Deal Targets Tobacco Sale Penalties

Source from:  Wednesday, July 11, 2007 By MIKE PLAISANCE mplaisance@repub.com  07/12/2007

Store owners, health officials and city councilors fashioned a compromise yesterday on a plan to toughen penalties on businesses caught selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors. The change that drew not only support but praise from business owners calls for the clerk who actually makes the sale to someone who is below the age of 18 to get fined $100. Fining the clerk is key because it addresses the source of the transaction and some clerks face enormous peer pressure from teen-agers to sell them cigarettes, said Robert L. Bolduc, owner of Pride gas station-convenience stores. "Until we go after the clerks, we will never solve the problem, and we are committed to solving the problem," said Bolduc, who said later, "This is fantastic." The store also would get fined $100 for a first offense, a change from the current ordinance, which calls for only a first-offense warning. Other proposed changes are that the fee to obtain a tobacco sales permit increase to $50 a year from the current $15, and stores could have permits suspended or revoked for multiple violations. As outlined by Helen R. Caulton-Harris, director of the city Health and Human Services Department, the problem is that adults locked into the harmful habit of smoking usually began when they were young. The City Council Public Health and Safety Committee discussed the proposed changes to the tobacco sales regulations ordinance for two hours at City Hall. Adopting the changes requires a vote of the City Council, and it was unclear when that would occur. It will probably come in August, but could be sooner if a special council meeting is scheduled, committee Chairman Domenic J. Sarno said. Discussion focused on two nearly identical proposals, from the city Public Health Council and Councilor Bruce W. Stebbins. Not everyone agreed it made sense to fine sales clerks. Donald J. Wilson, tobacco control coordinator with the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said it is the store owner or whomever is issued the store's sales permit who is responsible for what happens in the store Fining a clerk raises the odd circumstance of the city pursuing a $100 fine, possibly to court, after the clerk no longer works at the store because such clerks often get fired for selling to minors, Wilson said. "It becomes more and more complex," Wilson said. Enditem