
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994                   TAG: 9402110044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ILLEGAL TEEN SMOKING NETS MILLIONS IN TAXES

Teen-agers pour about $240 million a year into state and federal tax coffers by buying cigarettes, most from stores illegally selling to minors, a researcher estimated Thursday.

That doesn't necessarily mean governments have a financial incentive to look the other way when minors buy cigarettes, but enforcing laws on underage smoking certainly "isn't a priority," concluded Dr. Michael Cummings of New York's Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

"It's the exception rather than the rule in most communities," Cummings said. "Actually, there is an incentive on the part of government to prevent kids from becoming addicted to nicotine - they'll see fewer people showing up in our hospitals in the long term."

Teen-agers illegally bought 255 million packs of cigarettes in 1991, the latest data available, Cummings reported in a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Cummings compiled government data estimating there are 2.7 million smokers ages 12 to 18 in the United States who smoke up to 12 cigarettes a day, most of which are bought illegally, not borrowed or stolen.

Of the $240 million in taxes generated by sales to teen-agers in 1991, $122 million was from illegal sales to minors, he said. Then, the legal age to buy tobacco ranged from 16 to 19; now most states set it at 18.

And the cigarette industry got $190 million in profit from teen sales, $94 million of which was from illegal sales, he said.

But cigarette companies don't sell to minors, retailers do, responded Thomas Lauria of the Tobacco Institute. The industry group is trying to educate retailers, sending them "It's the Law" posters that detail the age requirements along with information on how to check identification and deal with angry teens who are refused sales, Lauria said.

The way to stop minors from buying cigarettes is for state and federal governments to earmark the tax revenues from those illegal sales for enforcement of age laws, Cummings said.

And Congress should raise the 24-cent federal tax on cigarettes even more than the 75-cent increase President Clinton has proposed, he said. In Denmark, for example, the tax alone is $3.48 for 20 cigarettes.

"Children are the key when we look at tobacco, because . . . you very rarely see a smoker who started beyond the age of 21," Cummings said. "But we're just letting them buy cigarettes over the counter, easy."

by CNB