Philadelphia Eyes Harsher Penalties For Selling Cigarettes To Minors
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Concerned that Philadelphia has among the highest rates of underage smoking in the country, the city's health department is asking City Council to more than double the penalties imposed on merchants who sell cigarettes to minors.
City Council's Public Health Committee was considering that idea on Tuesday.
Giridhar Mallya, director of policy and planning for the Health Department, says merchants who sell cigarettes to teens under 18 look at the current $100 fine simply as the cost of doing business. So the department wants Council to boost the fine to $250.
"We believe that with better education, enhanced enforcement, and higher penalties, merchants will pay the penalties but they'll think twice about violating the law the next time," Mallya said.
The proposed legislation is part of a larger Health Department effort to rein in sales of smokes to teens in Philadelphia. Mallya says the city has among the highest rates of underage smokers.
"It's just too easy for kids to buy cigarettes illegally, " he said. And he thinks that early start makes a difference. "Up to half the kids that smoke even once will become adult smokers."
Another proposed change: if approved, the steeper, $250 citation would be delivered in person by a Health Department worker rather than mailed. They'll use that visit to make sure the merchant is better educated about the dangers of teen smoking and the need to have clerks ask for ID.
Mallya says there are two benefits to this first-person approach:
"The merchant understands that this is a serious violation and it puts kids at risk. Plus, it gives us at the Department of Public Health another chance to do education. We know that from experiences in other cities that if you increase the penalties, plus do better education and enforcement, sales to youth can decrease."
The Department currently hires teens to go undercover and test whether stores sell tobacco products to teens. Mallya says those stings find frequent violations:
"Twenty percent of them lead to an illegal sale to a minor."
He says that sting operation will continue under the ramped-up enforcement.
Reported by KYW Newsradio City Hall Bureau Chief Mike Dunn.
