Tobacco.org

NICHOLS: Switchblades and brass knuckles help sell cigarettes 

Store owner Khalil Rahim will surely get his. And I'm bettin' his stores will soon close for good. But a cigarette smoker is far more likely to die from smoking than from being stabbed or bludgeoned to death by brass knuckles. In fact, smoking kills more people in the United States every year than AIDS, illegal drugs, alcohol, car crashes, suicides and murders combined! (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

According to a 2008 survey by the Santa Cruz County Tobacco Education Coalition, a group dedicated to reducing tobacco sales to minors, underage youth can expect to be successful buying cigarettes in one out of every six local stores. Any 16-year-old kid who is carded and turned away by a responsible retailer won't have far to go to find an irresponsible one sympathetic to his wants. . . .

The environment in Rahim's cigarette shops is one youth could relate to. One with pop culture posters, candy, soda pop, chips, marijuana stuff, imitation guns, forbidden toys ... and forbidden cigarettes. Youth are drawn to the sweet and forbidden.

To address the concern of sales to youth, the coalition proposes an ordinance, successfully implemented in more than 60 California counties and cities, that has dramatically reduced the number of stores willing to sell cigarettes to minors. It requires sellers to be licensed. The Tobacco Retail License fees would provide resources for sting operations -- like the ones recently visited upon Mr. Rahim's stores. Violators would face fines and suspension or revocation of their licenses.

The Santa Cruz County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission unanimously passed a resolution in July urging the board of supervisors to adopt such an ordinance. This month, in support of the coalition's current effort to recruit a supervisor to sponsor the ordinance, the commission unanimously reaffirmed its July resolution.

It's time the County of Santa Cruz took action to protect youth from clever tobacco marketers and irresponsible retailers.

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