Scarcnet News Summaries (Advocacy Institute)
Proposed Legislation To Crack Down On Internet Tobacco Sales To Minors
Length: pages
Abstract
US Representative Marty Meehan (D-MA) announced that he intends to introduce legislation to stop tobacco sales to minors over the Internet when Congress reconvenes next month. The legislation would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors, require online tobacco marketers to comply with the same restrictions that apply to print advertisers, and mandate that web sites selling tobacco display the Surgeon General's warning. At a press conference announcing his bill, Meehan said, "Access to cigarettes thorough sources like the Internet is helping to fuel the increase in youth smoking that's taking place in the 90's. The more that we can restrict kids from easy access to tobacco, the less likely the children will be experimenting."
Over the summer, Meehan conducted an informal study of Internet tobacco sales using student interns to search the web for sites that sell tobacco. His interns found 26 web sites selling tobacco, and only half of them had language regarding age requirements for purchasing tobacco products. None of the sites posted the Surgeon General's warning about smoking.
Source: "Meehan, AG Reilly Take Steps To Zap Online Tobacco Sales," BOSTON HERALD (on-line), August 24, 1999.