Festival cigarette stalls banned in youth crackdown..

January 18, 2008 - New South Wales, Australia is outlawing cigarette stalls at music festivals and banning fruit- and confectionary-flavoured cigarettes in a bid to stop young people from smoking. Retailers face fines of up to $5,500 for selling the flavoured cigarettes from today and public health officers are allowed to inspect premises. The new laws will outlaw mobile tobacco vendors, which set up designated smoking tents at youth festivals. Assistant Health Minister Verity Firth says the vendors are dangerous because they attract young people. "In these tents, there are often DJs designed to attract young people into the tents and attract promoters with the cigarette brand," she said. "In the olden days, they would have been called cigarette girls." But Ms Firth says confectionary is the most dangerous marketing ploy used by tobacco companies to target young people. "Teenagehood (sic) is a key life phase for starting smoking," she said. "Our surveys show that 80 per cent of smokers started smoking during their teenage years and it's an incredibly hard habit to quit." (abc.net.au, 1/18/2008) Click on image to enlarge..