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Warden Calls for Seizure of Smokes from Underagers

Tuesday, 9 July 2013 at 11:10

Should the province ban youth from possessing tobacco? Oxford County's Warden thinks so, with youth smoking rates more than double the provincial average of 18%. 39.6% of Oxford County youth admit to smoking in a recent survey. This has Oxford Public Health asking what else can be done to get teens to butt out. Warden Don McKay is being asked to send a letter to the Premier, asking the province to take a look at a similar law that sees police confiscating cigarettes from teens caught smoking in Nova Scotia and Alberta. McKay is behind it. "Encourage the province, if they're serious, let's get some simple seizure of those and disposal. We're not looking for charges, but let's take the cigarettes out of the hands of people that are too young." McKay says as the law stands now, the compliance of retailers not selling tobacco to underage youth is high, but teens still don't seem to have any issue acquiring smokes by other means. "Once the youth have them, they seem to be able to freely smoke. When you pass by our high schools, it's embarrassing that so many young people, obviously underage are smoking in view of full public." However, Nova Scotia admits that seizing smokes has not been an effective way of lowering youth smoking rates in their province. The RCMP enforce it there, and it's generally a low priority for the Mounties. There's also concern the law would put an added strain on schools, police and tobacco enforcement staff.

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