Group takes aim at tobacco sales to youth in Pawtucket, North Providence

Like a popular clothing store might draw young people in with the lights and music that most appeal to them, tobacco companies are increasingly producing products that entice youths to buy them, says the head of a new project to reduce tobacco use among children. Gone are the days when colorful posters depicting young people finding fulfillment in a cigarette were commonplace, according to Jeff Gale, coordinator for the International Institute Rhode Island Tobacco Control Program.

Nicotine marketing has gone into stealth mode, said Gale, with a bevy of newer products that by their very look appeal to young people. Gale and the IIRI Tobacco Control Program are working with municipal leaders, school officials and civic groups in both Pawtucket and North Providence to drum up support for making it more difficult to target youths with tobacco and nicotine products that often look, feel and taste like candy. In February of this year, the IIRI Tobacco Control Program won approximately $40,000 in annual funding from the Rhode Island Department of Health to reduce tobacco use among teens in Pawtucket and North Providence.

 Gale is working with groups like the Pawtucket Substance Abuse Task Force and its program director, Diane Dufresne, to get two ordinances passed locally to help them toward their goal of keeping tobacco out of the hands of youths and to improve the health of Rhode Islanders. The two ordinances would require: * The implementation of retailer licensing fees that would be dedicated in total or in part to the enforcement of tobacco laws; * Restrictions on the display and sale of tobacco-related products, requiring tobacco retailers to reduce physical and visual access of tobacco products to underage customers. This ordinance would require that products be moved from the front of the counter, near the candy items, to the back.

 While North Providence already has an ordinance requiring tobacco products to be moved back behind the counter, said Gale, he is encouraging officials there to update the law "to reflect new emerging tobacco products." Pawtucket City Councilor Mark Wildenhain has offered early support for a new ordinance that would tighten restrictions on tobacco sales in Pawtucket, said Gale. The new rules would go before the council's substance abuse subcommittee and then to the ordinance committee. City Councilor Albert Vitali Jr. told The Breeze that Gale and others have won support from a number of members like himself who want to see nicotine use among local teens curtailed.

 Pawtucket has more than double the population of North Providence, at more than 70,000, according to Gale, and more than double the number of convenience stores, with 88 total compared to 35 in North Providence. To this point, said Gale, he has had much better luck reaching Pawtucket municipal leaders than school officials to gain support for his tobacco prevention efforts, while in North Providence, school leaders have been the more supportive to this point. As nicotine users die off or stop using, said Gale, tobacco companies are left with little choice but to package their products in new ways to maintain profitability. Many of the newer items have higher levels of nicotine than a common cigarette, he said, and much lower taxes than their smellier counterparts. Many young people are first tempted to smoke or use other nicotine products in middle school, said Gale, and once they use them a few times, more often than not, they become loyal customers for years to come.

 Items like "orbs," which "look amazingly like breath mints," "sticks" and "strips," offer nicotine in innocent-looking new packaging, said Gale. Many products are made using finely ground flavored tobacco and a high volume of addictive nicotine. "They (the tobacco companies) went from 'smoking is cool, be hip,' to 'here's your nicotine, we know you need your fix,'" Gale told The Breeze. Newer dissolvable nicotine products allow students to get their nicotine fix in class, said Gale, without the need to spit as with old-school chew. Despite laws in place banning sales of nicotine products to young people, said Gale, more than 2 million packs of cigarettes are bought or smoked by minors in Rhode Island each year, according to a March 2012 report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.