SACRAMENTO – Today the governor signed Assemblyman Jerry Hill's legislation, Assembly Bill 1301, which requires the state to suspend and revoke a store's license if it is repeatedly convicted of selling tobacco products to minors. If a store is convicted three times in a five-year window, its license would be suspended for 45 days. Five convictions in a five-year window would result in license revocation.
The bill was introduced in 2011 after Hill met with teenagers from the Youth Leadership Institute of San Mateo, who encouraged Hill to help them in their effort to curb sales of tobacco to minors in California’s 37,000 retail locations.
Current law results only in monetary penalties for stores that get caught selling tobacco products to minors. The California Department of Public Health (DPH) conducts sting operations to catch stores selling to minors. If they catch and convict a store. the penalties range from $400 for a first violation to several thousand dollars for subsequent violations. DPH conducts thousands of stings each year throughout the state, resulting in more than 600 convictions annually.
The Board of Equalization issues licenses to retailers that sell tobacco products. BOE is also authorized to suspend a license if a store is caught selling to minors multiple times. Unfortunately, license suspensions have never been used by BOE because current law contains a “trigger” making the penalty provisions inoperative if DPH’s annual youth purchase survey finds that less than 13 percent of youth statewide are able to purchase tobacco products. In recent years, the statewide youth purchase survey has been around 10 percent.
But DPH survey results can be deceiving since rates of sales to minors in STAKE Act inspections performed at the local level have been around 17 to 25 percent or higher. According to data from the San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition, 25 percent of stores in San Mateo County sold tobacco to a minor decoy between 2005-2010.
AB 1301 allows BOE to suspend a retailer's tobacco sales license if the store is convicted by DPH of selling to a minor three or more times in a five-year period. On the third conviction, the license to sell would be suspended for 45 days, a fourth conviction would result in a 90-day suspension, and the fifth conviction in five years would result in license revocation. The bill also removes the “trigger” provision which prevents the BOE from penalizing stores so retailers throughout California can always be held accountable for selling tobacco products to minors.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), almost 90 percent of adults who are regular smokers started at or before age 19. A 2009 CDCP survey found that more than one out of four high school students were current tobacco users. Smoking-related diseases remain the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, claiming the lives of 438,000 Americans annually.
DPH’s California Tobacco Control Program survey found that 74 percent of youth access enforcement agencies reported issuing warnings to merchants selling tobacco products to minors in 2006. The California Tobacco Control Program survey also found that law enforcement agencies continued to rank the suspension or revocation of licenses and civil and criminal penalties for owners and clerks as effective strategies to reduce youth access to tobacco.
AB 1301 was supported by the American Lung Association in California, American Heart Association of California, California State Sheriffs Association, California Probation Parole and Correctional Association, California Law Enforcement Association of Records Supervisors, San Mateo County Sheriff , San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition, Asian American Recovery Services, Youth Leadership Institute, BREATHE California, and the State of California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee.
The bill was introduced in 2011 after Hill met with teenagers from the Youth Leadership Institute of San Mateo, who encouraged Hill to help them in their effort to curb sales of tobacco to minors in California’s 37,000 retail locations.
Current law results only in monetary penalties for stores that get caught selling tobacco products to minors. The California Department of Public Health (DPH) conducts sting operations to catch stores selling to minors. If they catch and convict a store. the penalties range from $400 for a first violation to several thousand dollars for subsequent violations. DPH conducts thousands of stings each year throughout the state, resulting in more than 600 convictions annually.
The Board of Equalization issues licenses to retailers that sell tobacco products. BOE is also authorized to suspend a license if a store is caught selling to minors multiple times. Unfortunately, license suspensions have never been used by BOE because current law contains a “trigger” making the penalty provisions inoperative if DPH’s annual youth purchase survey finds that less than 13 percent of youth statewide are able to purchase tobacco products. In recent years, the statewide youth purchase survey has been around 10 percent.
But DPH survey results can be deceiving since rates of sales to minors in STAKE Act inspections performed at the local level have been around 17 to 25 percent or higher. According to data from the San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition, 25 percent of stores in San Mateo County sold tobacco to a minor decoy between 2005-2010.
AB 1301 allows BOE to suspend a retailer's tobacco sales license if the store is convicted by DPH of selling to a minor three or more times in a five-year period. On the third conviction, the license to sell would be suspended for 45 days, a fourth conviction would result in a 90-day suspension, and the fifth conviction in five years would result in license revocation. The bill also removes the “trigger” provision which prevents the BOE from penalizing stores so retailers throughout California can always be held accountable for selling tobacco products to minors.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), almost 90 percent of adults who are regular smokers started at or before age 19. A 2009 CDCP survey found that more than one out of four high school students were current tobacco users. Smoking-related diseases remain the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, claiming the lives of 438,000 Americans annually.
DPH’s California Tobacco Control Program survey found that 74 percent of youth access enforcement agencies reported issuing warnings to merchants selling tobacco products to minors in 2006. The California Tobacco Control Program survey also found that law enforcement agencies continued to rank the suspension or revocation of licenses and civil and criminal penalties for owners and clerks as effective strategies to reduce youth access to tobacco.
AB 1301 was supported by the American Lung Association in California, American Heart Association of California, California State Sheriffs Association, California Probation Parole and Correctional Association, California Law Enforcement Association of Records Supervisors, San Mateo County Sheriff , San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition, Asian American Recovery Services, Youth Leadership Institute, BREATHE California, and the State of California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee.
Cigarettes cause lung cancer because they contain radioactive ingredients. Applying radiation is one technique used in research to generate mutations. Who knew?
http://acsa.net/HealthAlert/lungcancer.html
Posted by: Jay Bird | September 15, 2012 at 07:24 PM