The Prosecutor's Office is working with the Indianapolis Police Department and the State Excise Police in an attack on underage smoking
Officers from both departments, along with specially trained teenagers from the Police Explorer Scouts, have been making undercover buys at Indianapolis-area stores. It's against Indiana law to sell tobacco products to anyone under 18.
"Tobacco is a gateway drug," explained Prosecutor Brizzi. "Smoking when begun early in life, often leads to the use of more addictive and illicit drugs. I'm not saying that every teen who puffs on a Marlboro or some other brand will become a crack head, but it is hard for a teenager to imagine inhaling crack unless they have become accustomed to smoking tobacco."
Police and Scouts hit 20 Indianapolis-area retailers September 3 and 4, 2005. Clerks at those stores sold cigarettes to the undercover kids. They were all cited for the class C infraction. All four pled guilty in Marion County Juvenile Drug Court and received $50 fines and a stern warning from the judge to take the law seriously.
A second sweep of 30 retail businesses September 25, 2005, netted four arrests.
Brizzi also pointed out that more and more Hoosier teens are picking up the habit. "According to a 200e survey," he said, "nearly one-fourth of Indiana teenagers use cigarettes, compared to 18 percent nationally. That translates into more than 90,000 Indiana high school students who smoke on a daily basis. If we can cut off the habit at the source, then these kids may be less likely to begin in the first place."
Once they begin smoking, it's harder for teenagers to stop. A recent study shows that teens are more vulnerable to the addictive nature of cigarette smoking. Adolescents are more likely to feel the "rewarding" effects of nicotine than adults, and, at the same time, are less likely to fee the negative effect.
Brizzi said, "Kids that age often feel invulnerable--because of their youth and physical condition, they don't think anything can hurt them. They also don't see very far down the road--that a habit begun now can have serious consequences for them later in life. We want to make sure that these kids are older and more mature before they have access to tobacco."