ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512090006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
VIRGINIA'S Alcoholic Beverage Control Department is expanding its deployment of agents in retail shops that sell beer and wine to catch underage drinkers. Cops in Shops, it's called, aims to stop minors from attempting to buy hootch and also to stop those over 21 years old from buying it for minors.
Should there be a similar effort to crack down on illegal sales of cigarettes and chewing tobacco to minors?
Not a bad idea. Despite the severe health hazards that tobacco products pose for children, there's virtually no enforcement now of state law prohibiting sales to minors.
On the Commentary page today, Robert Buford IV of Richmond writes: ``I was 12 years old when, like many of my peers, I began playing with tobacco. By the time I was 15, when we all know we are immortal, I was a full-blown nicotine addict ... .'' Buford, now 46, has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the lung. He'll die soon.
How well and how sadly he fits the profile of today's young smokers. Starting early - the percentage of eighth graders who smoke increased 30 percent between 1991 and 1994. Hooked by 18. With an estimated 3,000 American kids starting to smoke each day, one of three will eventually die from smoking-related illness.
But, of course, the state has no Smoking Control Department, no equivalent of the ABC, with its own staff of agents to police illegal sales to minors. With State Police and local law-enforcement officers spread thin, few have time to hang around grocery and convenience stores waiting to cuff underage purchasers - or, more appropriately, the sales clerks who nonchalantly sell them the contraband.
As a result, the state mostly relies on retailers to police themselves - and that's not working very well. Virginia children have attested to how easy it is to get cigarettes.
Short of setting up a new enforcement agency, what can the state do? As Buford suggests, it can ban tobacco sales through vending machines, at least in places frequented by adolescents. In keeping with President Clinton's proposals to reduce teen smoking, it can require face-to-face sales, with proof of age and a photo ID from would-be purchasers. It can put muscle in the existing law with substantial penalties for violations, and by making funds available for local police departments to try cops-in-shops-style monitoring and enforcement programs.
The state also could launch its own advertising campaign to pitch the dangers of smoking to kids. It might consider raising the age for legal purchases of tobacco products to 21, the same as for alcoholic beverages.
Perhaps most important of all, Virginia can raise its lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax - Buford suggests from 2.5 cents per pack to at least 32.5 cents, the national average. A hefty tax increase is a proven means of discouraging price-sensitive youngsters from taking up the cigarette habit. How many more stories like Buford's are needed to convince the legislature that this is necessary?
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB