US: Young Activists Pushing St. Paul to Limit Flavored-tobacco Sales

Source from:  Twin Cities 11/17/2015

Essance Negron and Damenica Ellis may only be 11 years old, but they're ready to take on Big Tobacco. In fact, their youth group already has won twice when it comes to rules limiting storefront advertising and the sale of 99-cent cigar products.

Now they are poised for a trifecta.

The two girls from St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood are part of a small but vocal gathering of young people advocating for an end to corner store sales of apple-flavored chewing tobacco, fruit-punch-flavored cigarillos and strawberry "e-juice."

Their neighborhood youth group has partnered with the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition, a St. Paul-based nonprofit, in an attempt to get sales of flavored tobacco products banned from St. Paul convenience stores and restricted to tobacco shops, where entry is prohibited to anyone younger than 18.

Under a proposed city ordinance, flavored tobacco products could still be sold at the two e-cigarette stores and 14 tobacco stores that operate in St. Paul.

So far, five of the seven St. Paul City Council members have signed on as co-sponsors of the rule change, indicating a strong likelihood that it will pass when it comes up for vote in about two weeks. A public hearing before the council is scheduled for Wednesday.

"You look at these products, and you look at the real candy products, it's the same flavor," said Damone Presley, a leading organizer with the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation's weekly youth group.

Advertisement

"At a lot of the convenience stores and corner stores, the business owners did not look at it as a tobacco product."

Similar rules limiting flavored tobacco to e-cigarette stores and tobacco shops have already been adopted in Minneapolis and a few other municipalities in Minnesota.

The St. Paul ordinance has gained the support of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, the Twin Cities Medical Society, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Minnesota Department of Health, among others.

Nonetheless, it faces vocal opposition from the state's retail trade associations.

Tom Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, said he plans to testify against the ordinance Wednesday. Briant said it will cost the typical licensed retailer $50,000 annually in tobacco sales and sales of snacks that are typically purchased alongside flavored tobacco.

Multiplied by the 258 licensed retailers in St. Paul, that's a potential loss of $13 million annually in store sales, as well as $65,000 in city sales tax.

"This is just another step in the prohibition of what are legal products that adults can consume," Briant said. "We don't believe that the city of St. Paul should follow the agenda of the anti-tobacco advocates and ban the sale of legal products."

In 2009, the federal Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of flavored cigarettes other than menthol, but Negron and Ellis are among a coalition of St. Paul youth activists who maintain that the tobacco industry simply shifted gears, without abandoning the same young target market.

Members of the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition say that sales of other kinds of flavored tobacco products have proliferated on convenience store shelves, especially in low-income minority neighborhoods, and it's now possible for teens to purchase peach, pineapple and even Fruity Pebbles-scented chewing tobacco or e-cigarette "vaping" cartridges at their corner store.

The packaging and delivery devices are equally catchy to the underage eye.

"That's devastating," said Essance, pointing to a picture of an e-cigarette dispenser shaped similarly to a minion, the yellow henchman from the "Despicable Me" cartoon movies.

What's more, the youth activists maintain that storeowners are less apt to ask for age identification from teens when the product is fruity and colorful. The kids helped conduct a community survey about flavored tobacco and are still sorting through results.

"Right now, anyone who looks over 18 can go into any store and buy what they want," said 17-year-old Traielle Godfrey, a junior at Johnson High School, who has been active with the youth coalition since he was 11.

Godfrey noted that over the past six years of his involvement, the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition has scored two major successes at City Hall.

In 2011, the St. Paul City Council approved a new zoning ordinance that limits signs inside storefront windows to no more than 30 percent of the window. The coalition had supported the change, noting that heavy storefront advertising is often tobacco-related and makes it difficult to see transactions taking place at the retail counter, such as sales to underage teens.

Earlier this year, the city council passed an ordinance that prohibits retailers from selling low-cost cigars in singles unless they're priced at $2.10 or more. Cheap cigars, otherwise known as cigarillos, now have to be sold in packs of five or more.

The cigarillos, which are often flavored, were previously sold for as little as 50 cents apiece in St. Paul, making them convenient purchases for youth. They also make for convenient rolling papers -- teens dump the tobacco contents and put in marijuana, synthetic marijuana or another illicit substance, Godfrey said.

In March, the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition performed compliance checks at tobacco vendors in St. Paul using a 17-year-old buyer. The girl purchased cigarillos at nine out of 24 stores. Of the nine, six did not ask for identification. Another three checked her ID but still sold to her.

Briant, of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, said the federal Food and Drug Administration has conducted compliance checks on St. Paul retailers since 2012. Out of 852 checks, 821 stores passed -- a 96.4 percent success rate in not selling tobacco to minors.

"We're part of the solution," Briant said. "We're not the source of these tobacco products for underage kids. This ordinance would punish us, even though we're law-abiding retailers. If the city is going to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, why do they allow the sale of flavored alcohol products?"

"We have not factored in the loss of gasoline sales, which would also be significant," he said. "What will happen is that customers will simply drive to a neighboring city, not only to buy their tobacco products, but their gas and snack items." Enditem