Underage tobacco sales widespread despite raised age

An Oregon Health Authority report released this week found that the rate of retail tobacco sales to underage people increased slightly over the past year, as a new law took effect that raised the minimum age to buy tobacco.

Enforcement of Oregon’s new tobacco sales law, which raised the age for a person to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21, took effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

The Public Health Division, in collaboration with the Oregon State Police, checks on tobacco retailers across Oregon to make sure retailers are following the law.

Data from the first six months of 2018 show that since enforcement of the new sales age began, the retailer violation rate was 18 percent statewide. That’s slightly higher than the 16 percent retailer violation rate for the previous year, when the legal age being enforced was 18.

“Selling tobacco to people under 21 years old is illegal, but these data show that nearly one out of every five tobacco retailers in Oregon still sells to people under the legal age,” said Tom Jeanne, MD, deputy state health officer at the OHA Public Health Division. “Tobacco remains the No. 1 preventable cause of death and disability and kills nearly 8,000 people in Oregon each year.”

It also costs the state $2.5 billion per year in medical costs and lost productivity, the OHA said.

A key part of ending tobacco addiction in Oregon is making sure youth don’t start. Oregon was the fifth state to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21.

Retailer owners that sell tobacco to underage persons face up to a $500 fine for the first or second violation and up to $1,000 for three or more violations.

For the first time, the OHA Public Health Division has taken the added step of publicizing the list of tobacco retailers that violated the tobacco sales law through minor “decoy” stings, much as the Oregon Liquor Control Commission does for alcohol or marijuana sales to whose who are underage.

The list of Oregon retailers that sold tobacco to underage persons in the last year is available on the OHA Public Health Division website at https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PREVENTIONWELLNESS/TOBACCOPREVENTION/Documents/InspectionCoReport.PDF.

In Deschutes County, 30 inspections were made and three retailers sold to minors, for a 10 percent violation rate. They were in Bend at the 7-Eleven on SE Third Street (cigarettes), the Expressway Market at 15th Street and Reed Market Road.(small cigars/cigarillos) and in La Pine, at CoVapes Barbie Boutique on Huntington Road (an E-cigarette).

In Crook County, there were 13 inspections and three sales to underage customers, for a 23 percent violation rate, including cigarettes sold to minors at Kurt’s Country Store in Paulina, the Powell Butte Country Store and The Outpost in Prineville.

In Jefferson County, four inspections were conducted and no sales to minors occurred, the agency said.