Handsel Art

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 2 December 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: J.R. Few at

(870) 427-1365 or email

handselart@marioncounty.com

Illegal Sales Plummet

Julie Andersen from Tobacco-Free Marion County (on right) shares educational materials and a briefing on reducing youth access to tobacco with Dave Garner at Lazy D Spirits, Marion County’s newest retailer licensed to sell tobacco.

In the past year tobacco retailers in Marion County have only been fined for one illegal sale to a minor according to the Arkansas Tobacco Control Board. In October the Arkansas Department of Health released data showing that between 2000 and 2007, the rate of current cigarette smoking dropped from 35.8 to 20.4 percent among Arkansas’s high school students, cutting the rate almost in half.

Says Andersen, “Conscientious retailers are helping to make a difference, not merely in reducing the number of youth becoming addicted to nicotine, but also in the inevitable chronic disease related to tobacco.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed that Arkansas leads the nation with the lowest percentage of retailers selling tobacco to underage youth during unannounced inspections (2.2 percent).

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