TOBACCO SALES TO KIDS FEWER IN FLORIDA

WASHINGTON - Florida's efforts seem to be paying off, in marked
contrast to the national picture.

For teens trying to buy cigarettes illegally, Florida is not the place
to be.

The Sunshine State leads the nation in cracking down on tobacco sales
to minors, a medical researcher reported Wednesday.

``Florida has hired a dozen or more full-time inspectors who go out
every day of the year'' to find retailers who violate the law banning
tobacco sales to those younger than 18, said Joseph R. DiFranza of the
University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Florida was the shining example in an otherwise gloomy report on the
war against teen smoking. The study was published in The Archives of
Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

``Almost all the states failed miserably'' to prevent children from
buying tobacco products, said DiFranza, who also said the Department
of Health and Human Services was looking the other way.

Nelba Chavez, administrator of substance abuse programs for Health and
Human Services, said later data would show an improvement among the
states.

DiFranza's study focused on 1996, but Chavez said ``data over the past
three years unmistakably shows the Synar program has been extremely
successful.''

Named for its sponsor, the late Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., the Synar
Amendment prohibits tobacco sales to children and teens younger than
18, and requires states to enforce the law by various means, including
random inspections of stores.

Nationwide, a retailer who illegally sells tobacco to minors faces
just a 1-in-a-million chance of being penalized, DiFranza said.

Children and teens buy a billion packs of cigarettes a year in the
United States.

``In 1996, in 49 of the 50 states, children had no trouble going in
and buying tobacco,'' DiFranza told reporters.

Florida's model program has cut the retailer sales rate to 5 percent.
That means, if a youth attempts to buy cigarettes 100 times, he is
successful five times in Florida. Nationally, the rate is about 25
percent.