San Diego to Require Tobacco License

Source from:  By: North County Times wire services 09/13/2007

The San Diego City Council has approved an ordinance that will require retailers to obtain a city license to sell tobacco products. Under the law passed yesterday, the city's 1,363 tobacco sellers will have to pay $163 annually for a license, which would be issued by police, according to a report by the City Attorney's Office. Councilmen Tony Young and Brian Maienschein said the intent of the law is to fund anti-tobacco operations by police and to help prevent minors from getting cigarettes and other tobacco products. Charles Hennigan, owner of Liberty Tobacco in Kearny Mesa, described the law as another "attack on small business." "We already have laws in place," Hennigan told the council. "It is not needed." Dozens of speakers, however, told the council the ordinance will save lives. "This is not for any other purpose than to protect our young people from senseless, ruthless sometimes, merchants who have such interest in dollars that they care less than a darn for human life," said Cleo Malone, executive director of the community advocacy group Palavra Tree. A 2004 study by the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties found that 43.6 percent of 264 stores surveyed in San Diego sold cigarettes to minors. The state already regulates and taxes the sale of tobacco. Enditem