Tell; Light Up
By David Scribner
There was a time when smoking was a fashionable activity - and it wasn't so long ago. Movie stars did it; soldiers did it; politicians did it; movers and shakers did it. Ashtrays were as common as tea cups at a tea party. Every living room, den and bedroom, every office and cafeteria had them. Second-hand smoke was incense to be savored before you got a whiff of harsh fresh air.
That was then. Now, we are greener, but not necessarily wiser.
The health hazards of tobacco addiction are undeniable and generally accepted, except for a few well-paid corporate apologists, as causing, among other afflictions, fatal cancers and heart disease. Health warnings are required to be printed on tobacco products.
And because second-hand smoke is now deemed as unhealthy as taking a drag - if not more so -- smoking is widely banned in public buildings, in school, college and hospital grounds, in restaurants and bars, and in most workplaces.
This week, the General Services Administration issued regulations in the Federal Register banning smoking in courtyards and within 25 feet of doorways of federal buildings. Designated smoking rooms in federal buildings are also to be eliminated.
Still, cigarettes and chewing tobacco are openly sold in convenience stores, groceries, drug stores, gas stations, and even in airports where smoking is prohibited. Massachusetts, as do other states, depend upon the tobacco tax. Although it's acknowledged that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin, the implicit current public policy on tobacco could be stated this way: “Go ahead, knock yourself out if you want to and if you can find a place to. As long as there's money to be made and taxes to be collected, we won't stop you. In fact, if you can afford it, we'll make it easy.”
Then we wonder why teens take to smoking in such alarming numbers, despite anti-smoking campaigns directed at adolescents.
According to the American Lung Association, 6,000 children under the age of 18 start smoking each day. Of those, 2,000 will become regular smokers. All told, there are 4.5 million American adolescents who are regular cigarette smokers. That means that 6.4 million children will die prematurely of a smoking-related disease.
It's no different in Berkshire County. A survey by the Southern Berkshire Youth Coalition found that nearly one in three high school seniors were smoking cigarettes. One in five eighth graders were smoking.
And where do these teens get their cigarettes? Certainly not over the counter. It is illegal under state law to sell or give tobacco products to anyone under 18. Periodically, local departments of health will conduct sting operations to identify whether targeted retail operations are selling cigarettes to minors.
One such raid this week in Brookline, for example, nailed nine stores - including two CVS drug stores and a Walgreens pharmacy - for selling tobacco to minors.
The penalty? A $200 fine and the loss of licenses to sell tobacco for a week. In other words, a rap on the wrist, compared to penalties for selling alcohol to a minor.
The state Attorney General's office has also acted against at least one online cigarette seller, eSmokes of Virginia, to require age-verification and the submission of a customer list in order to collect taxes.
But while it is against state law to provide teens with tobacco, it is not, in most Massachusetts communities, illegal for teens to possess cigarettes or smoke them. The poor schlub behind the counter at a gas station convenience store -- probably a teen himself or herself -- who sold another kid a pack can be fined, but the young customer can puff away on Main Street with no one to tell him - or her -- they can't.
With the exception of Lynn. Ten years ago, that city passed an ordinance making it illegal for minors “to smoke or possess tobacco products of any kind within Lynn city limits.”
From time to time, the state Legislature has considered a prohibition on possession and smoking by minors but has backed off, fearing that such a ban could make lighting up more attractive. And who, exactly, would enforce it if it were enacted? The smoking police?
Cigarettes are fascinating status symbols to teens because our culture accepts them as lethal but prevalent items in the behavioral marketplace. They've been around too long, in too many films, in too many advertisements. There are too many dudes lighting up. They're too hard to give up.
If as a society we really regarded tobacco as that dangerous, then we shouldn't allow it to be available at every retail checkout counter. We should simply admit that our fundamental policy is live and let die. It's the American way.
Let the teens who get hooked on cancer sticks learn for themselves how disagreeable a habit it is, how their health is compromised, how they'll smell like last year's forest fire. A lot of colognes smell far worse.
For we are a nation of addiction enablers.
This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Record.
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02/28/08
The Last Hurrah
It was only a matter of time before local daily newspapers - the ones we used to count on for being a complete, accurate archive of essential community information, like the records of births and marriages and deaths - would realize that there's a pile of money to be made on death and dying and grief.
06/15/06
Parents to District Attorney: Why?
Fourteen years ago, 52-year-old Joseph Mechare and his wife Sharon had a dream. Just married and living in Millerton, New York, where Joe had grown up in a working class family - his father was a carpenter and he had been trained in autobody repair - they wanted to start a new life together.
03/24/06
DA Capeless: Zealot or tough cop? You decide.
In Berkshire County, Massachusetts, reputed rock-ribbed bastion of enlightened lifestyles, you can go to jail for two years for an offense that's the equivalent of a speeding ticket, especially if you are a foolish teenager, and have never had another offense.
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The ICE-men Cometh: Local Skirmishes in the War Against Illegal Immigrants
At dawn on Saturday morning, Sept. 27, 2008, men in jeans, flannel shirts and workboots were getting into old cars and battered pickups outside what is known by the Hispanic population in Valatie, N. Y., as the
The Brooklyn of the Berkshires? Pittsfield's Push for a
When more than a thousand people turned out on the streets of downtown Pittsfield on a rainy Thursday evening in June for a celebration of the arts, music and culture, the city
Regional Passenger Rail Projects Await Green Light
Late on a summer's day in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Jack Fitzpatrick, former state senator and owner of the Red Lion Inn, likes to pace the platform of the Stockbridge rail station he bought 10 years ago for $150,000.
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©2009 David Scribner
Starving Artists Detective Agency
255 North St.
Pittsfield, Massachusetts 01201
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