Anti-Smoking Bill and Retailers

Score another victory for the tobacco lobby in Sacramento, which now wants to penalize minors who smoke cigarettes but not the retailers who sell them or the advertising that promotes them (June 1).

While The Times noted that AB 2188 will increase fines for store clerks who sell cigarettes to minors and fine or take a driver’s license away from any minor found in possession of a cigarette, it failed to point out the bill’s most insidious component: Retailers and companies that sell or give cigarettes to children will no longer face any penalties for such sales.

Although tobacco companies don’t want to be held responsible for selling cigarettes to minors, they also don’t want to lose their tax deduction for marketing cigarettes directly to children. An effort to amend AB 2188 to eliminate the $10-million tax deduction enjoyed by tobacco companies for advertising and promotional costs was defeated in the Assembly.

That setback came despite the fact it’s a $600-million annual advertising frenzy that’s helped create 300,000 child smokers in California who inhale 30 million packs of cigarettes a year. AB 2188 just blows smoke at the problem of children who light up by letting retailers and manufacturers off the hook.

DEBRA BOWEN

Assembly, D-Marina del Rey

MARIAN BERGESON

Orange County Supervisor