The proposal would more than triple the fines for merchants caught selling tobacco to kids. The proposal would permit tobacco license suspensions after two illegal sales rather than three during a two year period. Under the proposal, violations and license suspensions would be issued against a business premise, rather than to the individual business owner. In addition, like the New York State Liquor Authority, the Commissioner could refuse to issue a new license to a location stripped of its tobacco license for two years, regardless of a change in ownership. DCA inspectors along with undercover teenagers, blanked the city with more than 8,200 undercover inspections.
Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of preventable disease and death in New York City.
During the first phase of this initiative, DCA inspectors conducted 8,154 undercover inspections, including 764 re-inspections of repeat offenders. According to results from the 8,154 inspections conducted in phase one of DCA's tobacco enforcement initiative, merchants in Queens were most likely to sell cigarettes to undercover teens, followed by merchants in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Stores in Staten Island were least likely to make a sale to undercover teenagers. However, stores should be warned that penalties will be tougher and our efforts to extinguish illegal tobacco sales will be stepped up in the future. When merchants take responsibility for selling tobacco only to those who may legally buy it, we can effectively cut kids off from cigarettes at the point of purchase.