Learning Objectives: explain how a coordinated advocacy campaign at the local level can overcome the opposition of the tobacco industry and its retailer allies, and prevail upon local regulatory bodies to enact and enforce stringent community regulations designed to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors.
Abstract: PROBLEM:
A potentially effective means of reducing youth access to tobacco products is to persuade local governments to actively regulate the sale of those products by community merchants. To be successful, however, such a course requires surmounting the political opposition of the tobacco industry and allied local interests. It becomes paramount, then, to understand how this can be done. This study provides such an understanding by explaining how such an outcome was achieved by tobacco control advocates in Massachusetts.
METHODS:
This research project draws upon public documents of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, those of non-profit organizations, internal tobacco industry documents, public records of hearings on youth access regulations conducted by local boards of health in Massachusetts, and interviews with participants in local debates over those regulations.
RESULTS:
Adoption of youth access regulations by local boards of health in Massachusetts was a response to the actions of regulatory advocates that were funded by the state?s tobacco control program. These advocates, consisting of board employees, attorneys from professional associations, and local community activists, provided boards with the resources, technical assistance, and community support they needed to enact regulations over the organized opposition of local merchants.
DISCUSSION:
Regulatory advocates attributed their success to a strategy that followed a set of principles. Chief among these were providing state funding for local tobacco control initiatives, but allowing local flexibility concerning the types of regulations adopted. Further, including in the advocacy coalition those professional organizations representing local boards of health and local elected officials.
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