Editorials
Thursday, August 19, 1999Progress in curbing
sales of cigarettesSMOKING has increased among teen-agers in recent years, which is alarming because more than 80 percent of smokers become addicted to nicotine before turning 18. On the positive side, a national effort to combat sales to teens -- who are prohibited by law from buying tobacco products -- has been highly successful in Hawaii.The issue: Sting operations in Hawaii have reduced illegal sales of tobacco products to minors.
The program will be a total success when all retailers comply with the law making tobacco sales to minors illegal, but the battle against cigarette smoking also must be fought on other fronts in order to reverse the increase in teen-age smoking.
The Honolulu Police Department and the state Health Department three years ago began sting operations using youths aged 15 to 17 to attempt to buy cigarettes illegally.
In 1996 44 percent of Hawaii stores sold cigarettes to underage youths. Last year, 15 percent of the targeted shops sold cigarettes to the youths and this year the rate dropped to only 11.3 percent, making Hawaii the fourth leading state in reduced sales.
This year the volunteers and their adult observers visited 426 randomly selected stores. Only 48 of them sold cigarettes illegally.
Retailers who sell tobacco products to minors face fines of $500 for the first offense and up to $2,000 for subsequent violations. Federal Food and Drug Administration regulations require clerks to check for photo identification of anyone appearing to be younger than 27 who tries to buy cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.
The project's success is laudable, but enforcement of laws restricting tobacco sales must be accompanied by educational campaigns.
Hawaii's reduction in tobacco sales to minors qualifies it for continued federal funding of $2.7 million for alcohol and drug abuse prevention and treatment. The law requires states to reduce teen cigarette sales below 20 percent or lose federal funding.
Another positive step is an increased effort at educating students on health risks through alcohol and drug programs in the high schools.
Despite the national effort, more than three million American teens smoke, and 3,000 children start smoking each day, according to the Children's Defense Fund.
Continued enforcement of the sales law, more consumer education and -- as suggested by Governor Cayetano -- increased tobacco taxes may all be needed to keep teen-agers from smoking.
Smuggling of illegal
immigrants by shipVESSELS carrying Chinese hoping to enter the United States or Canada illegally by sea are still being sighted and stopped.
Last week a boat carrying 150 illegal immigrants from China was detained by the Coast Guard near Guam. They were taken to Tinian in the Northern Marianas for processing and repatriation to China. It was the fifth boatload of undocumented aliens to be diverted to Tinian since April.
The influx of illegal aliens prompted Guam Gov. Carl Gutierrez to appeal in April to President Clinton for help to deal with the problem, which he said was overwhelming Guam's prison capacity. Since then smugglers' vessels headed for Guam have been diverted to Tinian.
Meanwhile in British Columbia a second boatload of illegal immigrants in a month has been seized by Canadian police. This one carried 131 passengers who were dumped at a remote beach in the Queen Charlotte Islands before the vessel headed back out to sea, where it was intercepted.
The incident generated a backlash, with protesters confronting the immigrants, angry calls to radio phone-in shows and a newspaper headline telling them to go home after 97 percent of readers polled said they favored deportation.
Some of the smugglers land the would-be immigrants in Mexico and Central America, from where they try to enter the United States.
There is also a possibility that landings may be attempted in Hawaii, as happened in the past. In February 1992, a Taiwanese fishing vessel ship succeeded in entering Honolulu Harbor with 96 Chinese aliens but immigration officials detained them before they could flee. Other ships were stopped in the mid-Pacific.
Earlier this year the Coast Guard asked deep-sea fishermen to be on the lookout for suspicious activity related to alien smuggling.
The concern is not only with stopping the illegal entry but also with the welfare of the people involved, many of whom endure unsanitary conditions on unsafe vessels. They are victims of exploitation and deserve humane treatment.
The recent death of a Maui police officer in a traffic accident that allegedly involved an illegal immigrant called attention to the fact that there are thousands of undocumented aliens in Hawaii.
Almost all of the illegal aliens arrived by plane, either from the U.S. mainland or Asia. However, Hawaii should be aware of the possibility that these islands might again become destinations for the smuggling ships, and the problems that would produce.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
