Teenage Smoking Bill Lacks Enforcement Cash Retailers Will Have To Keep Products Behind Counter

Lawmakers want to make it more difficult for minors to buy tobacco, even if the state Department of Health and Welfare has to scrounge for money.

The Senate State Affairs Committee on a 6-1 vote passed a bill that would require retailers to have a permit to sell tobacco and to keep all products behind the sales counter.

After compromising with retailers, the measure no longer generates money to pay enforcement costs. However, lawmakers said preventing kids from becoming addicted to tobacco takes precedence over costs.

About 27 percent of Idaho’s youth smoke.

The bill, which is sponsored by the Idaho Parent Teacher Association, varies from an original version that would have required retailers to buy a $55 annual license.

The license fee would have paid for the state to contract with local law enforcement agencies or health districts to conduct two annual inspections to ensure compliance.

The new measure requires retailers to obtain a free permit.

The committee sent the bill to the Senate and asked the department to find the needed cash. If passed, the department has until 1999 to find the money.

Department Administrator Roseanne Hardin said $2 million in federal substance abuse money could go toward inspection costs, but not enforcement costs. Hardin also is researching the possibility of using federal Food and Drug Administration money.

Hardin promised the committee that the department would search for money.

The committee ignored amendment requests by the tobacco industry that would have allowed retailers to sell tobacco products 8 feet from the sales counter.

Caryn Esplin, an Idaho PTA board member, said retailers must keep tobacco products behind the counter to prevent kids from stealing and becoming addicted.

, DataTimes