Tobacco Documents Online

On Licensing Tobacco Sales Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan has called on states to require cigarette merchants to be licensed just as licenses are now required for the sale of alcoholic beverages. It's all part of his plan to prevent the sale of tobacco to minors. Licensing may be a convenient way for Dr. Sullivan to stigmatize tobacco to help achieve his goal of a smoke-free society. But the fact is that licensing is hardly an effective way to control behavior. o University of Michigan researchers who have been studying drug and alcohol use by teenagers since 1975 had this to say: "Despite the fact that it is illegal for virtually all high school students and most college students to purchase alcoholic beverages, experience with alcohol is almost universal among them and active use is widespread."I 0 Even though the sale of alcoholic beverages is licensed, the same HHS report found that two out of every three high school seniors said they used alcohol in the last month, and about 35 per cent reported 0 ~ ~ 'Drug Use, Drinldng and Smoking National Survey 1988. National Institute of Drug Abuse. Table 17. Page 94. 0

having had five or more drinks in a row in the last two weeks:2 If restrictions on the sale of alcohol to minors (such as licensing) worked, one would expect to see a great reduction in drinking. o Tobacco sales can account for up to 25 percent of a retailer's gross sales. Regulatory licensing of the kind proposed by Dr. Sullivan would mean restrictions that some retailers could not survive. Dr. Sullivan also ignores the fact that many states already license retailers to sell tobacco. Such licenses are controlled by state departments of revenue and are related to tax collection. It is unnecessary to impose new licensing on top of existing licenses.3 N 0 N W ta N G71 2lbid p. 12 04b 3Statement of four New England retail organizations to Interagency Committee on ~ Smoking and Health at May 31, 1990 national advisory committee meeting.