Convenience Store Industry
Convenience Store Industry Called to the Carpet by ALA 2003 Report
By B2
Jan 6, 2004, 9:22am

Part of the key findings of the latest American Lung Association report is “Youth Access” and calls for children to be used as bait in sting operations at tobacco retailers.

Without a mention of the largest program in the world to prevent underage purchasing of tobacco products as well as alcohol, the “We Card” program, the ALA has set out to put an even higher burden on retailers of tobacco products by getting states to Monitor tobacco retail outlets, with a graduated series of penalties to the retailer for sales of tobacco to minors, culminating in license suspension or revocation for repeated violations; Authorize state or local governments to carry out random, unannounced inspections of retail outlets, including authorization for minors’ participation in carrying out such inspections; Eliminate tobacco vending machines; Eliminate sales of single cigarettes or "loosies"; Prohibit or strictly regulate the sale of bidis (beedies); Require that all tobacco products be displayed only behind the sales counter; and Prohibit distribution of free tobacco product samples.

While these for the most part are respectable requests, most are already addressed and the overall focus is still wrong. The focus is on the retailer and not the purchaser/consumer of the products. To prevent youth smoking there must be a reason for the youth to not try and purchase the tobacco products at a level that is higher than that put on the retailer to prevent them from purchasing.

Drive down any street near a High School and you will see many youths smoking at areas that are just off campus. Go to any gathering place for youths and you will see groups of smokers. Are the youths challenged at these places by authorities and school security? In some cases yes, but in most no!

The message sent to youths about smoking now is that it is OK to smoke and it is OK to have cigarettes in your possession but that we are going to try and prevent you access. But don’t worry, you wont get in trouble if you try to buy them, the retailer will if they allow it even if the youth uses a false ID.

The message should be that unless you are of legal age you cannot use, possess or purchase any tobacco product. Period! This is the same message as is attached to the use, possession and purchase of alcoholic beverages.

And in all my travels I have not seen groups of kids outside a school drinking beer on lunch break. This method of thinking is obviously more effective than the one currently held to a high esteem by the ALA.

Please Read: USE POLICY
The opinions and or comments contained in columns appearing in CLMman are the opinions of the writer of the column and not necessarily the opinion of Industry Pages, Inc. Industry Pages, Inc. does not support or endorse in any way the comments or opinions contained within a submitted column and in no way can be held liable for its contents.
By using CLMman you agree to indemnify Industry Pages, Inc., its vendors, partners, employees and associates from any issue arising from its use.

The articles themselves are owned and are the copyright of the writer of the article. The writer of the article has provided Industry Pages Inc. expressed written permission to have the articles available on the Industry Pages Network, CLMman and the CLMman Column Webfeed. Any use of the articles outside the CLMman system requires written permission from the writer of the article itself.

If you have any comments about this column please feel free to express your opinion in the Forums.