THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250468
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Legislators who want to make it tougher for children to buy cigarettes said Wednesday they expect less resistance from the state's powerful tobacco industry, which has worked to kill similar bills.
Recent bills would keep kids away from cigarette vending machines, require store clerks to request a photo ID when a youngster tries to buy cigarettes and devise better ways to enforce laws limiting youth access to tobacco.
Del. James Almand, D-Arlington and sponsor of the resolution to study enforcement, said he is optimistic the tobacco industry will support the measures.
``A lot of people are skeptical, but I believe them to be committed to working with us,'' he said.
Virginia's tobacco lobby has vigorously battled efforts to regulate smoking. Under federal pressure, the industry has done more recently in discouraging teen smoking.
Anthony F. Troy, a lobbyist for the Tobacco Institute, said he had not seen all of this year's legislation but said the industry generally supports ``responsible restrictions'' on youth access to tobacco.
``I think this year maybe we will have some success,'' said Del. Julia A. Connally, D-Arlington and sponsor of the vending machine bill.
The bill would restrict vending machines in restaurants, hotels and motels to areas that can be monitored. Private clubs, tobacco shops and businesses with predominantly adult employees also could have vending machines.
Last year, tobacco interests helped kill a bill to ban vending machine sales.
Connally said machines are the source of cigarettes for the youngest smokers - middle-school or even elementary school kids who don't have older friends who can buy smokes for them.
Dr. Roosevelt Gilliam, a Richmond cardiologist and state president of the American Heart Association, said figures from the Centers for Disease Control show an average of 3,000 children in this country take up smoking each day. About a third of them eventually will die of a tobacco-related illness, he said.
Curbing youth smoking ``is as high a priority as you can get'' in the medical community, he said. ``There is no area of medicine that is not touched by smoking.''
Ken Stroupe, spokesman for Gov. George Allen, said Virginia ``already has very specific laws'' pertaining to smoking by minors. But he said the governor, who uses smokeless tobacco, will consider signing any measures the Assembly passes to impose further restrictions.
Also on Wednesday, a proposal to fund a new family court system by increasing district court filing fees won approval from a state Senate committee.
The General Assembly approved the family courts concept three years ago but did not provide money or staffing. The bill the Senate Courts of Justice Committee endorsed would add $4 to the filing fees for district court cases - about half of which are traffic cases. The measure is expected to raise about $18 million in the first two years the courts operate.
The new system would replace the current juvenile and domestic relations courts with courts that also would handle divorces, adoptions and some other cases now heard in circuit courts.
The idea is to create a more user-friendly family court system, supporters said at a public hearing before the committee. They also said the new system would take a burden off circuit courts.
``Family issues are divided between two courts,'' said Lelia Hopper, director of the family court project with the Virginia Supreme Court. ``We do not deal with the whole family holistically . . . and we do not always use the right staff.''
The two bills, sponsored by committee chairman Joseph V. Gartlan, D-Fairfax, would add 33 judges as well as additional clerks and independent mediators who would help resolve some cases outside of court. All of that funding would come through the increase in filing fees at the district court level.
Juvenile and domestic court cases are appealed at the circuit court level. Under the new system, family court cases would be appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Family court rulings would be more likely to stand because fewer cases would be reheard.
That's important to parents and children involved in custody cases and other emotional cases who want the situation resolved promptly, said Dale Harris, a juvenile and domestic relations judge. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
April Ratliff of Shawsville, left, and Carlette Moore of Hampton
were on hand in Richmond Wednesday for the announcement of three
pieces of legislation to restrict access of tobacco products to
children.
Del. Julia A. Connally, D-Arlington, said ``I think this year maybe
we will have some success,'' in getting through her bill to restrict
the placement of tobacco product vending machines.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY TOBACCO by CNB