ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260116
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
VIRGINIA'S TOBACCO industry has another chance to make good on a dubious claim - that it has no interest whatsoever in enticing children to take up the addictive cigarette habit.
The industry can do so by actively supporting bills introduced at this year's General Assembly that would make it less easy for children to buy cigarettes.
One measure, simple and sensible, would require that cigarette vending machines in restaurants, hotels, motels and other establishments where children have free run be located where they can be monitored. Vending machines, often located in back hallways and other inconspicuous spots, are a major source of cigarettes for very young kids who can't con older friends into buying over-the-counter tobacco for them.
It's no testimony to the industry's credibility that it has lobbied in the past to kill similar vending-machine bills. Come to think of it, why allow cigarette vending machines and self-service racks at all?
Another measure would require young customers to produce a photo ID before store clerks can sell them cigarettes over the counter. This is also simple and sensible - though, to be truly effective, the requirement ought to be bolstered by stiffer penalties for stores that sell tobacco products to minors.
Virginia law already prohibits such sales, but it's clearly not being enforced, and retailers are doing a lousy job of policing themselves. With an estimated 3,000 American children taking up smoking every day, about a third of whom will eventually die of tobacco-related illnesses, the store clerks who nonchalantly sell cigarettes to youngsters are accessories to a crime that isn't taken near seriously enough.
Lawmakers who are sponsoring the Virginia bills aimed at reducing under-age smoking say they believe the tobacco industry, one of the most potent lobbying forces before the legislature, will offer less opposition to such measures this year. Less opposition is not the same as support. Perhaps, though, with the federal government threatening to impose even tougher restrictions, the industry will make a show of its willingness to help keep kids out of its harm's way in Virginia.
A better test of its commitment may not come this year. Del. James Almand, D-Arlington, has called for a study to devise better ways to limit children's access to tobacco and to prevent young people from getting hooked on a product that's a known health hazard.
While the study may come up with some useful ideas, it's not needed to discover what has already proved effective - in particular, an excise tax high enough to discourage cigarette-buying among price-sensitive adolescents.
By coddling the tobacco industry and maintaining the lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax, Virginia's legislature has not yet shown that it is even half-serious about reducing underage smoking and protecting the health of Virginia kids. In this regard, lawmakers seem not a lot less disingenuous than the industry, which Almand says is now ``committed to working with us.''
Introduce a bill raising the state's cigarette tax to the national average. Then we'll see whether the industry and legislature are blowing smoke about saving children.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB