ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
A survey shows that a third of the stores in Virginia sell tobacco products to youths under 18, but none has ever been convicted of violating the state law, a Health Department official said Friday.
The noncompliance rate is a little more than 40 percent among tobacco vendors in Western Virginia, said Neil Graham, director of the state agency's tobacco-use control program. He suggested it is higher than the state rate because tobacco is grown in the region.
Only a few tobacco vendors have ever been charged with violating the 8-year-old law - and only one or two cases have ever gone to court. They were thrown out, he said.
The tobacco sales law is not being enforced because prosecutors, police and judges have not given it high priority, Graham told the Roanoke Valley Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council.
"Tobacco sales to youths might not be at the top of the list for police, but it is a law on the books," he said. "It's no good to have a state law unless you have compliance."
Graham said the survey was made by teams of teen-agers who were recruited and trained to go into stores and ask for tobacco products.
The youths didn't buy the products, because that would have been a violation of the law, he said. Instead, they presented coupons to store clerks either complementing them for complying with the law or informing them that they had broken it.
"We want to educate the clerks about the law,'' he said.
Graham said the agency's survey included 1,100 stores statewide. The Tidewater had the best record with only 22 percent of the stores ignoring the law.
Graham said it might take a community movement similar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving to prompt prosecutors and police to take action.
Prohibiting sales to youngsters is important because statistics show that about 90 percent of adult smokers begin before they reach 18, he said.
"It is a pediatric disease that begins in childhood," Graham said, adding that the average starting age is 12.7 years.
He said some of President Clinton's proposed restrictions would help: banning outdoor advertising of cigarettes within 1,000 feet of schools; permitting only black-and-white advertisements in magazines with high youth readership; prohibiting giveaway of caps, jackets and gym bags with tobacco logos; and preventing tobacco brands from sponsoring sporting events.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB