Rhode Island may be the smallest state but people from there do great things as they are innovators in the Tobacco Control Movement. Rhode Island has the second highest cigarette excise tax, the third lowest smoking rate among youth and now, the capital city has put Rhode Island on the map once again. Providence has put Rhode Island on the map. Providence has contributed to fight against the tobacco industry. In an important decision revealed recently, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the City of Providence’s anti-tobacco laws banning the sale of flavored tobacco products and removing the use of promotional discounting strategies usually aimed at children. Due to a network of organizations that includes the Providence Mayor’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council, Tobacco Free Providence and the City of Providence Healthy Communities Office, fewer young people will have access to the new candy-flavored cigarettes. Flavored cigars have exploded in popularity among children. National surveys show high-school students are twice as likely as adults to report smoking cigars in the past month, and young adults (ages 18-24) smoke cigars at even higher rates (15.9%). Though U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, the tobacco industry continued to produce and sell sweet-flavored products to attract teens. Flavored cigarettes were simply modified to fit the legal definition of “cigars” by adding a tobacco leaf wrapper. Dissolvable forms of tobacco make it easier to conceal its use. All of these products, despite their colorful and attractive labels, threaten the public’s health. It was proved that high prices on cigarettes help to keep tobacco products out of the hands of kids, Providence commendably went a step further. Prohibiting price promotions, such as the use of coupons, will keep prices high and Providence teens from becoming replacements for the tobacco industry’s dying customers. The 2000 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, “Reducing Tobacco Use,” discovered that high tobacco prices decrease the prevalence of tobacco use, particularly among children and young adults with limited financial means.
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Providence, tobacco, tobacco ban, children,
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