MIXED RESULTS LIKELY IN ANTI-SMOKING DRIVE

Advertising, cigarettes still available to teens

JACKSON, Miss. -- For years, a massive Kool cigarette billboard featuring a
streaking race car stood within eyeshot of the Poindexter Elementary School
here. Now it is gone. On both sides of the Sonic Restaurant, the choice
hangout of the teens of Greenville, were billboards for generic cigarette
brands. Now there are anti-tobacco ads.

But in the Eudora Welty Public Library, you'll find an array of magazines
with seductive cigarette ads. And at the nearby Spur service station, the
children who wander in and out know exactly how to bypass the law against
selling tobacco to minors.

``You just tell them that you're buying it for your momma or something.
They'll sell it,'' said Cornelius Cooley, 13.

As Congress debates legislation designed to limit smoking nationally, a
visit to Mississippi offers a glimpse of the mixed results that might be coming.

Nearly a year ago this state became the first to cut a deal with the tobacco
industry aimed at curbing smoking and recovering related health costs. The
state will get $175 million every year for the next 25 years, plus $62
million for anti-smoking programs, and the authority to ban all outdoor
tobacco ads.

The money is making its way into the state budget, and the advertising rules
are taking effect. But officials and public health activists here -- and in
Texas and Florida, the other two states with settlements -- also are
realizing the limits of state agreements.

The chances that Congress will produce a sweeping tobacco bill that includes
advertising restrictions have been severely damaged by the tobacco
companies' recent decision to fight proposed national legislation.

Restricting advertising

Congress can raise the price of cigarettes -- currently as low as $1.19 a
pack in Mississippi -- and regulate their content, but without the industry
on board, free-speech protections will likely prevent restrictions on
cigarette advertising in national magazines and elsewhere -- a tool that
many in Mississippi now view as vital to reducing youth smoking.

``Unless we have all the tools, we won't get the reduction in youth smoking
that we want,'' said Mississippi attorney general Mike Moore, who is
credited with starting the government's legal war on tobacco.

``If it falls apart in Washington, we're going to try our best to take care
of Mississippi's kids. It started here and we're going to finish it here, I
guess.''

In early April, Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie sent undercover teens
into 10 stores that sell tobacco in the small city of Meridian, 90 miles
east of Jackson. He was stunned by the results.

``Five of the 10 sold it to the kids . . . didn't ask for ID, nothing,'' he
said. ``We have room for improvement.''

Those who sell to minors can be fined up to $50, though no fines have been
issued here to date. Keeping an eye on retailers taxes the state's police
departments.

Very few states do much better.

Moore has decided to motivate with money, and $5 million of the settlement
will go for police grants. If a police department goes after retailers to
Moore's satisfaction, he'll give them a nice cash reward.

``We want retailers to know that they're constantly going to be checked,''
Moore said.

Susan Martindale of Monticello, 60 miles southeast of Jackson, is at the
fore of Mississippi's anti-smoking volunteer army. But despite all her
education efforts she has one failure.

``My 21-year-old daughter smokes. She thinks she's invincible,'' she said.
``It's a crying shame.'

In Monticello, chewing tobacco is as big a problem as smoking. It is part of
the culture, present at Little League and football practice, chewed by adult
and child alike. Martindale, working with clergy and business owners, is
part of a massive statewide push funded with money from the settlement to
change that

The major chewing tobacco company, U.S. Tobacco, was part of the state
settlement, and the smaller companies have voluntarily complied.

With some of the $62 million health fund from the settlement, the state is
organizing the Partnership for Healthy Mississippi. This program will bring
together local officials, doctors, PTA members, businesses, and civic groups
to form strategies to counter youth smoking. Before the settlement,
Thompson's typical budget was about $60,000 a year.

Incentives

The attorney general will give grants to the town coalitions when he is
satisfied that they have devised an effective program. Thus far, the ideas
focus on countering cigarette advertising with no-smoking ads, movie
trailers with health messages, and guest speakers at schools. Some towns
have sponsored prizes for the student who writes the best anti-smoking essay.

But it is an uphill battle, Moore acknowledges.

``You have to be able to turn on the anti-smoking message and turn off the
smoking ads,'' he said. ``You need to do both.''