44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

REQUESTING TOBACCO INDUSTRY COOPERATION AND INFLUENCE TO INSIST THAT TOBACCO RETAILERS COMPLY WITH THE LAW AGAINST SALES TO MINORS.

WHEREAS, more than twenty-five percent of teenagers use tobacco regularly; and

WHEREAS, every day in New Mexico, fifteen children, at an average age of thirteen, begin using tobacco; and

WHEREAS, by the time these children are fourteen and a half, they will be addicted; and

WHEREAS, one-third of these children will experience premature death related to tobacco; and

WHEREAS, studies show that thirty-four percent of teen experimentation with tobacco is directly attributable to tobacco advertising and promotion; and

WHEREAS, tobacco is the number two drug of choice in New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, tobacco products account for more than forty percent of all items shoplifted in the United States; and

WHEREAS, every year New Mexico residents spend four hundred sixty million dollars ($460,000,000) for medical expenses, insurance, lost work time and deaths due to tobacco-related illnesses; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico law prohibits the sale of any tobacco products to minors; and

WHEREAS, many New Mexico retailers flaunt the law and sell tobacco products to minors with few repercussions; and

WHEREAS, the tobacco industry in New Mexico has done little to dissuade teens from using tobacco products; and

WHEREAS, the New Mexico liquor industry in recent years spent large sums of money promoting the danger of illegal sales of alcohol to minors and encouraging retailers across the state to comply with the law; and

WHEREAS, by ignoring continuing sales of its products to minors, the tobacco industry is missing an obvious opportunity to be a "good citizen";

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the tobacco industry in New Mexico commit itself to a substantial campaign to discourage illegal sales of tobacco products to minors; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the industry strongly encourage tobacco retailers to keep their products behind counters or otherwise out of reach of persons too young to purchase tobacco legally; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be sent to the taxation and revenue department for distribution to every tobacco wholesaler licensed to do business in New Mexico and to the secretary of state for distribution to each lobbyist registered to represent any segment of the tobacco industry before the New Mexico legislature.