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Each year the rate of tobacco sales to under-aged youth is tested through a collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Nebraska State Patrol and the City of Omaha Police Department.
"We encourage merchants to review their procedures to stop tobacco sales to minors, and to have their employees always ask for identification from those wanting to buy tobacco products," said Scot Adams, Ph.D., director of the DHHS Division of Behavioral Health. "IDs should be carefully reviewed, because it's illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 18."
Nebraska's buy rate has been edging up since 2005, when the rate was 10.7 percent. In 2009, cooperating teens attempted buys in 767 locations and made purchases in 104, for a statewide rate of 13.6 percent.
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As part of the Nebraska comprehensive tobacco cessation and merchant education process the state checks to see if youth under 18 can buy tobacco products. Below is a table showing the rate of sales to minors since 1995. Nebraska has dropped below 20 percent sales rate to minors in checks conducted by the Nebraska State Patrol and local Peace Officers. The goal is to have a violation rate across the state of less than 10 percent.
Checks are conducted throughout the year and summarized into regional and statewide rates. . . .
During the first three quarters of 2009 the Cooperating Individuals ( individuals between 15 and 17 years of age), and peace officers conducted compliance checks at nearly 800 retailers in the state. The table below summarizes the results of the compliance checks and the 104 retailers who sold to the cooperating individual. Compliance checks used for this study are conducted in a strict statewide random sampling procedure. Your local community coalition may be working to conduct checks, and retailer education in your community.
Authorities say the rate of tobacco sales to underage youths has risen.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says it conducts tests with the help of teenage volunteers, the Nebraska State Patrol and Omaha Police.
In 2009, 13.6 percent of teenagers who served as test subjects were able to buy tobacco products, compared with 10.7 percent in 2005.
This year, 767 outlets were checked across the state, and the teenagers were able to make purchases at 104 of them.
x months after Nebraska's statewide smoking ban took effect, bar and restaurant owners in Broken Bow, Holdrege and Lexington remain divided on the effects of the ban.
One bar operator has been fined $100 twice for violating the ban and faces a fine of up to $500 for a third offense.
For the nearly 20 years he's owned Sylvester's bar in Broken Bow, Fred Schumacher had not had many problems. Since the smoking ban took effect on June 1, Schumacher has been in trouble three times for allowing smokers to light up.
Schumacher believes the complaints came mostly from out-of-town patrons. "I don't understand why someone wouldn't just leave rather than call the cops," he said.
He said he was fined $100 and court costs for the first two violations. He's still waiting for the outcome on his third offense, which could mean a fine of up to $500, he said.
Schumacher said the smoking ban "definitely has" hurt his business, but a Holdrege establishment is experiencing the opposite six months into the ban.
For the first time since smoking was banned inside Omaha businesses, some are now legally lighting up. A special license has been granted to a Benson business, the first within Omaha city limits.
A smoky bar hasn't been seen in Omaha in quite some time. The city outlawed the habit at such places in June 2008. Strict tobacco retailers were the exception.
"I can't tell you how many times I'd be at a bar, and I'd just reek. I didn't really care for that, so I was pretty happy they banned it."
A state ban took effect this past June. By September, it was amended with a loophole for business owners like John Larkin of Jake’s Cigar Bar & Spirits, 62nd & Maple.. "It's right in our name, Jake's Cigars,” he says, “and to not be able to smoke in the business was very tough, and now that we can, we expect cigar sales to go back up."
Monday, Larkin was granted a license to allow cigar smoking.A business qualifies with a class c liquor license, earning at least 10% of business from sales of tobacco or tobacco products. They cannot serve food and must have a walk-in humidor. A license costs $1,000, and it does not allow cigarette smoking.
With the first such license granted in Omaha, some familiar arguments resurface. “There is absolutely no safe level of second-hand smoke exposure," says Mark Welsch, president of the Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution.
Sniff, sniff. Cigar smokers smell victory at hand as two new cigar bars -- Ravenite Cigar Bar & Lounge and Havana Garage -- get ready to open.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission recently approved rules to facilitate a new state law that exempts cigar bars from the statewide public smoking ban.
Under those rules -- which are still waiting approval from the governor and attorney general -- to become a cigar bar, businesses would have to obtain a special liquor license, install a walk-in humidor (a special room with temperature and humidity controls for storing and displaying cigars), generate at least 10 percent of their gross revenue from tobacco sales (except cigarettes), and would be prohibited from allowing cigarette smoking and selling food. (Tobacco shops also are exempt from the statewide smoking ban.)
While ordinances and state laws have kept public places free of smoke, it has increased the amount of cigarette litter on the street.
This month Keep Sidney Beautiful kicked off its Cigarette Litter Prevention Program to help fix that problem. The program is designed to help educate the public about properly disposing of cigarette butts. These strategically-placed ash trays serve as a reminder that partially-smoked cigarettes, matches and packaging all classify as litter.
Grant funding was used to purchase 11 ash receptacles to be placed in the downtown district.
Keep America Beautiful awarded Keep Sidney Beautiful $1,500 to purchase these receptacles.
An Omaha pool hall owner has renewed his legal challenge of the state's smoking ban.
Big John's Billiards has filed a revised complaint in Lancaster County District Court to argue the ban that went into effect June 1 is unconstitutional.
The statewide smoking ban includes exemptions for cigar bars, some hotel rooms, tobacco-only retailers, facilities that do research on the health effects of smoking, and private residences.
Big John's argues that the exceptions to the ban are unfair and should make the ban unconstitutional.
A policy banning outdoor tobacco use on county-owned property is disappearing like smoke.
The proposed policy would have banned tobacco use on all property owned, leased or controlled by Lancaster County - including buildings, grounds, parking areas, and offices and road shops in small towns.
The County Board had discussed the proposal several times with the idea of having it in place by Tuesday.
But that won't happen now.
At a Thursday staff meeting, Commissioner Larry Hudkins called it a burden to use county employees acting as "police" to enforce the ban.
Sue Eckley, the county's risk manager, said a training program - similar to one used by BryanLGH Medical Center - would be conducted and a protocol established for approaching violators.
Nebraska's first cigar bars under a new law could start appearing in October.
The law, which prohibits such bars from serving food or allowing smoking, takes effect later this month. But first, the state Liquor Control Commission must establish rules on how it will enforce the law.
All eligible cigar bars must post at least 10 percent of their sales from cigars. The bars also must have a walk-in humidor that fits more than two people.
Now that an anti-smoking group has lost the fight over whether cigar bars exist in Nebraska, it's focusing on where the smoke blows.
Mark Welsch, president of the Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution, told regulators Thursday that smoking in cigar bars shouldn't be exempt from the state's anti-smoking law if smoke infiltrates neighboring shops or businesses.
Welsch, speaking before the Liquor Control Commission during a public hearing in Lincoln, also said a rule requiring ventilation systems in cigar bars should be struck down. He said it gives the impression that the air is clean.
Only an "indoor tornado" could make cigar-bar air safe, added Cindy Jeffrey of Lincoln, executive director of Health Education Inc. "And that's probably not practical."
It will be at least October before the first patron can legally light up in a Nebraska cigar bar.
Hobert Rupe, executive director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, said Thursday the wait will depend on how quickly a set of rules and regulations moves through the approval process.
He commented after a commission hearing on draft rules and regulations. The commission is expected to vote at its September meeting on adopting -- and possibly amending -- those rules.
A new state law takes effect Aug. 30 exempting specially licensed cigar bars from the statewide public smoking ban.
The exemption is in addition to those for tobacco shops, some hotel rooms, laboratories used for research on smoking and home-based businesses.
As workers hurried to remodel space at 14th and P streets for the new Jake's Cigars & Spirits, the state Liquor Control Commission on Thursday heard testimony on proposed rules for the smoking-ban exempted bars.
While the cigar bar exemption isn't expected to cause a rash of new bars to skirt the state law, there are some new ones opening -- including Jake's and one in Omaha's Old Market.
Much of the discussion on the rules draft centered on humidors and ventilation. Commissioners didn't vote Thursday, but will when they meet in September.
John Larkin, co-owner of Jake's, cautioned the commission on getting too detailed on rules about humidors and ventilation.
The cigar bar law (LB355) will go into effect Aug. 30. The state Liquor Control Commission will make a final decision on the proposed rules at its September meeting.
The draft rules include:
* Bars cannot sell food.
* Cigarette smoking is not permitted.
An effort to snuff out a statewide smoking ban is still alive - for now.
A judge on Thursday did not rule on a motion from the state to reject an Omaha pool hall's request to declare the ban unconstitutional. Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson instead gave attorneys on both sides two more weeks to file motions in the case.
Big John's Billiards is fighting the law that took effect June 1, saying the law's exemptions are arbitrary.
Attorneys for the state argued Thursday that the court lacks jurisdiction over both the subject matter in the case and the state itself. The state also argues that Big John's lawsuit failed to include all the parties with an interest in the case, such as local officials who enforce the law.
"It would be unwieldy and inappropriate to name every local official," responded Ted Boecker, attorney for Big John's.