05-22-1996 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 119 Many Minnesota stores sell tobacco to minors, study says "If we had a law that every At a glance: retailer across the state had to comply with, the rate could be Tobacco sales to minors even better," said Judy Cook, An antismoking project fed by the president of the Minnesota Retail Minnesota Health Department and Merchants Association. the Minnesota division of the Ameri- In the 1996 legislative session, can Cancer Society tested whether retailers backed such a bill, which stores are illegally selling tobacco they touted as the strongest in to minors. Under the supervision of the nation. But it failed because adults, children under age 18 tried of their insistence that it also bar to buy tobacco in 914 stores in 49 Ideal governments from enacting communities around the state. The anything tougher. Antismoking tests showed that in communities forces refused to accept that pro- with local ordinances regulating to- vision, called local preemption, bacco sales, stores were less likely and considered the bill's defeat a to sell tobacco to minors. Here are victory for their cause. the results of the compliance • Jeanne Weigum, president of checks in metro area communities. the Association for Nonsmokers- Minnesota, said the bill was un- Cities with youth access ordinances acceptable because its penalties Shakopee 39% against merchants were too weak. Plymouth 36% In addition, she said, the political North St. Paul 20% process of enacting local tobacco Falcon Heights 20% ordinances raises community Shoreview 16% Stillwater 14% New Brighton .. ...... ....... 9% Eden Prairie 7% awareness and involvement in the teen smoking issue in a way that state legislation cannot. "These findings show why to- bacco lobbyists are pulling out all the stops to try to ban local to- bacco ordinances," Humphrey said. "They know that if kids don't start smoking as minors .. . most won't start at all." Under state law, selling tobac- co to a minor is a gross misde- meanor. It is seldom enforced against store clerks, however, and contains no penalties for propri- etors. A growing number of cities have enacted such penalties, ranging from fines to license sus- pensions and revocations, but many more have not. In the spot checks, none of the 19 cities and townships with strong local tobacco laws had more than 49 percent noncompli- ance. The spot checks were con- ducted at 914 stores over the past seven months by youths working with adult supervision. The pro- ject was sponsored by the Minne- sota Health Department and the Minnesota division of the Ameri- can Cancer Society. In some places, new laws pro- duced startling results. In Fergus Falls, for example, compliance checks before passage of a local ordinance showed 50 percent of the stores selling to minors. In the latest survey, that was cut to 3 percent. Noncompliance in areas with- out local laws ranged from 0 to 100 percent. One of the 100 per- cent towns was Rush City, in the "strict of the local preemption Cities without ordinances Prior Lake . __.100% Ramsey. .„ 100% St. Croix Beach ........... _100% Forest Lake ............ _. .... _...... „_._...__. 84% Oak Park Heights . „._. „.._„ 75% Wayzata 73% Bloomington 67% Hopkins 67% Burnsville 52% South St. Paul 35% White Bear Lake 33% Richfield 30% Inver Grove Heights 12% Maplewood 10% Bayport 0% Lake Elmo 0% Lakeland 0% bill's sponsor, DFL Rep. Loren Jennings. Minneapolis and St. Paul were not included in the survey, which covered towns in 22 counties. Prior Lake, Bloomington, Forest Lake, Hopkins, Oak Park Heights, Ramsey and Wayzata — all Twin Cities suburbs without strong or- dinances — showed at least two - thirds of stores selling to minors. "It was kind of weird that so many clerks sold to me,” said one undercover 17- year -old who got cigarettes at 12 of 16 stores in Bloomington. "I don't think I look like I'm 18, but they just set the cigarettes on the counter and said, 'Here you go.' "