“Most smokers begin the habit as teens. Preventing teenagers from unlawfully purchasing cigarettes will have positive, long-term health implications,” said Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. “I applaud Dr. Branch and his team for their hard work that is being met with real success.”

To achieve the reduction in sales to minors, the Department aggressively increased enforcement operations by employing students under the age of 18 to attempt to purchase cigarettes at over 700 of the County’s tobacco retailers. To date, the Department has performed over 3,900 attempted youth purchases. These youth are under the supervision of Health Enforcement Officers, some of whom are retired public safety personnel. Pairing the teen with an adult supervisor ensures that the teen will never have to testify in a case. Considering this an extremely important investment in the health of our County, the Administration has made a commitment to fund the majority of enforcement activities with County resources. 

Additionally, this past summer the County redirected its focus to remove economic incentives of selling tobacco to minors by passing legislation to impose increased financial penalties for retailers who violate the “sale to minors” law and also includes the potential suspension of a tobacco license for repeat offenders. Those selling cigarettes to minors face a series of enforcement actions starting with a warning, followed by a $500 fine, with subsequent fines of $1,000 and $1,500 upon continued non-compliance. Also, after the second offense, the County now refers these repeat offenders to the State Comptroller’s office so that their license to sell tobacco products may be suspended or revoked.  Thus far, the County has made over 65 referrals to the Comptroller and has been the only county in the State to take advantage of this opportunity. The Comptroller has held 20 hearings thus far and these repeat offender retailers are receiving suspensions of their tobacco licenses for 5-10 days. The other 45 cases are pending and have not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

“We are making great strides in the County to keep our kids from developing a lifelong addiction to nicotine,” said Director of the Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch. “Nearly all smokers in Maryland begin tobacco use when they are under the age of 18 so eliminating access to this deadly product is key.”

For information on tobacco cessation resources, call the Baltimore County Department of Health’s Tobacco Use Prevention Program at 410-887-3828.