May 13, 2002 2 min read

A bill to raise the penalties for teens who buy cigarettes and shopkeepers who sell to minors merits serious consideration. This past week the state House approved a measure that would for the first time exact penalties on kids who smoke.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration, where if any changes are made, they should be in the form of tougher penalties on retailers.

Here’s how the penalties stack up:

Minors caught buying cigarettes could be fined up to $200, lose their driver’s license for 30 days, be required to spend 10 to 75 hours in community service and complete a tobacco cessation program.

Fairly stiff penalties, which indicates Pennsylvania is finally taking a much-needed step to keep today’s kids from being tomorrow’s tobacco addicts.

For retailers, who currently face a mere $25 fine for a first offense, the financial penalty will rise from a range of $100 to $500 for the first offense to $3,000 to $5,000 for four or more violations.

But the bill allows retailers an escape hatch. They can defend the charges by showing they informed employees about tobacco sales laws.

Is a monetary penalty enough for retailers? Worth consideration is the possibility of prohibiting a guilty retailer from selling tobacco products.

If kids can lose their licenses over the purchase of a pack of cigarettes, why shouldn’t storekeepers face a similar penalty? After all they are the adults, and ought to know better.