tornado thoughts

My first article to ST Forum

This was something I wrote to straits times forum few weeks back. Quite efficient. I sent on 31st October night and it was published on 2ndNovember papers. For those who missed the article, here it is:
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Nov 2, 2005
Easy for under-18 youths to buy cigarettes

RECENTLY, I encountered a coffee-shop owner selling cigarettes to a girl who was clearly underaged.I was studying at a fast-food restaurant with my girlfriend in Serangoon when a group of teenagers sat at the table next to us. They were students hoping to be promoted to Secondary 2 and 3. They pooled their money and chose one of the girls to buy cigarettes.Out of curiosity, I followed the girl and watched in disbelief when she successfully bought a packet of cigarettes at a coffee shop. After the girl left, I approached the coffee-shop owner and asked if he had checked the girl's identification. The man replied that he asked whether she was 18, and she said 'yes'. I was furious. The girl was clearly under 18, but the man had conveniently chosen to ignore the fact. He defended his action by saying that he had no right to check anyone's identification. While this incident was not the norm, it was also not an isolated case. Curbing the sale of cigarettes to minors must go beyond displaying stickers that say 'no selling of cigarettes to persons 18 years and below'. Vendors have to be more willing to ensure that they do not sell to minors. The Singapore Government has been taking steps to discourage Singaporeans from smoking, through the imposition of smoking bans in selected public areas and increased cigarette prices. Youth should therefore be prevented from picking up the habit at an early age. The solution does not lie in increasing the fines for vendors who sell to minors. Vendors have to understand the importance of safeguarding underaged children from the vice. The coffee-shop owner was anxious to know if I was a government or police officer. When I told him that I was neither, he insisted that he never sold cigarettes to underaged children and told me that if I wasn't related to the girl, then 'don't bother'.I hope a random survey can be conducted to see how prevalent such a practice is, perhaps something similar to the survey done on the verification of signatures on credit cards featured in The Sunday Times a few weeks ago.

Nigel

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Got a reply on ST forum 2 days later.
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Nov 5, 2005
TOBACCO PRODUCTS
Report sales to underage persons

I THANK Mr Nigel Lim for his letter, 'Easy for under-18 youths to buy cigarettes' (ST, Nov 2), and for pointing out that tobacco retailers have a responsibility to ensure that tobacco products are not sold to underage persons.

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) takes a serious view of the illegal sale of tobacco products to underage persons and, consequently, the smoking offences committed by such persons.

Under the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act, anyone who sells any tobacco product to a person below the age of 18 years can be fined up to $5,000 for the first offence and up to $10,000 for subsequent offences. Their tobacco licences can also be suspended or revoked. Underage persons caught buying, possessing or smoking are liable to a fine of up to $300 upon conviction.

Tobacco retailers are reminded to verify the age of tobacco buyers whom they suspect to be below the age of 18 years. Retailers are also constantly reminded of this requirement by our officers during routine checks on the outlets.

Enforcement against illegal sale of tobacco products to underage persons will certainly be more effective with the cooperation of the public. HSA encourages members of the public to report such illegal sale of tobacco products to our Tobacco Regulation Unit on 6866-3501.

Jeannie Thng (Ms)
Deputy Director
Corporate Communications Department
for Chief Executive Officer
Health Sciences Authority
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Subsequently I called up the person in charge at HSA and furnished him with more details. He told me he would investigate and keep a lookout at that specific area. I would encourage everyone to play their part and report to HSA if encounter such cases. If everyone has the mentality of: "No point, there are so many vendors out there how to catch everyone" then our society will not be able to minimise the problem.

Just read the sunday times today, it has a report of "Teens too young to smoke? Not at these cafes". Summary of the report says that two 17 years old tried and succeeded in buying flavoured tobacco at four different cafes around Arab Street. Not once did they have to produce IC, even though tobacco products cannot be sold to those under 18. The experiment underlines a worrying trend among youths: More are lighting up and they have no problem getting their smokes.

Figures from Health Sciences Authority (HSA) show that the number of retailers caught selling tobacco products to those underage has QUADRUPLED in the past three years from 21 in 2002 to 88 last year. More youngsters are lighting up. The number of underage smokers caught went up from 3,349 in 2002 to 5,884 last year. Underaged smokers face up to $300 fine if convicted. Vendors will be fined $5k for first time, subsequent times will be $10 and even suspension of license.

I strongly believe that the numbers are much more than what is reported and the catching of these people will not solve the problem, at least it still acts as a deterrent then no barriers at all.

What do you think? comments?

posted by tornado @ 11:00 PM