News

In April of 2006, parents and community leaders in the City of Lawrence got a wakeup call: inspections found that nearly four out of five of the city’s tobacco retailers (78%) illegally sold cigarettes to minors. This was among the highest rate of illegal tobacco sales ever recorded in the Commonwealth.

Local health officials were appalled. The city had previously been effective at keeping tobacco out of the hands of kids, but its community-based education and enforcement program was eliminated by a series of funding cuts beginning in 2002. After cuts to

Tobacco control programs, merchants were either unaware of the laws or realized that they could break the law without repercussions.

Myles Burke, Commissioner of the Lawrence Board of Health, said, “The increase in tobacco sales was a direct result of the loss of program funding – no question.”

In an effort to prevent another generation of Lawrence youth from becoming addicted to deadly tobacco products, Burke and others worked to restore funding to the

Lawrence Board of Health in October, 2006. The results are remarkable -- in less than two years, the City of Lawrence reduced its illegal tobacco sales rate to single digits, from 78% to 6.74%.

Download the full report here.