SAMPLE LETTER TO ELECTED OFFICIALS

TOBACCO RETAILER LICENSING

Dear [Elected Official],

Our children and our communities need your help.

Although it has been illegal for more than 100 years, retailers throughout our region continue to sell tobacco to children at alarming rates. Across San Diego County, more than one-third of all merchants surveyed in spring 2004 sold tobacco illegally. We've spent years trying to educate retailers about the long-term health and financial consequences of selling tobacco to children, yet clearly many retailers put their own financial interests above the law.

Comprehensive local tobacco retail licensing laws can deter illegal sales. By providing strict enforcement measures and meaningful penalties for those who break tobacco retail laws, we send retailers the message that our community is serious about protecting our kids from the deadly addiction of tobacco.

The cities of El Cajon and Vista have taken the lead in San Diego County by adopting progressive tobacco retailer licensing ordinances. Close to 50 other jurisdictions in California have also taken this step including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Riverside County, Sacramento, and San Francisco.

Tobacco retailer licensing laws work – consider the illegal tobacco sales rates in the following California jurisdictions before and after adoption of a strong tobacco retailer licensing ordinance:

• Contra Costa County: 2002: 37% ; 2003: less than 10%

• City of Berkeley: 2000: 30% ; 2003: 14%

• City of Pasadena: 1994: 19% ; 2005: 5%

• City of San Luis Obispo: 2002: 52% ; 2004: 0%

We know tobacco and kids don't mix:

• Nicotine addiction in children is very different than in adults -- often taking hold within weeks or emerging just days after youthful “experimentation.”

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the younger a person is when he or she starts smoking, the more difficult it is to quit.

• More than 74 percent of California's adult smokers started smoking before they were 18 years old.

The financial costs are just as devastating as the emotional and physical toll tobacco takes. In 1999, smoking cost San Diego County $1.2 billion in direct health care costs and lost productivity due to illness and premature death. That's $2,975 per smoker and $443 per resident.

I urge you to implement a local licensing law that includes the following provisions:

• A permit for all tobacco retailers, not just those that break the law

• An annual permit fee sufficient to cover the cost of administering and enforcing the permit program

• Compliance with all state, local and national tobacco control laws as a condition of holding the license

• Inspections of all stores or a representative sample of stores each year for compliance with the law

• A schedule of penalties that includes suspension and revocation of the license for violators who repeatedly sell tobacco to minors.

If we can prevent teens from smoking by reducing their access to tobacco products, then we have a chance at decreasing the number of future adult smokers and, hopefully, the terrible financial, emotional and physical toll that tobacco use causes.

Sincerely,