
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997             TAG: 9702280577

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

VA. BACKTRACKS ON TOBACCO REMARKS LAWS IN EFFECT TODAY WILL BE FOLLOWED, STATE OFFICIALS INSIST

Despite comments to the contrary, Virginia will indeed enforce a federal regulation taking effect today requiring retailers to demand photo identification from tobacco buyers younger than 27, Gov. George Allen said Thursday.

Allen says he was surprised to read a newspaper story quoting other state officials, including a spokesman for Attorney General James Gilmore, as saying Virginia would not enforce the regulation.

``Well, first of all, the attorney general does not decide whether or not we are going to enforce these regulations,'' Allen said during his monthly radio show. ``We will enforce these regulations. These are valid federal laws.''

As for the assertion that Gilmore said no to the new regulation, Gilmore says it isn't so.

``No member of my staff discussed with me the questions raised by The Washington Post,'' he said in a prepared statement. ``Had they done so, I would have told them that as attorney general, I have a responsibility to enforce the law.''

Gilmore's spokesman, Mark Miner, takes the blame, saying he misspoke to The Post reporter who wrote the story.

``Just call me mud,'' Miner said.

The switch in Richmond was meaningless to retailers in Hampton Roads, who said they planned to follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules regardless of a state-federal turf war.

``It doesn't make any difference,'' said Venus Lawrimore, manager of the Tinee Giant Food Store in the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake. ``We'll do it anyway.''

The first rule, which requires photo identification from tobacco buyers younger than 27, takes effect today. Retailers can be fined $250 for ignoring the regulation.

Failure to request I.D. from young-looking smokers can mean trouble, even if they meet the legal smoking age of 18.

The regulation is aimed at ensuring that mature-looking youths can't buy cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. Other rules, which kick in Aug. 28, limit tobacco advertising, promotions and displays in stores.

The FDA is counting on states to enforce the rules, as well as supervise teen-agers who'll be sent out on sting operations. However, it wasn't clear Thursday whether Virginia had drawn up any detailed plans.

Gilmore said agents with Virginia's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control should cooperate with the FDA. But an ABC spokeswoman wasn't sure yet whether her agency would do the policing work.

There are several groups that currently work with the state to check compliance of Virginia's tobacco laws. But it also wasn't clear whether they'd be conducting ``sting operations'' to help enforce the FDA regulations.

Alternatives Inc., a group in Hampton, works with the state's health department to check whether retailers comply with Virginia's tobacco laws in the Peninsula area. But during these visits, teens don't purchase tobacco products or participate in ``stings.''

``All we do is collect information,'' said Bernie Tennyson, Alternatives' youth development coordinator. ``The teen-ager asks for the tobacco product. And as the clerk reaches for it, the teen-ager hands them a warning card. If they say no, they get a thank-you card.'' MEMO: CRACKDOWN BEGINS

Beginning today, retailers must get a photo ID proving their age from

every customer younger than 27 who tries to buy cigarettes or smokeless

tobacco. Cigars and pipe tobacco are excluded.

Owners of stores - not the low-paid clerks many state laws target -

will get a warning the first time FDA catches them selling to minors,

and will be fined $250 for subsequent violations.

Regular customers may be carded just once, not at every visit.

Stores caught not carding 18- to 26-year-olds will not be fined, but

will face more frequent undercover inspections to see if they sell to

minors. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Gilmore

Allen KEYWORDS: CIGARETTE SALES MINORS JUVENILES