Cigarette use among Massachusetts high schoolers reached a 15-year low in 2007, with fewer than one in five teenagers reporting that they regularly smoked, according to a state report released yesterday.
The decline marked the first drop in teen smoking rates in four years and coincided with the revival of the state's once-storied Tobacco Control Program, which was all but gutted under the gubernatorial administrations of Jane Swift and Mitt Romney.
More money is being devoted to antitobacco campaigns now than in any year since 2002, and the secret weapon in the state's reinvigorated arsenal: the teenagers themselves.
That means, for example, an increase in funding so more fresh-faced, underage decoys can prowl corner stores to determine if clerks will illegally sell them a pack of smokes. A website designed by teens and run by the Department of Public Health conveys the message that not smoking is hip. And teenager-run coalitions have received small state grants, which in Worcester was used to chart the proximity of cigarette sellers to schools.
"These efforts are effective because adolescents are often rebellious, and so, not infrequently, they are ignoring the messages they get from authority figures, like their parents and teachers," said John Auerbach, the state's public health commissioner. "They're less likely to ignore those messages when coming from people that are just like them."
The renewed campaign is set against a backdrop of broader social change in Massachusetts. The Legislature banned smoking in all restaurants and bars more than three years ago, and with the passage of time, cigarette use has become less and less acceptable.
"Rather than seeing people in this glamorous setting, smoking and drinking, now what you see is smokers huddled out in the cold, shivering by the door," said Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health, whose research focuses on tobacco control. "You don't look at them and say, 'Wow, that looks fun, standing in 20-degree weather, puffing a cigarette.' "
Current state spending on tobacco control is 55 percent above what it was a year ago, and more than one-third of the $12.75 million total is devoted to curtailing smoking among teens. During the lean years of tobacco control, sales to teens under 18 skyrocketed, with 23 percent of the underage decoys able to purchase a pack in 2006. They venture into convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets, attempting to buy cigarettes, but with instructions not to sweet-talk the clerks or to become belligerent.
By last year, underage sales had plummeted to 10 percent. Lois Keithly, the state's tobacco control chief, also attributed the drop to an aggressive campaign targeting retailers, parents, and youths.
"We found a disproportionate number of the sales were done by clerks who were young adults," Keithly said. So, the state developed colorful signs meant to appeal to those clerks, reminding them that anyone who looks to be under 27 should be carded. As recently as 1995, surveys showed that nearly 36 percent of high school students reported smoking in the past month. But those rates then began falling steadily, as the state pumped tens of millions of dollars into tobacco control, peaking at $54 million by 2000. The declines in teen smoking stalled beginning in 2003, hovering at 21 percent. During that same period, tobacco control spending nearly vanished.
"But we've seen an increase in spending more recently," said Russet Morrow Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass., an advocacy and educational organization. "And even small increases end up making a relatively substantial public health impact."
Last year, when students completed a health survey in their classrooms, nearly 18 percent described themselves as smokers.
Bill Phelps, a spokesman for the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer,
Alexis Claytor is doing something. The 17-year-old from Dorchester helped design a state antismoking website called the84.org that offers teens T-shirts, wallpaper for their computer, and access to short films made by other students. The site is bright and bold, with nary a hint of the dour-faced figures who starred in the public-health campaigns of an earlier era.
"If they feel you're preaching - or you're trying to convey yourself in such a way that you know everything and they don't - they'll automatically just shut down and not pay attention to the good stuff you have to say," Claytor said. "We want people to pay attention."
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
