— West Virginia lawmakers are moving on legislation that will increase fines for retail clerks who enable minors to purchase cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco products.
The proposed law will also hike the financial penalties on the violators themselves as well as bumping up the hours of community service they must serve for breaking the law.
The crackdown is good news on a number of fronts.
Most importantly it will help a continuing effort aimed at turning our children away from tobacco use.
It will also bolster West Virginia’s efforts to receive the maximum amount of federal government funding that can be obtained by the state to use for programs treating behavioral and mental health problems.
Tobacco abuse by juveniles in West Virginia has been a long-standing problem. It hasn’t been too many years ago that the practice was widely accepted and condoned by many adults.
The tide has turned and sending a tougher message to the sellers and buyers — as well as the parents and guardians —that it’s not kosher to illegally obtain tobacco products is the right thing to do.
Requiring proper identification for alcoholic beverages at the point of purchase is already being emphasized at most retail outlets. Instituting the same procedures for tobacco purchases, if it’s not already being done, is an easy policy to put into place.
This is a good piece of legislation. Making the law tougher in this case is clearly the correct route we must take in this ongoing battle to curb tobacco use by kids.
