On a daily basis, high school students walk into Luis Garciaβs Fourth Avenue smoke shop, backpacks and all.
They make the eight-minute walk from Tucson High Magnet School hoping to buy electronic cigarettes.
βThatβs why I put up that sign,β said Garcia, pointing to a prominently displayed piece of paper that reads β18+ over.β
βItβs very popular and lot of kids want to try it but like cigarettes, you need to be 18,β the owner of Smokeyβs Smoke Shop said.
While teens are walking out of Smokeyβs empty handed, a recent survey shows they are getting their hands on e-cigarettes somewhere with more than half of Arizona high-schoolers reporting that theyβve tried them.
E-cigarettes are devices that allow users to inhale a vapor containing nicotine or other substances.
In fact, Arizona high school students were more likely to have tried e-cigarettes than their peers across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionβs Youth Risk Behavior Survey found.
The survey also found there are more teens using e-cigarettes than there are teens smoking regular cigarettes.
Itβs easy to see why, says John Schachter, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
βThe industry has clearly been using a variety of methods that the old tobacco industry used to target its product to kids,β he said.
There are slick TV ads, celebrity sponsorships, and more than 7,000 flavors including cotton candy and gummy bear that are blatantly appealing to kids, Schachter said.
βYou have kids being bombarded with these products and the advertisements and the marketing for these products that they just donβt see nearly as much with cigarettes,β he said. βSo whether itβs that they perceive them as healthy alternatives or some cool new product, itβs just something thatβs being pushed out toward them and aiming for them to get addicted and itβs obviously a problem.β
That kind of marketing is troubling to one Southern Arizona teen who is working to keep the addictive products out of the hands of his peers.
βThe way I see it is that the tobacco companies always need replacements for people who quit or die, so they target youth,β said Alex Duarte, a junior at Douglas High School. βI just want to see kids live in a world where theyβre not being targeted and sold a product that will have many different health effects.
βMany think itβs just water vapor when really thereβs nicotine, and nicotine is known to be an addictive chemical β itβs a natural pesticide and if your body takes in enough of it, it can kill you.β
Studies have found that even e-cigarette products that claim to be nicotine-free sometimes have traces of nicotine, Duarte added.
Duarte, a member of the Cochise County Youth Health Coalition, recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where he was advocating for the need for action to protect kids from newer tobacco products like electronic cigarettes and flavored cigars that have become popular.
He was one of 21 kids from across the country participating in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kidsβ Youth Advocacy Symposium where he met with Rep. Martha McSally and the staffs of Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. John McCain.
Duarte first became interested in the issue as a sixth-grader, watching his older sister take part in his countyβs youth health coalition for high school students.
While he was too young to become an official member, he snuck his way into conferences during middle school and joined when he entered the ninth grade.
Since becoming involved in anti-tobacco efforts, the 16-year-old has taken part in sting operations with the Attorney Generalβs Office, going to gas stations and convenience stores to see whether they will sell to children under 18, which is prohibited by law.
Having seen many places that do sell the products to kids, Duarte says he would like to see the creation of a tobacco license, similar to what is needed to sell liquor.
βThat would make it so if they are caught selling to minors, you could take their license away and prohibit them from selling for a certain period of time,β Duarte said, adding that would have more of an impact than fees that are assessed now.
He has also seen how easy it is to buy e-cigarettes online, saying anyone can check a couple of boxes and claim they are 18 but there is no attempt to verify when the package is delivered.
Researchers have found that e-cigarette devices are also being used by young people to smoke marijuana, all the more reason advocates are working to raise the tobacco sale age to 21 across the country, as has been done in Hawaii and California, Schachter said.
βWhen you raise the tobacco age from 18 to 21, you are really getting these products out of the high schools because as it stands now, younger students can get them from older high school students,β he said. βIf you raise it to 21, you remove that access.β