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Stores will change tobacco displays Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson Advertising for Camel and other cigarettes will soon be removed from Minute Markets across Jackson County as part of an agreement between store owners and anti-smoking activists. Others must share blame for teen smoking, merchants say By Jonel Aleccia Owners of a group of Jackson County convenience stores have agreed to pull tobacco advertising from front windows and to rearrange cigarette displays that entice kids after a meeting with anti-smoking advocates. In return, the Minute Market merchants want recognition that tobacco sales to minors aren�t all their fault. "We get faced with stings constantly," said Phyllis Simpler, operations manager for K & H Enterprises, which operates 11 local Minute Market stores. "But what about the parents and the kids who are trying to buy? It needs to work in the other direction as well. I don�t see why the retailer is being held responsible for raising these children." The move marks one of the few times local merchants and anti-smoking activists have worked together to combat youth tobacco use, said Stephanie Soares Pump, executive director of Southern Oregon Drug Awareness. "I think that people with disparate concerns have come together because of the greater good," Pump said. "I wish I could remember the line Spock used in that �Star Trek� movie: �The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.� " At Pump�s request, Simpler said she would remove ads for Marlboro, Camel and other cigarette brands from the front windows of stores from Ashland to Medford. In addition, cigarettes will be displayed behind a counter, out of reach and often out of view of impressionable children. That�s a necessary step toward decreasing the percentage of young people who smoke, said Brady Webb, Jackson County tobacco prevention coordinator. More than 35 percent of local 11th-graders and more than 30 percent of eighth-graders in a recent survey said they used tobacco. "We know that advertising and promotion has an effect on kids, because the top two advertised brands, Camel and Marlboro, are the top brands amongst youth," he said. The issue came up after a recent compliance check sponsored by SODA. The agency sent underage teens to 15 area convenience stores to see if they could purchase cigarettes. None of the area Minute Markets was among the four stores that sold tobacco to young people, but the effort irked Simpler. "Phyllis called me real upset," said Pump. "She said why were the retailers always targeted, that the responsibilities for the problem were bigger than that." In particular, Simpler says she�s disturbed by Oregon law that fines a retail clerk up to $500 for selling tobacco to a minor, but allows no similar penalty for the kid or his parents. "They�re not making the person taking the action accountable," she said. It is illegal for a person under age 18 to attempt to buy cigarettes under a new law passed by the state Legislature. Teens who break the law may face the loss of a driver�s permit or license for up to a year. They could also be required to enroll in a tobacco education class. Simpler said she�s taken extensive and often expensive steps to ensure her 77 clerks don�t sell to minors. "We tell them, unless they�re old and gray and 80, you don�t sell to them without identification," she says. That�s a comfort to Peggy Penland, the Medford School Board chairwoman and SODA board president. Her 15-year-old was among teens who tried to buy cigarettes in the recent check. "Phyllis� store in Ashland was the only one that didn�t sell to my daughter," Penland said. "Parents and merchants need to be able to count on each other to help kids do the right thing." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA