Tobacco sales to minors increased in Santa Maria and Lompoc
Published on August 24, 2010 8:51 AM
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Tobacco sales to minors increased in the cities of Santa Maria and Lompoc in 2010, according to annual “tobacco buy” data presented by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.
Nevertheless the decreases were established in Solvang and in unincorporated countries such as Los Alamos, Orcutt and Vandenberg Village.
In Santa Barbara and Guadalupe, cigarette sales to minors increased significantly compared to 2009 rates, while in Carpinteria and Goleta sales had declined.
Secret buys in Buellton led to illegal sales rate of 42%, 5 out of 12 locations - equal to 2009 and the highest in the county for 2010.
For the country as a whole the rate constituted 17% - 48 out of 276 locations.
The county Sheriff’s Department in collaboration with the Public Health Department recruits 15- and 16-year-old decoys as secret operatives and asks them to buy any tobacco product. The legal age to buy tobacco products is 18.
Those teenagers who participate in such operations are given immunity by the county District Attorney’s Office as it is illegal for minors to hold tobacco products under California Penal Code Section 308(b).
“Such secret operations took place in May and June and this is only our first step before revealing the entire picture of illegal tobacco sales,” stated Dawn Dunn, administrator for the county’s Tobacco Prevention Settlement Program.
Nevertheless this is a snapshot of how they work. “The more stores we visit the more reliable and more representative results we will have,” she said.
Dunn couldn’t explain why Buellton had so high rates within the past couple of years.
“In my opinion the best prevention method consist in real ID checking card, with every tobacco sales interaction,” Dunn added.
Tobacco can be called a “gateway drug” as according to the California Healthy Kids Survey those minors who smoke are eight times more likely to become addicted to alcohol and nine times more likely to smoke marijuana.
Generally only the sales clerk is fined for the illegal tobacco sale, however in jurisdictions with a local tobacco retailer license, such as Santa Barbara and Goleta the owner is responsible as well.
Three of 37 locations - 8 % - sold cigarettes to minors in Santa Maria. Earlier, the rate was 7 %, three of 45 locations.
In Lompoc, four of 29 locations sold tobacco products to minors, a rate of 14 %. In 2009, the rate constituted 3 % -one out of 41 retailers.
Guadalupe stated that were not registered sales to minors in 2009, though, one of seven stores, 14 %, sold cigarettes to minors in 2010.
Seven tobacco sales to minors from 59 locations -12 % were registered in unincorporated countries.
