CIGARETTE VENDING BILL IS PASSED.

Exceptions Granted To VFW Halls, Places That Exclude Minors

Tobacco opponents won a major victory yesterday in the battle to keep
cigarettes out of the hands of children, as the General Assembly gave
final approval to legislation that will require most cigarette vending
machines to take tokens instead of coins.

"It's a significant step forward," said Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who
made clear that he will sign the bill into law. "It will reduce
significantly the number of young people buying cigarettes."

The measure's passage in the last days of the legislative session that
ends tomorrow came after 10 years of trying by anti-tobacco activists.
"It was a smashing vote," said Del. Barbara Frush of the 120-30 margin
of approval in the House of Delegates yesterday. The Senate passed the
bill last month.

The legislation will ban coin-operated cigarette machines except in
fraternal or veterans halls or in places where minors are excluded,
such as some bars. An estimated 80 percent of the state's roughly
2,500 cigarette vending machines will be affected. Tokens can be sold
by establishments where the machines are located.

Five other states have vending machine laws requiring tokens or other
devices to keep children from buying cigarettes, according to the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frush, a Prince
George's Democrat who pushed the bill through the House, said she was
especially pleased that vending machine owners will face prosecution
and fines for selling tokens to juveniles.

"We card people at bars when they buy a drink. Why not card them when
they buy cigarettes?" she said.

Vending machines are a primary source of cigarettes for young smokers,
according to the American Lung Association of Maryland. The group says
22 percent of 13-year-old smokers in the state use vending machines.

Barry Scher, spokesman for Giant Foods Inc., said his company first
used tokens in cigarette vending machines four years ago at a store in
Frederick.

"We had great success with it. The customers were happy with it,"
Scher said. "We expanded it to all of our stores that do not have
service counters and continue to use tokens today."

Lorenzo Romiti, owner of Squires restaurant in Dundalk and a former
smoker, said he moved the cigarette machine three times to keep minors
away. He said the bill would have a negligible effect on his business,
but he said he did not like the idea of the government telling him
what to do.

"Tokens on vending machines? Oh, please. When did they become my
mother?" he said.

John Pluchak, a regular at Squires, said he usually buys his
cigarettes by the carton and seldom uses a machine. He said he
supports the idea of making it harder for children to get cigarettes.
Youngsters often buy them at a bar he visits where the vending machine
is in the lobby, he said.

"If they're outside, accessible, where anyone can get to them, then I
would say, 'Yes.' I would go along with the tokens," said Pluchak,
65.

Bruce C. Bereano, a lobbyist for the cigarette vending machine owners,
had a different view of the vote.

He noted that three other bills that would have outlawed cigarette
vending machines were killed in the legislature.

"Cigarette vending machines will still be alive and well in the state
of Maryland," said Bereano, who discounted the argument about children
getting cigarettes from the machines.

"That is a bunch of hogwash," he said. "Kids are not lined up in front
of cigarette vending machines buying cigarettes. Kids were used as an
excuse or a feel-good reason for legislators that are anti-tobacco.
You could be selling cigarettes out of a vault, and they would want to
ban that, too."

For Frush and other supporters, the vote came after years of defeat.
Last year, the bill died in the House days before the legislature
adjourned. The year before, Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell killed a similar
bill in the final minutes of the session because businesses that
excluded children were not exempt.

Advocates say they were helped this year by the absence of tobacco
industry lobbyists in the State House for the first time in years. The
national tobacco settlement barred most lobbying by the industry.

Yesterday, the advocates also found they had the support of a
long-time opponent. Del. George W. Owings III of southern Maryland
told his colleagues he started smoking 45 years ago when he stole a
cigarette from his parents.

"If I have one regret, it was that first cigarette," said Owings, who
added that he has tried to stop smoking without success.

"I keep trying, and I keep buying. And I keep smoking, and I will
until I die," he said.

Owings, one of five legislators who voted against the bill Friday in
the Environmental Matters Committee, said he felt the time had come to
stop fighting.

"I guess it was [Bob] Dylan who said it best: 'You don't need a
weatherman to know which way the wind blows,'" he said. "The time for
this bill has arrived."