In a move aimed largely at curbing youth smoking, Windsor is close to enacting a law requiring tobacco retailers to pay for a special license.
The license fee would help fund enforcement efforts to prevent sale of tobacco products to persons under 21 years old and there would also be fines and penalties imposed on violators.
“We are moving forward. It’s just a matter of getting more information and how we craft it,” Mayor Deb Fudge said after the council reached agreement this week on the need for an ordinance.
“It’s about addiction and trying to stop it,” said Councilman Sam Salmon. “It’s an important step for wellness and for health.”
Some of the conditions of the license under consideration include limiting tobacco sales to 1,000 feet or more from schools, setting a cap on the number of tobacco retailers, and not issuing a tobacco license to a business that contains a pharmacy, such as Safeway and Raley’s.
Also being proposed is setting a minimum price of $7 per pack of cigarettes, since youth are more sensitive to cost than adults.
Windsor officials expect the ordinance will help improve Windsor’s grade with the American Lung Association, which gave the town a “D” in its recent annual report on how jurisdictions regulate tobacco. Only Cloverdale performed worst with an “F.”
Windsor would be the third city in the county to impose its own tobacco licensing, joining Healdsburg and Sonoma. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last year adopted a licensing program for the unincorporated areas, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
There are more than 160 cities and counties in California that impose retail tobacco licensing and Sonoma County health officials say the program results in an average 26 percent decline in youth use.
Licensing is seen as a way to make inroads against the 480,000 preventable deaths that are said to occur each year in the United States because of tobacco use. The vast majority of smokers pick up the habit before they hit adulthood.
Health officials estimate there are an average of 570 preventable tobacco-related deaths in Sonoma County annually and about $84 million a year in related health costs.
The typical license costs around $540 annually, but that’s a relatively small amount compared to the average $750,000 in tobacco sales the trade industry reports for a corner store, said Brian Vaughn, a director at Sonoma County Department of Health Services.
But a group representing gasoline and convenience store owners said Windsor should consider retail licensing without the “onerous” restrictions adopted by the county, particularly restricting the distance from schools; creating a $7 floor price for cigarettes and little cigars; and limiting the number of tobacco retailers based on population.
Most minors receive tobacco from “social sources,” not retailers, according to the American Petroleum and Convenience Store Association.
JP Sethi, the chairman of the association, said he supports Windsor’s commitment to keep tobacco away from minors, but not restrictive provisions that will harm small businesses.
In a letter to Mayor Fudge, he said the county’s ordinance was adopted prior to state legislation raising the minimum age to 21 to purchase tobacco products, as well as regulating e-cigarettes as tobacco products and increasing state licensing fees.
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