New Ordinance Aims to Crack Down on Underage Smoking

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 10, 2007 at 10:56 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego city council passed a tobacco ordinance on Monday after two years of negotiations. The law should make it more difficult for underage youth to buy cigarettes. KPBS reporter Alison St John ha

San Diego city council passed a tobacco ordinance on Monday after two years of negotiations. The law should make it more difficult for underage youth to buy cigarettes. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

It was a breath of fresh air at city hall on an issue where all the council members and the city attorney agreed: that selling cigarettes to minors needs to stop. But the consensus on how to do it was a long time coming.

Deborah Kelly of the American Lung Association spent two years in meetings with stakeholders to draft the law.

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Kelly : In some ways it was a situation of death by stakeholders group but we did persevere, and the ordinance that has been presented to city council today is very strong.

All stores that sell tobacco will have to pay $163 a year for a license. This money won’t go into city coffers, it'll pay for six police sting operations a year to catch retailers who sell cigarettes to youth under 18. A first offense means the store's license is suspended, four violations will mean the license is revoked. Statistics show 80% of smokers start before the age of 18.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.