YOUTH ACCESS TO TOBACCO - POLICIES AND POLITICS

The late 1980s marked the beginning of a sea change in research and in tervention on tobacco use by young people, when the first studies were published demonstrating the ease with which adolescents could purchas e cigarettes. Since then concern with the commercial availability of t obacco products to youth has grown, becoming deeply entrenched in both research and policy efforts. This paper reviews the history of restri ctions on youth access to tobacco, the evidence that commercial source s of tobacco are available and important to adolescents, and the ratio nale for various components of policies to restrict access. We also re view the recent expansion of policies addressing youth access to tobac co at all levels of government, the tobacco industry response to this expansion, and issues that have arisen as this expansion has developed .