County's Plan to Cut Teen Smoking is Working
A County of Riverside program designed to cut down on sales of cigarettes to minors is bearing fruit.
County health officials say that sting operations designed to monitor the number of merchants who sell to minors has plunged from 44 percent pre-program to 15 percent now.
That positive impact comes despite the fact that several cities-notably a majority of those in the Fourth District-have not implemented the program.
"Frankly, I don't get it," said Fourth District Supervisor Roy Wilson. "Why would Coachella Valley cities not want to protect the health of our youth with this simple, effective program?"
Merchants pay the cost of the program via an annual $350 licensing fee; it's estimated that the average convenience store makes more than $350,000 in tobacco products annually, 10 percent of which comes from underage smokers.
While program participants have seen tobacco sales to kids plummet, cities who do not participate in the program have continuing high rates of sales to minors. For example, the Cities of Cathedral City, Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio all have sting success rates above 50 percent. Contrast these numbers with a couple of Western-County cities that have signed on to the program: Corona minors succeeded in buying cigarettes 30 percent of the time in 2005, but zero percent in March 2007, after the license fee program was adopted; the City of Murrieta's sting operations resulted in 27 percent to 5 percent.
Retailers in Riverside County's unincorporated areas and participating cities that are caught selling tobacco to buyers younger than 18 risk losing their licenses and tobacco profits.
Robert Petersen, who oversees the program, says more than 500 stings have been conducted since the fee went into affect. Part of the challenge, he says, is identifying all of the estimated 3,000 retailers countywide selling tobacco products and giving them a chance to comply.