Illegal tobacco sales to minors declines in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD – Underage smokers who wanted to buy cigarettes used to do well to go to Marblehead – but times have changed.According to 2007 statistics compiled by the North Shore Tobacco Control Program and the state Department of Public Health and published in this year’s Town Report, the rate of illegal tobacco sales to minors in Marblehead was nearly double the Massachusetts average.The rate of sales to youths under 18 in Marblehead was 19.2 percent, based on compliance checks by the NSTCP. The Massachusetts rate of under-age tobacco sales was only 10.3 percent.Since then it’s been a different story, according to the NSTCP’s Joyce Redford, because of “consistent enforcement and consistent education.”Redford said compliance checks for March 17 and Nov. 12, 2008 yielded 8 percent violations – one sale each time – and on Feb. 17 the town passed with 100 percent.Redford and Director of Public Health Wayne Attridge cited training programs for local retailers as the reason for the town’s improvement.”There are a lot of different reasons why people failed the compliance checks,” Attridge said. “For one thing, there were people who were unfamiliar with the law.”Interestingly, only 1,441 adult smokers (18 and over) live in Marblehead. That’s 9.3 percent of the adult population. In Massachusetts, 18.1 percent of the adult population smokes.When the NSTCP surveyed pregnant women the figure dipped considerably lower. Only 1.1 percent of the expectant mothers in Marblehead were smokers, compared to 7.9 percent statewide.