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OPINIONS
Editorial: Retailers should be penalized for tobacco sales to minors
Joshua Lycans teaches Brenda Patton and Jackson OÕRoark about the harmful effects of tobacco during the Health and Fitness Expo at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in this October 2008 file photo. A recent report shows that about 17.9 percent of retailers subject to inspections sold tobacco products to minors. The Alcohol Beverage Control Administration should be fining these establishments, and owners should be held responsible for ensuring their staff follows the law.
Purchase this photoWhen it comes to ensuring that tobacco isn't being sold to minors, West Virginia is losing ground. And state officials' response to the problem inspires little confidence that anything significant will be done about it.
A recent report submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that about 17.9 percent of 458 retailers subject to random inspections sold tobacco products to minors in 2008.
That non-compliance rate of 17.9 percent compares with a rate of 14.2 percent the year before. The state is headed in the wrong direction.
State officials are concerned for two reasons. The obvious one has to do with making it easier for teens to obtain tobacco products and run the risk of becoming frequent users, which brings a host of harmful health effects to them as well as others, not to mention the health care costs that everyone ends up paying.
The other is that the state runs the risk of losing about $3.4 million in federal money used to fund a variety of substance abuse and treatment programs if the non-compliance rate reaches 20 percent or more in the future.
The state agency responsible for enforcing the ban on sales of tobacco products to minors is the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration. But when asked about its enforcement efforts, agency spokesman Gig Robinson told the Daily Mail newspaper that the ABCA does not fine retailers for failing to card but instead follows up with educational programs.
The reasoning he offered is that the agency does not have jurisdiction over all places that sell tobacco, so it doesn't believe it would be fair to penalize any of the 2,079 places it does have control over while others would escape penalties.
He also cited the high turnover rate that retailers have with clerks.
Neither excuse is valid. The ABCA should enforce the law at establishments it does control and levy the appropriate penalties on offenders. Owners of establishments have a responsibility to ensure their staffs follow the law and should be fined if they don't. Additionally, if enforcement needs to be stepped up by local authorities at establishments not under the ABCA's jurisdiction, more pressure should be applied to local agencies to get involved.
West Virginia's Division of Tobacco Prevention reports that in 2007, about 27 percent of the state's adults were cigarette smokers -- the second highest rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also reports that in 2007, the percentage of West Virginia youth who smokes was 28.8 percent. The percentage for teen smokers offers little hope that the adult numbers will improve dramatically in the future.
But stricter enforcement of the ban on tobacco sales to youth could help. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School concluded in a study released this spring that for every 1 percent increase in the rate of merchant compliance with the laws relating to sales of tobacco products to minors, daily smoking rates among 10th graders fell by 2 percent.
That's a good rate of return. Now state and local authorities need to set the proper tone -- one that is loud and clear that there will be penalties for merchants who sell tobacco to children.
