Rockland Legislature upholds veto on raising tobacco age

By SARAH NETTER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
September 21, 2005)

The County Legislature voted to uphold the county executive's veto of a bill that would have raised the age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 19.

Though there were 10 votes in favor of overriding the veto, seven voted against, leaving the majority without the 12 votes needed to override.

While all legislators agreed that smoking is damaging to one's health and that underage smoking is a problem, they disagreed in their comments before the vote that raising the legal age to buy tobacco is the answer.

Legislator VJ Pradhan, D-West Nyack, said it's not the Legislature's job to restrict a legal adult from smoking.

"It's the parents' duty to make sure their children are not smoking," he said.

Legislator Theodore Dusanenko, R-Valley Cottage, said raising the tobacco sales age to 19 is not showing respect for the county's 18-year-olds.

"To not give them the right of full citizenship at age 18 is arbitrary, capricious and, I believe, unfair to them," he said.

Legislator Kenneth P. Zebrowski Jr., D-New City, said that while the bill wasn't the answer to the end of underage smoking, it was a start.

"Any small step we can take to curb smoking among our youngsters is worth it," he said.

In addition to Pradhan and Dusanenko, Legislators Gerold Bierker, C-Bardonia, Doug Jobson, R-Stony Point, Patrick Moroney, R-Pearl River, John Murphy, R-Orangeburg, and Ilan Schoenberger, D-Wesley Hills, voted not to override Vanderhoef's veto.

The measure, proposed by Legislator Ellen Jaffee, D- Suffern, was approved on a 10-5 vote last month and was vetoed Sept. 2 by County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef.

Jaffee is running against Vanderhoef and independent candidate Richard Stolbach for the county executive seat in the November election.

Before voting to override Vanderhoef's veto, Jaffee said raising the sales age to 19 would have prevented 18-year-olds from bringing cigarettes into the high schools and giving them to younger students.

"Tobacco is just too accessible," Jaffee said. "It will be much harder for students to find anyone to buy tobacco for them."

Vanderhoef has said that he relied on information from the New York Public Interest Group to make his decision.

NYPIRG, which typically supports tobacco-control measures, said that while the group is sympathetic to the Legislature's concerns, there is little evidence that raising the age would have any effect on teenage smoking.

NYPIRG noted that Alaska, Alabama and Utah have raised the minimum tobacco-purchasing age to 19 and Alaska and Alabama still have higher rates of smoking than New York.

Vanderhoef has proposed creating criminal penalties for anyone caught selling or giving tobacco products to minors. Current penalties are civil.

Jaffee has said she will not support Vanderhoef's proposal.
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By REBECCA BAKER ERWIN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
August 3, 2005

Eighteen-year-olds would no longer be able to buy cigarettes in Rockland under a bill county lawmakers passed last night.

The Legislature voted to raise the legal age to buy tobacco, rolling papers, herbal cigarettes and pipes to 19 from 18. The 10-5 vote was along party lines, with Democrats in favor.

The bill now goes to Republican County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, who has not said if he would veto or sign the proposal.

Bill sponsor Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, said she got the idea from Suffolk County, which raised the tobacco-buying age a few months ago. She began working on the legislation after talking with leaders from the American Cancer Society and American Lung Association in February. "I believe our students in our high schools would welcome this law," she said.

The Legislature's vote followed a 90-minute public hearing that drew more than a dozen speakers, who split on the issue.

Supporters of the bill, including the local chapter of the American Cancer Society, said raising the tobacco-buying age would help curb youth smoking because 18-year-olds students could no longer buy cigarettes for younger classmates.

"It would make it harder," said Sara Fernandez, a 16-year-old Pearl River High School student. "Changing the age to 19 is smart."

Opponents said the proposed law would do nothing to stop teens who want to smoke and would limit the rights of legal adults.

The New York Public Interest Research Group, which has fought tobacco interests for years, came out against the county bill, saying there is little proof that raising the tobacco-buying age stops teens from smoking.

"We don't think this will work," NYPIRG legislative director Blair Horner told legislators. "We don't think the evidence is there."

The president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, James Calvin, said raising the age could confuse store owners and clerks, and could send teens across county lines or to the Internet, Indian reservations and bootleggers for smokes.

Similar bills before the New York state Legislature have been stuck in committee. Alabama, Utah and Alaska have set 19 as the legal age to buy tobacco products.

County legislators ignored a suggestion to delay voting to see how the higher tobacco-buying age in Suffolk affects youth smoking or to see how the state Legislature will act. Legislator Patrick Moroney, R-Pearl River, said Democrats voted to support Jaffee, who is the party's candidate for county executive.

"It's an election year, and some people need all the publicity they can get," he said.

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Movement Afoot To Raise State's Smoking Age

BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 9, 2005

In a move opponents are labeling an invasion by the nanny state, the state Senate's Health Committee expects to take up, and probably approve, legislation this week that would raise New York's smoking age to 19.

The bill, sponsored by Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican of Long Island, was introduced April 18. The chairman of the Senate committee, Kemp Hannon, another Long Island Republican, confirmed that the legislation is on tomorrow's agenda and said he thought the bill would be approved by the committee, at which point it could be brought to the Senate floor.

Mr. Fuschillo's legislation would amend state public-health laws governing the sale of tobacco products, replacing "eighteen" with "nineteen" wherever a minimum purchase age is stipulated. Retailers would also be required to check identification for anyone appearing to be under 26, where previously ID scrutiny was waived for "any individual who reasonably appears to be at least twenty-five years of age."

Similar measures have been passed by the Health Committee in the state Assembly in previous sessions, and similar bills have had Senate sponsors in the past. This would mark the first time such legislation would make it to deliberation in a committee of the Republican-controlled Senate.

Mr. Fuschillo, who has sponsored and supported other anti-smoking bills, said this legislation was designed to reduce underage smoking by keeping cigarettes out of high schools. Because many high-school students are 18, he said, it was possible for seniors to obtain cigarettes for underclassmen, facilitating underage tobacco usage.

Raising the smoking age to 19, he and Mr. Hannon said, would help combat the problem and provide a deterrent to underage tobacco consumption.

"This is a public-health issue," Mr. Fuschillo said, "and we as a state should do all we can to limit access and ensure a healthy life for individuals."

Another Senate Republican, Martin Golden of Brooklyn, who as a member of the City Council voted against New York City's stiff smoking controls enacted at Mayor Bloomberg's urging, said he approved of Mr. Fuschillo's legislation.

"Any time you can get cigarettes out of kids' hands, it's a good idea," Mr. Golden said. "I still believe government shouldn't be in this, but if it's saving lives, and the jury's still out on it, I can be convinced."

To the chairman of the state Conservative Party, Michael Long, however, the state has no business legislating individuals' health or limiting citizens' access to a legal commodity. The Conservative Party - which has endorsed both Mr. Fuschillo and Mr. Hannon - has long supported smokers' rights and vocally opposed the city and state smoking restrictions enacted in 2002 and 2003.

If New York really wanted to keep tobacco out of high schools, Mr. Long said, it should enact laws cracking down on underage possession of tobacco, or raise the smoking age to 21, to match the age requirements for the sale of alcohol. Because there are also many 19-year-old high-school students, he said, increasing the smoking age by one year would not keep tobacco out of schools.

While Mr. Long said he would not support such measures, they would at least have a better chance of achieving Mr. Fuschillo's stated aims, he said.

"If they want to save lives, then they ought to have the courage to ban smoking altogether," he said of legislators who argue that tobacco usage is lethal and should be restricted by government.

Such a ban, however, is unlikely. "These same legislators don't mind using the tax money they get from cigarettes on their pet projects," Mr. Long said.

Indeed, overreaching government measures to restrict access to tobacco while its consumption remains legal are only counterproductive, Mr. Long said. Raising the smoking age and levying oppressive taxes on cigarettes as New York has, Mr. Long said, have only fueled a black market for tobacco, especially on the Internet, where consumers can more easily dodge taxes and bureaucratic obstacles. A black market, Mr. Long added, was impossible to regulate. Providing incentives to sell tobacco illegally, beyond state scrutiny, only increases the likelihood that minors would obtain cigarettes, he said.

Mr. Long also expressed frustration at the Senate's priorities, citing a report in the New York Post yesterday that the body was moving to legalize medicinal marijuana as it was looking to impose further restrictions on tobacco usage.

A self-described advocate in the Senate of limited government, Raymond Meier, a Republican of Utica, also questioned his colleagues' priorities. There are more pressing issues facing the Senate, Mr. Meier said, than "meddling in personal decisions." He called Mr. Fuschillo's legislation "government as mommy."

"We permit people at the age of 18 to vote. We require them to shoulder a lot of responsibilities. A lot of 18-year-olds serve in the military," Mr. Meier said. "They're smart enough to use tobacco."

The founder of New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, Audrey Silk, likewise found the discrepancy puzzling.

"We're going to have kids coming back from Iraq, and then tell them, 'Sorry, you can't buy cigarettes here'?" she said.

Ms. Silk, who is the city Libertarian Party's candidate for mayor, said New Yorkers were "fed up" with the continuing attempts to "beat down" smokers, citing the public frustration with city and state tax hikes on tobacco products, in addition to opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's prohibition of smoking in bars and restaurants.

"It's Big Brother," Ms. Silk said.

"They're making our bodies belong to the state. And then there's the slippery slope," she said. "Already they're looking at food - what you should eat, what you shouldn't eat."

Ms. Silk expressed her concerns as the Associated Press reported yesterday that the city of Detroit was seeking to implement a 2% tax on fast food, the first of its kind in the nation.

Regardless of a person's views on the role of government or on tobacco, Mr. Fuschillo's legislation is unwise because it will not be effective, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, Blair Horner, said. The average age at which smokers begin to use tobacco, he said, was 14, and raising the legal smoking age to 19 from 18 would not affect youth tobacco consumption.

"We're serious anti-smoking activists," Mr. Horner said, "but there's no evidence that this will work."

He also said no major health agency or organization, such as the Centers for Disease Control, had advocated raising the legal smoking age.

"All you end up doing is treating 18-year-old adults as second-class citizens," Mr. Horner said.

Three states - Alaska, Alabama, and Utah - have smoking ages higher than 18, Mr. Horner said, and Alabama and Alaska have higher youth smoking rates than New York. Utah, Mr. Horner said, was not an indicative example, since almost 70% of the state's population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which prohibits tobacco usage.

According to a NYPIRG report, between 1997 and 2003, all three states saw tobacco usage among minors decrease at a slower rate than did New York.

Moreover, the results of increasing the drinking age to 21 from 18 suggested that raising the smoking age would be counterproductive, Mr. Horner said.

Adjusting the age at which citizens can legally purchase alcohol, Mr. Horner said, was intended to curtail drunken-driving accidents, which it succeeded in doing. At the same time, however, drinking between ages 12 and 17 increased dramatically

"If you're looking to reduce smoking related car crashes, you'd have a case," Mr. Horner said, but otherwise, Mr. Fuschillo's legislation would only "torture small businesses that have to deal with it," and undermine its sponsor's stated goal.

Opponents of the bill, however, were also critical of what they saw as its unstated political goal.

"This is just a charade," Mr. Long said. "Legislators will be able to stand in front of grammar schools, and pound their chests, and pat themselves on the back, and say how courageous they were."

The bill's critics called it "feel-good legislation" with few political drawbacks. "Eighteen-year-olds don't make campaign contributions, and they're least likely to vote," Mr. Horner said.

Mr. Long said the Senate's Republican majority would probably jump on the feel-good bandwagon if the Senate leadership decided to endorse the legislation, assuming it emerges from committee. The majority leader, Joseph Bruno, a 75-year-old from Rensselaer whom Mr. Horner described as a "health nut," could not be reached for comment yesterday but in the past has supported anti-smoking legislation.
http://www.nysun.com/article/13491