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Last Updated: Jan 31st, 2007 - 10:58:43 |
Santa Ana votes for tobacco licenses
Oct 18, 2006, 16:21
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SANTA ANA – It will soon be tougher for teenagers to buy a pack of cigarettes here. The city will become the first in Orange County to require stores to hold a local license to sell tobacco – the latest in a spate of programs across the state esigned to clamp down on underage smoking.In a unanimous vote Monday night, the City Council approved requiring businesses to pay an annual fee for a license, planning to use the revenues to run sting operations to cut down on illegal tobacco sales to youth.The measure is especially significant in Santa Ana, one of the youngest communities in the nation with a median age of 26.5.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 80 percent of smokers began smoking before they turned 18. "We have a young population with very open access to tobacco," Councilwoman Lisa Bist said. "That's why we need to do this." While the state issues licenses for tobacco sales, law-enforcement authorities say clerks are punished for selling to underage buyers more often than store owners are. More than 50 cities and counties in California have adopted ordinances so they can suspend or revoke the licenses of businesses that sell tobacco to minors.In 2005, 10 percent of underage buyers could obtain tobacco in decoy operations in California.In Santa Ana, the new ordinance won added strength when the City Council raised the annual fee retailers will pay to $635 – apparently the highest in the state – from the $350 proposed by the Police Department. It did so because a program with outreach to retailers and undercover stings carried out by state-approved contractors will cost $212,000 – an amount police had expected to cover by scaling back work on prostitution and other areas, Cmdr. Hank Couisine said.The approach differs from that of other cities, where governments often run checks through less expensive avenues such as code enforcement and cut corners on other programs to save costs, said Randy Kline, staff attorney at the Technical Assistance Legal Center. "What is good about it from my perspective is it is going to give other cities that haven't been willing to charge the full cost a little more backbone to do it," Kline said. Smoke shops and convenience stores in Santa Ana had different opinions about the ordinance. With the debate heating up around a statewide proposition to impose a new tax on cigarettes, some merchants likened a local ordinance to a bump in the road.For Oscar Shahin, who opened a gas station in the city two weeks ago, it's a big deal – especially because one-third of his in-store sales come from cigarettes. Shahin estimated that 15 percent of his profits from selling 20 packs of cigarettes a day will go toward paying the new fee. "I wish cigarettes never existed, " Shahin said. "I don't like smoking, but (for a convenience store), it's a must." Cigarettes were the top-selling in-store product for convenience stores in 2005, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.Some businesses say tobacco ordinances will help increase their sales once stores that don't play by the rules are weeded out through checks. Michael Metzler, president of Santa Ana's Chamber of Commerce, said he hadn't studied the fee's effect but understood the city's reasoning. "There is a cost to balance the needs of public safety," he aid. "Business has to pay its fair share, but it shouldn't have to pay more than its fair share."
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