Guest view: Protect our youth now

As one small town in California, we may not have the financial resources or political power to change the tobacco industry’s marketing practices toward youth. However, we do have the power to stem the flow of cigarettes to our youth through illegal sales. And we have the responsibility to do so as well.
Documented tobacco industry business strategies require that for every smoker who dies, two young replacement smokers must be found. This is the same industry that first hid, and then tried desperately to cover up, their knowledge of the addictive and deadly nature of their product.
Studies have shown that youth are more likely to be influenced by tobacco advertising than they are by their own peers. The tobacco industry currently spends more than $24 million each day promoting their products, with the majority of these funds directed toward youth and people of color. In recent years, the industry has even moved toward promoting candy, mint and liquor flavored tobacco products, including little cigars/cigarillos, chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Tobacco retailers profit from this marketing and reap significant benefits from selling tobacco products to youth, both in terms of immediate financial gain and in creating lifelong customers. A 2013 report by the Association for Convenience & Petroleum Retailing shows cigarettes accounted for more than 36 percent of in-store sales, with average sales of $622,248 per convenience store. Yet current state law provides no disincentive to retailers to engage in the illegal activity of selling tobacco products to youth.
In 2014, Gilroy Police Department Decoy Operations found illegal tobacco sales to youth in our city to be more than double the rate county-wide. More than 35 percent of youth surveyed at one Gilroy high school reported it was very easy to buy cigarettes. Of the 59 tobacco retailers in Gilroy, 12 percent are located within 1,000 feet of a school. Additionally, the majority of retailers are located on the east side, where our poorest youth and the majority of our Latino youth are their targets. In fact, the rates of Latino middle and high school students reporting smoking a cigarette at least once are 17 percent higher in Gilroy than in the county as a whole.
The Gilroy City Council has the opportunity to enact a Tobacco Retailer License (TRL) ordinance, a law that has been adopted and proven effective in more than 100 cities and counties statewide. This ordinance has the support of diverse community leaders throughout Santa Clara County, including police departments, politicians, public health agencies and youth support agencies. Similar ordinances have been adopted by our neighbors in Morgan Hill, Campbell and San Jose. Throughout California, the cities and counties implementing strong TRLs have watched the illegal sale of tobacco products to minors drop dramatically.
Current state law requires tobacco retailers to pay a one-time licensing fee of $100, with no annual renewal fee. This one-time fee is not used to enforce state laws regarding the selling of tobacco to minors, nor is it used to penalize retailers who violate these laws. Implementing a TRL will give the City of Gilroy the local authority they currently lack to enforce these laws effectively, including the ability to suspend/revoke a retailer’s license for illegally selling tobacco to kids. In comparison, liquor retailers must pay $13,800 initially, plus a renewal fee of $582 annually. Without debating which product is more dangerous, we can recognize the disparity in how we currently treat the sales of these two products, both of which are illegal to sell to minors.
The proposed Tobacco Retailer License ordinance is not a tax; it is an annual licensing fee to be paid for by retailers of tobacco products. If approved, the ordinance would provide funds directly to the City of Gilroy to administer, enforce and penalize those retailers who illegally sell tobacco products to minors.
Nearly 90 percent of adult smokers in the U.S. report they tried their first cigarette by the age of 18. Youth in our county have most commonly tried their first cigarette by the age of 12. We can address this issue now and prevent our youth from adopting this dangerous and deadly habit. Or we can look forward to our community paying for our inaction through elevated healthcare costs, loss of productivity and loss of life.
Families and schools play important roles in preventing youth smoking, but businesses and policy makers must participate as well. We know that tobacco is addictive. We know that it is dangerous. We know that we will eventually pay for the poor health outcomes of our citizens. The time to act is now.
We ask the Council to enact a rigorous Tobacco Retailer License ordinance before more of our youth become lifelong addicts to this dangerous and deadly substance.
Erin O’Brien is president and CEO of Community Solutions. Jaime Rosso is a Gilroy Unified School District School Board member.