Teen Helps City Bust Bodegas Selling Tobacco to Kids; Ruins Social Life

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How not to win the affection of your peers: Bronx Science senior Hayden Miller has vastly improved the city's attempts to keep stores from selling cigarettes to minors. Last year, a city study found that kids under 18 were able to buy tobacco at 11% of bodegas. Miller thought that figure sounded low, so he conducted his own research. When he and his buddies went into bodegas behaving like normal kids—when they lied and made up excuses about lost IDs—they were successful 55% of the time. Now, the NYC Teen Tobacco Enforcement Program has a much better idea of how to crack down on convenience store owners, and 21 Jump Street has a much better chance of getting a 2009 update.
· Teen's Cig Sting [NYP]