MPR: Whose Problem Is Teen Smoking?

Whose Problem Is Teen Smoking?
By Laura McCallum
September 29, 1999

A Minnesota Senate panel today considered the problem of illegal cigarette sales to minors. Minnesota stands to lose more than $8 million dollars in federal funding for failing to reduce underage tobacco sales. There's plenty of blame to go around; some officials say retailers, law enforcement and local communities are at fault.

FEDERAL OFFICIALS MAY dock Minnesota $8.3 million in drug-abuse treatment funding, after the state failed to meet its goal for reducing underage tobacco sales. Teens under 18 were able to buy cigarettes in 31 percent of sting operations last year; Minnesota's target rate was 21 percent. Minnesota negotiated the rate, but Department of Human Services Commissioner Michael O'Keefe told the Senate Health and Family Security Budget Committee it's an arbitrary goal.

O'Keefe: For example, Connecticut, Louisiana both had targets of 60 percent. Both of them, interestingly enough, came in below their target, as a matter of fact.

O'Keefe says Minnesota's punishment doesn't fit the crime. There's no logical connection between underage tobacco sales and chemical-dependency treatment money. He told senators not to blame the state; lawmakers gave enforcement responsibility to local authorities. The Legislature didn't set penalties for communities that fail to pass ordinances to police cigarette sales to minors, although DFL Senator Ember Reichgott Junge of New Hope is considering a bill that would impose penalties. Five of the state's 87 counties haven't passed ordinances, and county officials are urging the state not to penalize them if the state loses federal funds. Lois McCarron of the Association of Minnesota Counties says it takes time for local governments to adopt ordinances, and cutting their drug-abuse treatment funding isn't the answer.

McCarron: The federal government is sanctioning us, we might consider sanctions, or the state, to counties. Counties might want to sanction cities to have control and authority, but I'm not sure that's the best way to go, and I think timing is more the issue, and how we need the time - all of us - to get our message across.

Retailers are also trying to deflect criticism, and say their clerks dO ask for IDs when anyone who appears to be under 30 tries to buy cigarettes. Matt Larson, who supervises the tobacco compliance program for Coburn's 51 retail stores, questioned why selling tobacco to a minor is a gross misdemeanor, while buying cigarettes illegally is only a petty misdemeanor. Larson says clerks have a hard time taking the law seriously when it appears that kids and the police don't.

Larson: It is common to see juveniles flagrantly smoking in public. I'm sure you all see it all the time. I once asked an officer why they don't deal with such situations, and he responded, "Why should I? They don't get any real punishment." The kids know it's a joke.

Larson suggested making it easier for harried clerks to check IDs by redesigning drivers' licenses, possibly by changing the background color to green for those over 21, to yellow between 18 and 21, and to red for minors under 18. The Department of Public Safety recently redesigned licenses to add a line showing the date when minors turn 18. Committee chair Don Samuelson, a Brainerd DFLer, likes the color-background idea, and says it probably wouldn't require legislation. He says the state doesn't need to take a heavy-handed approach.

Samuelson: We don't need to point fingers; what's done is done. Now let's get about to solving the problem.

Lawmakers and state officials are hopeful money from the state's tobacco settlement, set aside in anti-smoking endowments, will reduce teen smoking rates by 30 percent over the next five years. They say reducing youth demand for cigarettes will ultimately halt illegal tobacco sales to minors.

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