I lost my dear dad to lung cancer due to cigarettes. He became addicted at age 12. It breaks my heart to know that in 2010, there are stores in my city that are making cigarettes and other tobacco products readily available for youth.

Earlier this year our coalition, the Azusa Youth Against Smoking, targeted 48 tobacco retailers in Azusa to identify how many were willing to sell to minors without asking for proper identification. Guess what? Twenty retailers out of 48 were willing to sell smokes to minors. That’s an alarming rate of 41.7 percent.

I don’t think 5 percent, 10 percent or even 15 percent is an acceptable number, but almost half of our city’s tobacco retailers are illegally selling tobacco products to our kids. This is shocking!

Our coalition has been encouraging the city to adopt a tough ordinance that would crack down on tobacco retailers selling to minors. In response, the City Council passed a toothless, unenforceable law that won’t keep one child in Azusa from becoming addicted to cigarettes.

That ordinance includes fines for those retailers who willfully sell to minors, but it does not require enforcement or compliance checks. Without compliance checks retailers are free to continue selling to children.

Our coalition wants the city to require an annual permit that requires tobacco retailers to obtain a license to sell tobacco, and include an annual fee that would raise funds to pay for an enforcement officer.

Financial deterrents through fines and penalties, including the suspension and revocation of the license, are what make retailers pay attention and follow the law. Using this approach, as dozens of other cities in Los Angeles county already do, really works.

Apparently the city staff doesn’t think keeping kids from buying cigarettes is important. One staffer said, “the PD doesn’t have time.” Another staffer said the city wants to “avoid imposing another fee” on business. These statements don’t stand up under examination.

Azusa businesses have not come out in opposition to a strong ordinance, and the Azusa PD does have time if funds are available to pay the officers. A license fee could be that funding source.

Clearly, we believe something more should be done. And so do 500 petition signers.

Two hundred children become addicted to tobacco in our state every day, joining the nearly 4 million current smokers in California. How many more kids have to become addicted before our city leaders step up and do their job?

Shirley Manzo has lived in Azusa for 45 years and is the chair of Azusa Youth Against Smoking, a local coalition of residents, parents, volunteers, students and community organizations committed to protecting the youth of Azusa from the dangers of tobacco use.

source: pasadenastarnews.com

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