Tobacco Lobby Proposes Bill To Keep Cigarettes From Kids Law Would Tighten Restrictions On Sale Of Tobacco, Validate Sting Operations

Tobacco companies say they don’t want kids to buy cigarettes.

On Friday, Bill Roden, lobbyist for the Tobacco Institute, proposed a teenage anti-smoking bill to the House State Affairs Committee that would tighten laws on those who sell tobacco products to minors. The law also would make it more difficult for minors to buy tobacco products.

“There has been a lot of emphasis in the press, public consciousness and the industry about young people using tobacco products,” said Roden. “They (the tobacco industry) want to make sales, but they want to make legal sales.”

The legislation, which is similar to a law proposed last year, makes it illegal to operate a cigarette vending machine in places accessible to minors and validates the use of sting operations to catch offending establishments.

It also makes the business owner responsible for the illegal sale of a tobacco product, said Roden, not just the employee who sells it. Under the new legislation, a convicted minor, employee or business owner could face a maximum six months in jail and a $300 fine.

This legislation serves to tighten the law, said Roden. For example, right now it is illegal for a minor to buy tobacco, but not to possess it. The new law would change that.

Last year’s legislation included a controversial clause that’s missing from this year’s bill. That clause would have centralized control of tobacco sales under the state government, superseding local regulations.

“I still think local preemption is right,” said Roden. “When it comes to marketing products, it shouldn’t be done on a city-to-city or county-to-county basis.”

Last year, that clause prompted the bill being killed.

Roden said that this year the industry wanted to strengthen state law in order to keep minors from buying tobacco.

Some decisions are adult decisions, he said, and the industry doesn’t think minors are ready to make the decision to smoke or not to smoke.

The committee decided unanimously to introduce the legislation.

, DataTimes