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MEMORANDUM To: City Manager Date: October 16, 2006 From: Police Chief Subject: Tobacco Retail Licensing Over fifty cities and counties in California have adopted local ordinances to strengthen existing prohibitions against the unlawful sale, use or distribution of tobacco and curbing youth access to tobacco. The Chief of Police recommends adopting the proposed Tobacco Licensing ordinance in the City of Santa Ana because implementation of regulatory licensing will discourage retailers from selling or distributing tobacco, tobacco products, or tobacco paraphernalia to minors in the City. Moreover, licensing will establish conditions for selling tobacco to encourage compliance with all federal, state and local tobacco control laws. CALIFORNIA TOBACCO LEGISLATION More than 440,000 people die in the United States from tobacco-related diseases every year, making it the nation's leading cause of preventable death.l As a result states throughout the nation, including California, have taken proactive steps to regulate tobacco and to reduce youth access to tobacco products. California state law has adopted legislation that: • prohibits the sale or furnishing of cigarettes, tobacco products, and smoking paraphernalia to minors, as well as the purchase, receipt, or possession of tobacco products by minors (Cal. Pen. Code ~ 308); • requires that tobacco retailers check the identification of tobacco purchasers who reasonably appear to be under 18 years of age (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22956); • provides procedures for using persons under 18 years of age to conduct onsite compliance checks of tobacco retailers (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22952); • prohibits, with certain exceptions, the sale of tobacco products and paraphernalia through self-service displays except in adult-only establishments (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Coded 22962); • prohibits, with certain exceptions, the sale of "bidis" (hand-rolled filter-less cigarettes imported primarily from India and Southeast Asian countries) (Cal. Pen. Code § 308.1); • prohibits the manufacture, distribution, or sale of cigarettes in packages of less than 20 and prohibits the manufacture, distribution, or sale of "roll-your-own" tobacco in packages containing less than 0.60 ounces of tobacco (Cal. Pen. Code ~ 308.3); 1 U.S. Dept of Health and Human Servs., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Annual Smoking - Attributable Mortalit v, Years of Potential Life 75B-3