SENATE MEMORIAL 7

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Pete Campos

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL FOR HOLDING MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTERS OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE SALE OF THOSE PRODUCTS TO MINORS.

     WHEREAS, youth smoking is a serious public health concern that contributes to early death from tobacco-related diseases; and

     WHEREAS, the federal centers for disease control and prevention reports that tobacco use in adolescence is associated with high-risk sexual behavior, use of alcohol and use of other drugs; and

     WHEREAS, according to the federal food and drug administration, every day more than four thousand youths under the age of eighteen try their first cigarette, and more than one thousand youths become daily smokers; and

     WHEREAS, research has shown that more than eighty percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of eighteen; and

     WHEREAS, every year, children and youths smoke more than eight hundred million packs of cigarettes, resulting in almost five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) in cigarette company profits, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health; and

     WHEREAS, the 2009 federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, restricts some types of sales and promotion of tobacco products to make these products less attractive to youth; and

     WHEREAS, rules effective starting June 22, 2010, promulgated pursuant to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, prohibit the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of eighteen, end the sale of cigarette packs that contain fewer than twenty cigarettes and prohibit the distribution of free samples; and

     WHEREAS, despite strict laws and regulations banning the sales of cigarettes to minors, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products have still found ways to promote smoking among youth; and

     WHEREAS, despite assertions by manufacturers of tobacco products that their own voluntary, anti-youth access programs will adequately protect youth and prevent them from beginning smoking, there is no evidence that these programs have ever been implemented effectively, and they have never been shown to reduce access to tobacco products or to stop illegal sales of cigarettes to youths, according to the campaign for tobacco-free kids; and

     WHEREAS, federal and state efforts to ban the sale of tobacco products to youths target only the merchants that sell tobacco products for retail and do not hold the manufacturers and distributors of these products accountable for the marketing, promotion and dissemination of tobacco products to minors;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to study the potential for holding manufacturers and distributers of tobacco products accountable for the sale of those products to minors; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the findings and recommendations of this study be presented to the appropriate interim committee by October 2011; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health.

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