Youth Tobacco Access Restrictions: Time to Shift Resources to Other Interventions?

Abstract

There is limited data to guide policy makers as to whether youth tobacco access restriction is an effective strategy. Analysis of the limited data on youth access restriction suggests that (a) scalable models for access restriction are lacking, (b) enforcement of access restriction would be cost prohibitive, (c) the leaky commercial supply of cigarettes combined with the capacity of youth to tap into a “social supply” of cigarettes would hamper all but the most rigorously enforced efforts to restrict access to tobacco, and (d) access restriction may paradoxically increase allure of cigarettes for some youth. Although youth tobacco access restriction does not face strong political or industry opposition, the authors' analysis reveals that youth tobacco access restriction is likely to remain a failed strategy to control tobacco use in the United States.