ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060103
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
IF VIRGINIA lawmakers are at all serious about wanting to keep cigarettes out of the hands of children, they should readily agree to Attorney General Jim Gilmore's proposal to smack a $500 fine on merchants who sell cigarettes to kids.
The proposal, though not likely to be as effective as a hefty increase in the state's tax on cigarettes, at least would signal that Virginia legislators, at long last, are getting serious about the issue of cigarette sales to minors.
As it now stands, Virginia's laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors aren't worth the paper they're written on. They're snickered at by youngsters and many merchants alike, because the state has made virtually no effort to enforce them.
Law-enforcement agencies will never be so flush with personnel that they can assign police officers to every corner store to crack down on merchants who sell cigarettes illegally, no question asked about the purchaser's age. That's one reason why Virginia's excise tax on cigarettes, the lowest in the nation, should still be raised. Making cigarettes unaffordable to most adolescents remains the most effective way of preventing kids from taking up a killer habit.
Thousands of Virginia teen-agers, many of whom are not just first-time buyers but are regular smokers - are addicts, in fact, at such a tender age. Need anyone be reminded that one in every three of those teens can expect to die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses?
Gilmore's proposal, which would increase tenfold the fine for violations, might, just might, dissuade some merchants from selling the first pack to some adolescents. It could be a life saver.
At the least, youngsters would no longer find it as easy to buy cigarettes as it is to buy a pack of bubble gum. Let a few merchants get hit by a $500 fine for selling to minors, and others may decide not to take the risk.
With polls showing that Virginians, by overwhelming majorities, agree that cigarettes should not be accessible to youngsters, it's hard to imagine much opposition to Gilmore's plan. Merchants who now break the law because it's profitable to sell to kids aren't likely to show up at a public hearing and admit to it, after all.
And could even the tobacco industry, which says oh-so-sincerely that it has no interest in hooking youngsters, be that two-faced?
Gilmore's proposal is worth passing, both to discourage under-age smoking and to instill more respect among youngsters and adults for Virginia's laws. But the good is not the enemy of the better - and even better would be a hefty increase in the state cigarette tax.
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