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Share your quitting journey

New gateways to addiction

Thomas3.20.2010
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WOOD RIVER JCT. — Astrid Meijer, a paid campaigner against nicotine addiction, faces some stiff competition in the battle for the hearts, minds and lungs of today’s teenager.

It comes in the form of products and marketing that package nicotine in candies, gum, and packets — a far cry from some of the harsh tobacco products that introduced the drug to earlier generations.

“Toothpicks that are loaded with nicotine,” she said. “There are also these things called ‘Orbs’ or ‘Ariva.’ They’re like little Tic Tacs that are loaded with nicotine and have ground tobacco in them as well, sometimes. They have these strips that dissolve in the mouth and you get your nicotine that way. There’s also something called ‘Smokingel’ and it’s a clear gel that you apply similar to lotion.”

 

Meijer, the tobacco control program coordinator for the Chariho Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force, provides information and technical assistance to communities that want to ban smoking at events like Little League games, or on the beaches. Her job is funded by the Rhode Island Department of Health.

She is an experienced and often intense speaker and facilitator. Her most dramatic prop is a large case filled with brightly colored candies, toothpicks and pretty packages holding tiny gauze packets — all of them chock full of nicotine.

 

Meijer said she was surprised to see Ariva for sale in a local Rite Aid drugstore.

“I saw the Ariva looking just like gum … It’s just crazy to see the green, red and blue Ariva that looks just like the green, red and blue gum,” she said.

Another popular smokeless tobacco product available in Rhode Island is Snus. It comes in small gauze packets that are placed between the gum and the cheek like old-fashioned chewing tobacco. But there’s no spitting, so the user swallows and absorbs even more nicotine. Snus comes in flavors like wild strawberry, licorice and melon.

Rhode Island law requires that stores keep all tobacco products behind the counter. It is also illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under 18. Nicotine toothpicks, gel and lotion aren’t sold in Rhode Island stores, but they can easily be purchased online. All are labeled as being for adult use only, and are intended to allow smokers to ingest nicotine in an increasing number of situations where they can’t light up.

But they also make it easier for young nicotine addicts to indulge their habit anywhere, including in the classroom.

“A kid can have all they want but will not smell like cigarettes when they walk in the door,” Meijer said.

The ongoing fight against underage tobacco use is complex. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization, posts figures on its website showing that so far in Rhode Island in 2012, 11.4 percent of high school students said they smoked, 9.8 percent of male high school students said they used smokeless tobacco, and 1,300 teenagers under 18 have become regular smokers. The organization says that each year in Rhode Island alone, the tobacco industry spends an estimated $27.3 million on marketing.

At the local level, a 2010-11 survey at Chariho Regional High School found that 131 students, or 55 percent of the 384 teenagers who took the survey, had smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days.

Seema Dixit, program manager of the Tobacco Control Program at the state Department of Health, said her department’s anti-tobacco efforts are effective. The state has been taking aim at underage tobacco use for more than a decade, and Dixit said it is now seeing positive results.

“Our youth tobacco use rates have really dropped down since we began efforts about 10 or 15 years back,” she said. “We have the third lowest smoking rate in the country, 7.4 percent. We started at somewhere around 35 percent, so we have really gone down.”

State policies aimed at preventing underage tobacco use include the introduction of tobacco-free schools, and one measure that may be the most effective deterrent of all for both youth and adults — high tobacco taxes.

Rhode Island has the second-highest cigarette excise tax in the country — $3.46 per pack. New York has the highest at $4.35; Connecticut levies $3.40; and Massachusetts’ tax is $2.51.

“As the prices of cigarettes have gone up, the prevalence among youth and adults has come down,” Dixit said.

In addition to higher taxes, a federal law passed in 1992 and named after its sponsor, Congressman Mike Synar of Oklahoma, requires states to pass and enforce laws preventing the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18.

 

“Synar surveys,” or compliance checks using local police departments, involve sending an underage buyer or decoy into a store to see if he or she will be sold tobacco products. The results of the surveys must be reported every year to the Department of Health and Human Services. Municipalities are also free to do their own additional checks if they have the resources to do so.

The 2011 Synar survey shows that there were no products sold to decoys in Richmond or Charlestown. Hopkinton did not have figures for that year, and in Westerly, of the 11 businesses checked, five sold tobacco to the decoys.

“The previous years, we had been at zero,” said Westerly Police Lt. Mike Murano, who oversees the town’s compliance program. “This is out of the norm, to have five establishments that sold to us during the checks. It could be that there needs to be a little bit more education of the employees.”

Penalties for non-compliant stores start with a warning letter and escalate to fines from $250 to $1,500, with license suspensions for repeat offenders.

While efforts to curb cigarette sales to young people seem to be working, Dixit admitted that new products in the smokeless tobacco market present a growing problem.

“It’s like a huge area of products that are popping into the market almost by the minute every day,” she said. “They are very cheap, because they don’t get levied similar excise taxes like the cigarettes. These products are being sold as cheap as a dollar a piece, and that makes them very affordable for everybody to use. Cigarettes are fast being replaced by the emerging smokeless tobacco products.”

In its 2012 “State of Tobacco Control” survey, the American Lung Association says that smoking costs Rhode Island “close to $870 million in economic costs every year.” The organization praises the state for its high cigarette tax and smoking restrictions, but gives it an “F” for not spending more on tobacco prevention control and smoking cessation programs.

 

Mary Lou Serra, coordinator of the Westerly Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force, recited a list of ongoing prevention programs that focus on substance abuse and include tobacco, but do not specifically focus on it.

Serra takes her message to whomever will listen — town councilors, student assistance councilors, school administrators, community resource officers, parents and the police chief.

“It always comes down to money,” she said. “The more money at our disposal, we could do more. Until you have zero, you have to keep doing more and more. It’s never enough. But you just have to keep trying, because if you stop one, you’ve succeeded.”

Mary Ellen Powers is the mother of two girls, 10 and 14 years old, and the treasurer of the Chariho girls’ softball team. She supports the efforts of the Chariho Task Force, but she said some parents continue to set a bad example when they smoke at their children’s games.

“Parents kind of go off into the parking lots and smoke if they have to, but it’s the minority, not the majority, which is good, because I think the whole thing is you lead by example,” she said.

About the Author
63 years old. 20 year smoker. 11 Years FREE! Diagnosed with COPD. Choosing a Quality LIFE! It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. -Galatians 5:1