Stores Penalized For Selling Tobacco to Minors

Three Berkeley stores will be removing tobacco from their shelves after they were caught selling tobacco to minors in a sting operation conducted last month. Three more venues are suspected of selling tobacco to an underage decoy, but are appealing the cases.

The youth-cop team visited 32 shops of all sizes across Berkeley, and six stores, or 18.75 percent, sold tobacco to an underage decoy.

Marcia Brown-Machen, the Tobacco Prevention Program director, said she believes in the effectiveness of the program.

“I think that (the sting) serves to really educate the merchants and really decrease the sale if they have been surveyed in the past,” she said.

In a sting conducted last year, only two out of 34 stores sold tobacco to the youth decoy.

All the stores that were suspected of selling to the decoy were located in South or West Berkeley and were usually small, independent shops.

“Generally, across the state, it’s more common for small independent stores to sell tobacco to minors than the large chain stores,” Brown-Machen said.

Seventeen-year-old Hannah Kissel of Malibu, who is in Berkeley for the summer session, said buying cigarettes is easy in Berkeley, adding that she just bought some at Whelan’s Smoke Shop.

“When I go into cigarette shops with friends who look underage, they card me, but when I’m on my own they don’t card me,” she said.

An employee at Whelan’s Smoke Shop refused to comment and the store owner could not be reached for comment.

Of the six shops caught, only Berkeley Discount waived its right to a hearing and is accepting the 30-day suspension from selling tobacco products, Brown-Machen said.

Generally, when caught selling tobacco products to a minor, the clerk is fined $280 and charged with a misdemeanor. However, since the 2003 passage of the Tobacco Retail Licensure Law, owners are also held responsible.

Two other vendors, University Oil and Pacific 76, were able to reduce their suspension to only 20 days after appealing the citation and appearing at a hearing. M&H Market, Marina Liquor and Stanford Liquors are contesting their citation, the latter on the grounds that the clerk thought he was selling the cigarettes to the adult undercover cop, she said.

The June 26-27 sting, professionally known as the youth tobacco purchase survey program, is funded by the Berkeley Police Department, tobacco retail licensure fees, the California’s quarter-per-pack tax on tobacco and the Alameda County Tobacco Control Program, Brown-Machen said.

Prevention is the main weapon against the dangers of tobacco, Brown-Machen said.

“The real key here is to prevent people from ever starting tobacco use,” she said.

Tags: