The checks are one part of the countywide health agency's overall programs to try to discourage teens from smoking. About 36 percent of area high school seniors smoke regularly, surveys show. If they can keep from smoking as middle or high school students, most likely they won't pick up something as an adult. At least some area retailers make it easy for teens to reach for cigarettes and have displays set up in a way that seem to target youths, Brownd said. Bins filled with individual packs of cigarettes are sometimes displayed just inside the door of retail establishments, he said.
Some stores sell tobacco products adjacent to candy displays.
Kids are the ones who buy the majority of the candy, not the adults. That's how they attract and target younger smokers. Retailers can have their license to sell tobacco products suspended for a year for a fourth violation. Many of the checks at the next seven stores followed a similar pattern. Valerie, dressed in a crimson Nike sweatshirt, blue jeans and athletic shoes, would walk into a store.