LETTERS: LAWS PROTECT YOUTHS FROM SMOKING

To the editor:

During the months of June and July, Community 2000 volunteers and staff from across the state have visited retailers in every community to remind them of the importance of keeping kids healthy by not selling them tobacco products.

We remind them that Missouri's law is intended to prevent young people under the age of 18 from purchasing tobacco products or rolling paper. We tell them that the state assesses penalties on those who sell or distribute tobacco products to anyone under 18 or who fail to display required signage. These penalties range from $25 for a first offense to $250 for third and subsequent offenses. Federal penalties are even stiffer. The start at $250 and can include other sanctions.

We would like to thank the stores that educate their employees and comply with the law. We would like to thank the stores that reward their employees, either on a store-by-store or company-wide basis, by monetary or other incentives for resisting the temptation to sell to a customer who is not 18 years of age. Hucks and Amerimart staff and managers have told us about this incentive. We also would like to thank the responsible citizens who discourage young people from taking up smoking and refuse to supply them with tobacco products. And, finally, we would like to thank the stores that make it their policy not to sell tobacco products in the first place.

Together, we can do the right thing and assure that our young people and the rest of us breathe easier.

JILL VENEZIAN, Prevention Advocate

Community 2000 Support Center

Southeast Missouri State University

Cape Girardeau