Wednesday, March 19, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Frankie Sue Del Papa credits the drop in sales to sting operations on stores selling tobacco to children under 18, and increased vigilance by a coalition of merchants and state officials.
"What was at risk for Nevada was $2.2 million a year in (federal) substance abuse grants," Del Papa said Tuesday during a hearing held by a House Commerce subcommittee on health and environment.
A federal law called the Synar amendment, named after the late Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., requires states to enforce their bans on the sale of tobacco to minors. Failure to enforce means a loss of federal funds for substance abuse prevention and treatment.
The goal is to lower the success rate of minors buying cigarettes to 20 percent. Paul Schwab, of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said the compliance rate has ranged from a low of 7 percent in Florida to 60 percent in other states.
In 1995, the Nevada Legislature provided $60,000 to the attorney general's office to enforce the state ban on tobacco sales to minors. A year earlier, a statewide survey showed children could successfully buy tobacco 64 percent of the time. After the crackdown, Del Papa said their success rate was 21 percent.
The attorney general's office conducted stings by hiring private contractors and local law enforcement agencies that would pay officers overtime.
"A total of 2,761 inspections were conducted during the period of September 1995 through July 1996, which revealed 846 violations of the law," said Del Papa, in Washington this week to attend a national conference of attorneys general. Fines ranged from $65 to $335, but charges were not always filed.
The state also distributed 2,400 "We Card" kits to educate retailers about their duties in enforcing the ban.
Evelyn Kessler, manager of the Express Mart on 8251 W. Charleston Blvd. in Las Vegas, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the state program is a good idea but she isn't sure it's made much of an impact. She said many convenience stores still don't check ages of young customers.
"We've always checked IDs and we did it a long time before the state program even started," Kessler said.
"We've had a lot of irate customers especially when they turned out to be 21 years old," she said. "The fact is if teen-agers want to buy cigarettes, you're not going to stop them. It's basically peer pressure."
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