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Businesses say "No" to underage tobacco sales
Local businesses have made an increased commitment to comply with laws prohibiting cigarette sales to youth, says C.A.R.E. Program Director Rick Peterson about a recent tobacco compliance check conducted in Crawford County.
The compliance check was conducted cooperatively by the Crawford Abuse Resistance Effort (C.A.R.E.), Crawford County Tobacco-Free Coalition, Prairie du Chien Police Department and Crawford County Sheriff’s Department. Seven minors, driven in pairs by adults to businesses holding tobacco licenses, entered convenience stores, bars, gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants to attempt to purchase tobacco.
Peterson reports that none of the retailers out of 32 checked on December 16th 2005 illegally sold tobacco to minors. This is down from 16 sales in 1997, five sales in 2000 and three sales in 2004. “It is clear that the majority of Crawford County retailers take their role in preventing teenage tobacco use seriously today and have made a commitment to training their employees not to sell to anyone without identification,” Peterson said.
Peterson said the compliance check was not intended as an attack on local retailers, but rather as an exercise to see where further training was needed in tobacco sale legislation and how retailers can better comply with the law.
Compliance checks will be ongoing, with students attempting to purchase both tobacco and alcohol products.
Nationwide, more than 2.6 million packs of cigarettes a day are illegally sold to minors, according to information released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“This is important because statistics indicate that the majority of people who use tobacco today were addicted while they were still minors,” Jim Rider, of the Crawford County Tobacco-Free Coalition said. The CDC reports the average age of new smokers is 13 and that 90 percent of adult smokers today started before they were 18.
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