Compliance checks resuming to curb tobacco sales to minors

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Vancouver, WA ‒ To address a sharp rise in the illegal sale of tobacco and vaping products to Clark County youth, Clark County Public Health is reinstating tobacco compliance checks to discourage local retailers from selling tobacco and vaping products to anyone younger than 18. The sale of tobacco and vaping products to minors in Clark County more than doubled between 2010 and 2014. The steady increase followed a 2010 loss of state tobacco prevention funding that meant the discontinuation of compliance checks by Public Health. Using alternate state funding, the department will reinstate compliance checks on June 30. “Our primary goal is education. We want retailers to understand the law so we can help prevent youth access to these unhealthy and highly addictive products,” said Cyndie Meyer, Chronic Disease Prevention program manager. “Most tobacco users pick up the habit as teens, so it’s important to discourage tobacco and e-cigarette use in youth.” Public Health has been alerting local retailers about the resumption of compliance checks since mid-June. During a check, trained, underage youth volunteers go to a retailer where they attempt to purchase a tobacco or vaping product. If the sale is successful, accompanying Public Health staff explains the law to the clerk and reports the transaction to the state Liquor Control Board. Penalties for clerks are $50 for the first offense and $100 for each subsequent offense. Penalties for the retailer range from $100 to $1,500 and include six-month, one-year and five-year license suspensions for third, fourth and fifth offenses, respectively. “Most illegal sales of tobacco and vaping products occur because clerks either don’t ask for identification or they incorrectly calculate the teen’s age after looking at the identification,” said Long Vue, Public Health health educator. “Our goal is to educate, not to trick or penalize people. We just want sales to youth to stop.” Among Clark County 10th graders who responded to the 2014 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, 11 percent reported smoking cigarettes within the past 30 days and 22 percent used e-cigarettes.