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Survey Shows Illegal Retail Tobacco Sales To N.H. Youth On Rise

Cigarette
SuperFantastic
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Flickr Creative Commons

  Retail tobacco sales to New Hampshire youth went up between 2014 and 2015.

The state Department of Health and Human Services says a survey found 16.6 percent of retail tobacco sales in 2015 were to children under the age of 18, who are legally not allowed to purchase it. That's up from 14.4 percent in 2014. The survey was conducted among 338 randomly selected licensed tobacco outlets.

The director of the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services say the state is working to better educate both merchants and teenagers who may try to purchase tobacco. It is illegal to sell or give tobacco to some under age 18.

States are federally mandated to track youth tobacco access and work to improve it.

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