West Hollywood, California (December 7, 2009) - Pointing out that numerous surveys show that the closer a tobacco retailer is to a school, the more likely they are to sell to children, the City of West Hollywood began re-thinking tobacco sales near schools on Monday night. 
Photo by WeHo News. |
In a resolution calling for city staff to study methods and impacts and the city attorney, Mike Jenkins, to draft an ordinance, WeHo plans to restrict the sale of tobacco near schools within the city.
Staff, in preparing the resolution, put together a compelling set of statistics to buttress their approach.
“Each year, 36,000 California kids become new smokers,” said the report. “75 percent of them will go on to become life-long smokers.”
Tobacco use remains to be one of the leading causes of preventable death in California, with 40,000 Californians dying each year as a result of tobacco use, and costs associated with smoking-related diseases in the state amounting to nearly $16 billion annually.
WeHo News. |
Damningly, the staff report claims that surveys continue to confirm that the closer a tobacco retailer is to a school, the more likely they are to sell to children.
Additionally, a 2004 study by the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program finding that 33 percent of tobacco sales to minor take place within 1,000 feet of a school.
Locally, in Los Angeles on September 22, that city’s City Attorney announced the suspension of 24 tobacco retailers' licenses due to repeated sales of tobacco to minors - most of these violations took place near schools.
Deciding to ban tobacco sales near schools is one thing, but creating such a ban that does not deleteriously affect merchants’ adult tobacco business takes study, says staff, so they outlined a range of possible regulations and penalties.
The obvious first option: simply prohibit the sale of tobacco products within a recommended radius from all schools.
Photo by WeHo News. |
Another suggestion made by staff could be called “Three Strikes Equals Revocation.
Supposing any ordinance would grandfather in existing tobacco retailers near schools, those retailers would be subject to a tougher penalty schedule.
Those penalties may include license revocation after a third violation of selling tobacco to minors.
The third option presented by staff amounted to time-targeting restrictions for the hours school-age children attend school or after-school activities.
West Hollywood has only one public elementary level school in its city limits, but several elementary and high schools dot the boundaries of the city in Los Angeles.
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