By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Area police agencies will be making unannounced visits at area retailers in the coming weeks to make sure they're complying with the law that prohibits tobacco sales to people under 18.
There are about 1,000 licensed establishment in the county that sell cigarettes and other tobacco products. Erie County Health Commissioner Anthony Billittier says from time to time, he wants to make sure they're complying with the law.
"We're telling them don't sell to minors," Billittier said. "We do compliance checks. We've done them for many years. We're continuing to do that this year."
Billittier says the compliance checks seem to be working.
"When we first started with compliance checks in the early '90s, pretty much everyone was selling to minors," Billittier said. "Now we're down to about six or seven percent."
Billittier says the compliance effort will continue until that number drops to zero. He says retailers found to be violating the law face penalties ranging from $300 $1,000 for a first offense. But the penalties stiffen for repeat offenders.
"They stand to lose both their tobacco and lottery licenses," Billittier said. "That could be quite devastating to a business."
Billittier says it's not their intent to hassle area businesses but to protect kids from picking up a habit that could kill them. He says thanks to this and other preventive and education efforts, the number of teen smokers continues to drop.