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EDITORIAL: Addicted at an early age 

Meanwhile, federal, state and local officials should also be looking at ways to keep other gateways to addiction out of youngsters' reach. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's push to restrict the sales of "alcopops" - sugary alcoholic beverages that are now as widely available as beer - met an inexcusable veto from Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2008. Although the governor has subsequently come around on the issue, the legislature has remained unable to enact restrictions. That should be a priority when the General Assembly returns.

Similarly, Baltimore and state officials have long struggled to restrict the single sales of so-called "little cigars" or cigarillos, products that are taxed and sold as if they were premium cigars instead of the glorified cigarettes they actually are. (The industry defines cigars and cigarillos as smokables wrapped in tobacco, whereas cigarettes are wrapped in paper. But both pose health hazards comparable to cigarettes.)

Mayor Sheila Dixon was able to enact regulations requiring vendors to sell "little cigars" in packs of five or more - an effort aimed at making them less accessible to kids attracted by their low price. But the change that would really matter - taxing them like cigarettes - has gotten nowhere in Annapolis. Lawmakers should take heart from the FDA's ruling on flavored cigarettes and try again next year. For while opponents of such restrictions may be right that adults should be able to make their own decisions about smoking (even decisions that are bad for them), that argument fails when it comes to products that, intentionally or not, are calibrated to lure vulnerable youngsters into a lifetime of addiction.

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