Report: 7 Percent of Stores Selling Tobacco to Minors

Seven percent of convenience stores, grocery stores and other retailers around Louisiana are illegally selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to children, a sharp decline from eight years ago but nearly unchanged from last year, according to a new report released Monday.

The biggest problem region was the five-parish area around Lake Charles, where sales to underage buyers were made at nearly 26 percent of the stores checked, according to the data released by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Using undercover teens, random inspections and other methods, state officials checked about 800 of Louisiana’s 10,200-plus tobacco retailers in July and August. About 93 percent of the stores refused to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 18, the same as last year but much less than the 29 percent 1997 report, the first year the state checked compliance.

“One of the ways we can prevent young people from taking up this unhealthy habit is by reducing their access to cigarettes and other tobacco products. And, if we can prevent them from smoking now, they are less likely to take up the habit as adults,” DHH Secretary Fred Cerise said in a statement released with the compliance results.

Nearly 13 percent of stores nationwide sold tobacco products to underage buyers in the 2004 compliance checks, the latest national numbers available.

States can lose federal money if their compliance numbers fall too low.

Store clerks and the retailers they work for can be fined and go to jail for selling tobacco to underage buyers.