Laserfiche WebLink
It's illegal to sell cigarettes to teenagers in Minnesota, but some communities <br />enforce the law strictly; others do not. When teens went undercover to try to <br />buy cigarettes, guess where they found it easiest. <br />Many stores in Minnesota still selling . <br />cigarettes to teenagers, study finds <br />By Conrad deFlebre <br />Star Tribune Staff Writer <br />--The first widespread survey of <br />compliance with Minnesota's ban <br />on tobacco sales to minors has <br />found that underage buyers were <br />able to buy cigarettes at more <br />than a third of the stores visited. <br />The results released Monday <br />showed similarities with national <br />Studies showing that more than <br />•two- thirds of U.S. stores sell to- <br />bacco to children under 18. But <br />the Minnesota findings also reig- <br />:,v <br />nited a long - running controversy <br />over how best to keep kids away <br />from cigarettes. <br />In the Minnesota communities <br />with strong local penalties for <br />merchants who sell to minors, <br />only 21 percent of attempted <br />buys by undercover teenagers in <br />the study were successful. In <br />communities without such penal- <br />ties, the success rate was more <br />than twice as high: 49 percent. <br />"These findings show that lo- <br />cal ordinances can literally save <br />young lives," said Attorney Gen- <br />eral Hubert Humphrey III, the <br />state's most prominent crusader <br />against teen smoking. <br />But retail and tobacco industry <br />representatives used the results <br />to argue exactly the opposite: <br />that statewide controls are need- <br />ed to attack underage smoking in <br />places lacking tough local laws. <br />Turn to TOBACCO on A8 for. <br />—Bill failed in 1996 Legislature. <br />Also on A8: <br />— Results of compliance checks in <br />metro area communities. <br />Page 118 <br />