Straight Outta Compton
Californian teen tobacco sales drop but Karen Smith isn’t happy.
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by Dave Cross
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Smith is responsible for the press release that said: “Research shows that youth and young adults who use e-cigarettes are far more likely to also use traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.” We know that she meant to say that the only regular vapers used to smoke...but let’s move on.
The press release accompanied a disgusting dose of television advertising misinformation. “Our advertising campaign is telling the public to ‘wake up’ to the fact that these are highly addictive products being mass marketed,” she said. Maybe you remember seeing links to this one? Or this?
The odious media blitz drew praise and congratulations from Stanton Glantz among others ... that is enough to damn it on its own:
“The aggressive marketing and escalating use of e-cigarettes threatens to erode that progress,” she added in reference to the declining rates of teen smoking. So, you might ask, if there is a gateway effect resulting from this apparent aggressive marketing we’d be seeing increased smoking rates?
No, because it isn’t there according to the Compton Herald. “Teen sales to minors drops,” goes the headline. It says this because the official notification from the CDPH regarding the 2015 Youth Tobacco Purchase Survey states: “Dr. Karen Smith announced today that a survey has found that the California rate of illegal tobacco sales to minors has decreased.”
Although Smith might like to crow about a drop, given that she is relatively fresh into the job, the CDPH’s own data highlights how dismal they’ve been at reducing rates for a number of years:
“I’m concerned that too many stores, especially certain types such as tobacco-only stores and convenience stores, are willing to illegally sell tobacco products to youth,” she said. It’s the reference to tobacco products that will concern Californian vapers as she is all too ready to confuse vaping with smoking.
Back to Glantz’ letter: “The status quo means more children hooked on nicotine, more poison control emergencies, increased exposure to secondhand vapors in previously protected spaces, and a mounting burden of preventable illness and injury. We need policies to protect public health, limit the marketing and sales of e-cigarettes, and extend smoke-free policies to cover e-cigarettes.”
When she talks about the current teen smoking level and that: “the Healthy People 2020 target is to reduce this to 5 percent,” it is plain that there will be a renewed onslaught on electronic cigarettes.
Photo Credit:
Girl smoking: DLSimaging/Flickr Creative Commons
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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