Out of 87 Local Businesses Tested, More than Half Sold Tobacco to a Minor in St. Mary’s

Dr. William Icenhower ST. MARY’S TODAY photo


ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — St. Mary’s is among the top 10 Maryland jurisdictions for youth cigarette use, but there’s no local law to keep juveniles away from tobacco.
Baltimore City, Howard County, Kent County, Prince George’s County, and Montgomery County have enacted local laws that resulted in steady declines in youth tobacco access and illegal sales, according to the American Cancer Society (A.C.S.).
The society brought the matter to the notice of St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Tommy McKay (R. Hollywood) in the last week of September, but the issue apparently got lost in the election fever.
Since it’s difficult to enforce the state law, St. Mary’s health department now wants to decriminalize the sale of tobacco to juveniles in the county. The move would free hands of the local judiciary and police for other tasks.
Health Director Dr. William Icenhower has come out with a proposal on behalf of St. Mary’s County Tobacco Coalition to reduce the penalty for illegal tobacco sales to minors from a criminal offense to a civil one.
“A civil violation may be enforced by an agency other than the police department….This arrangement will keep enforcement of tobacco control laws from falling by the wayside,” St. Mary’s health department has argued.
Icenhower maintains it’s his goal to have a smoke-free St. Mary’s County, but this might remain an elusive goal as even States Attorney Richard Fritz is seen smoking in public.
St. Mary’s health department says it’s unfortunate that current tobacco sales laws are criminal in nature. “A penalty which impugns a clerk or license holder’s criminal record and subjecting them to criminal process for illegal tobacco sales appears overly harsh when compared with severity of the offense. A civil penalty would bring illegal tobacco sales penalties in line with other similar offenses (e.g. illegal alcohol sales),” Icenhower’s proposal reads.
The A.C.S. wants decriminalizing of the tobacco sales, arguing a local civil law was more effective in keeping tobacco out of young hands.
“In St. Mary’s County, police conducting compliance checks discovered over half (56 percent) of area businesses violated the state’s tobacco sales law. This is unacceptable,” A.C.S.’s government relations manager Bonita Pennino told McKay. The letter was co-signed by the society’s area manager, Melanie Parks.
Pennino said it is the belief of the cancer society that tobacco products continue to be sold to minors because the current penalties are not enforced as they are too severe for the offense.
In stead of the state’s criminal penalties, the A.C.S. has urged St. Mary’s to consider making tobacco sales to minors a civil penalty. “Civil penalties do not affect a person’s criminal record and can be paid much like a parking ticket, without trial, thereby reducing judicial resources currently needed for tobacco control,” Pennino said.
Arguing that benefits of decriminalizing tobacco sales to teens outweigh the burdens, Pennino said currently the state law requires that minor clerks who are caught violating tobacco sales laws be issued a citation and be taken into custody. She said, “On the other hand, a civil citation may be issued to a minor without an arrest, eliminating unnecessary police processing, removing the stigma of being arrested, and fostering better relations between minors and officers.”
According to available statistics, 31 percent of Maryland 12th graders who smoke cigarettes started smoking at age 12 or younger.
These statistics show as many as 14 percent of Eight Graders, 25 percent of Tenth Graders and 38 percent of Twelfth Graders are regular smokers in Maryland.
On Icenhower’s behalf, Karen Russell, Wellness & Health Promotion Program Manager at St. Mary’s health department and Michael Strande, managing attorney for Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation & Advocacy, put forth the legislative proposal at the Board of St. Mary’s County Commissioners and the parliamentary delegation’s joint public meeting last week.
Senator Roy Dyson, and House delegates John Bohanan, Johnny Wood and Tony O’ Donnell attended the meeting in addition to Dan Raley (D. Great Mills), Tom Mattingly (D. Leonardtown), Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach), and Kenny Dement (R. Piney Point).
Only licensed police officers are authorized to enforce the State laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors.
“Since 2002, the county health department has partnered with officers from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office to conduct compliance checks to identify retailers who sell tobacco to minors,” Russell and Strande told the joint legislative meeting.
They said retailers caught selling in violation of state law were given warnings and provided with vendor education about tobacco sales restrictions.
“Despite issuing warnings and educational materials for three years, the problem of youth tobacco in St. Mary’s County has only increased. In February 2005, compliance checks of 87 area businesses found a 56 percent violation rate,” they said.
Three months later, they said, a second round of compliance checks were conducted for the 49 stores previously found to be in violation. “Sadly, 31 percent were again in violation. In order to control this problem, the sheriff’s office has now begun issuing citations for illegal tobacco sales.”
Tobacco use by youth is considered a “gateway” to illicit drug use. Experts believe teen smoking is an early warning sign for additional substance abuse problems.
“Youth ages 12-17 who smoke are more than 11 times as likely to use illicit drugs and 16 times as likely to drink heavily as youth who do not smoke,” according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
The tobacco industry spends $42 million a day in the U.S. to market their products, a big chunk of those dollars go on retail store marketing. Since three out of four teens shop at convenience stores at least once each week, they are vulnerable to the ongoing promotion.
Four out of ten smokers in Maryland, who are high school seniors, said they can easily buy cigarettes from retailers. The Maryland Adolescent Survey 2004 points out 42 percent of Maryland high school seniors who smoke purchase their cigarettes from retail stores, adding 34 percent reported they are not asked to show proof of age.
According to the health department, most smokers begin the deadly habit before the age of 18 and teenagers make up 90 percent of all new smokers. One out of three people who start smoking before the age of 18 will die prematurely from a tobacco related illness, such as oral cancer, lung cancer, heart disease emphysema and stroke.
Preventing juvenile smoking today reduces the likelihood of adult smoking in the future.
Interestingly, Leslie Payne, spokesman for the health department insisted “Just to be clear, the proposal does not decriminalize juvenile smoking. The proposal addresses the penalty to those who sell tobacco to minors.”
She said the legislation, if passed, will actually increase the opportunity to penalize those who sell tobacco to minors. “The St. Mary’s County Tobacco Coalition submitted the legislative proposal with the backing of the Health Department. Karen Russell is the Health Department’s representative on the Coalition,” Payne explained.
Icenhower and Russell were not available for comment.
Payne said it was important that the community know that the legislation is intended to provide an appropriate level of punishment to the offender who sells to minors. “Our goal is to increase the likelihood of receiving a penalty and thereby decrease the sale of tobacco to minors.”
Southern Maryland has higher rates of lung cancer and coronary heart disease than the U.S. as a whole. Kids buy 13.9 packs of cigarettes in Maryland each year.