BOH tobacco sting nets ‘disappointing’ results

By Jay Turner

More than two years after raising the tobacco purchase age from 18 to 21, the Canton Health Department put the town’s retailers to the test and an alarming number of them failed to make the grade.

In its first coordinated sting operation since the new regulations took effect, Canton’s tobacco control program visited 22 establishments last month with an underage buyer, and more than a third of the stores — eight in all — sold cigarettes to the individual without asking for identification.

“That is a high number,” acknowledged Public Health Director John Ciccotelli, who authored the town’s tobacco regulations. “We were very disappointed in seeing that many.”

Of the eight violators, six are located on Route 138: Bay State Wine and Spirits, Blue Hill Express, Colbea Enterprises (Shell Station), Canton Wash & Gas, Prestige Car Wash, and Turnpike Variety. The other violators included Paula’s Package Store and Canton Mart, both located on Washington Street in downtown Canton.

Ciccotelli said all of the town’s tobacco sellers had signed agreements stating that they would not sell to persons under age 21 and would card anyone who appeared to be younger than 27, as is required by state law. Furthermore, he said that Canton’s tobacco control agent, Public Health Nurse Jane Pratt, had personally visited “every single tobacco vendor in town” in the month prior to the sting to remind them of the purchase age and to give them a copy of the tobacco regulations.

Under these regulations, the maximum penalty for a first-time offender is a $100 fine and a three-day suspension of tobacco sales; however, at an appeal hearing last Monday, June 6, the Board of Health voted 2-0 to reduce the length of the suspension to one day for each of the violators. In exchange, the store owners agreed to submit a written plan detailing the steps they would take to prevent future violations.

The reduction came after the board members heard from each of the eight retailers, who for the most part accepted responsibility for the violations and asked for leniency as first-time offenders.

In the case of Bay State Wine and Spirits, the owner said the clerk who sold cigarettes illegally was working his first shift and lost his job that same day. Since then, he said the store has strengthened its training procedures and has even instituted its own “mystery shopper” program to see if their cashiers are properly checking for identification.

“We wanted to take the opportunity to apologize, and you have our guarantee that this is something we take extremely seriously,” said the owner, who also operates one of the other violating establishments, Blue Hill Express.

Other store owners also detailed the safeguards they have in place to prevent underage sales, ranging from ID scanners to training courses to in-house compliance checks. Two of the offending cashiers have since gone for “retraining,” according to one store representative, while another was suspended for two weeks without pay.

The lone holdout was the operator from Canton Wash & Gas, who took issue with how the sting operation was carried out and claimed that the individual the town used to purchase cigarettes, a 19-year-old male, looked older than 27.

Although sympathetic to the store owners who were remorseful, Chairman Dr. Julie Goodman said she still would have preferred to give the full penalty.

“I don’t want to hurt businesses, but the idea is it’s been on the books for two years,” she said. “A month ago, someone came in and said, ‘Hey, don’t forget about this,’ and then over a third of the establishments had a violation in one afternoon.”

“I’m pretty much anti-regulation for regulation’s sake,” she added, “but we put this in place because cigarettes are not good for health. It causes cancer and many other diseases and death and so that’s why we put forward this regulation.”

Ultimately, however, Goodman agreed with the recommendation of her colleague, Dr. Richard Levrault, who felt that the store owners were genuinely remorseful and had a plan moving forward.

“Had they not [attended the hearing], nothing would have changed,” said Levrault. “However, I think they all came with an intent to say, ‘Listen, okay, we messed up, but we’ve got a plan. We’ve got your message.’”

Goodman inserted the requirement of submitting a written plan as a condition of the reduced suspension and warned each of the retailers that any second offenses would be subject to the full penalty — a $200 fine and seven-day suspension — no matter “how hard they try or how bad they feel.” Furthermore, the board made it clear that the reduction did not constitute a precedent and that future first-time offenders could, and more than likely would, face the full penalty.

The suspension for each of the violators will take effect on Tuesday, June 21. On that day, all tobacco products must be removed from the shelves and stored out of view of the customers.

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