SUPERVISORS MAY SNUFF OUT TOBACCO ADS AIMED AT TEENS

Concerned about reports that teenage smoking has skyrocketed in recent
years, Santa Cruz County supervisors today will consider limiting or
banning tobacco advertising in places where youngsters hang out.

California health officials last year reported a 22 percent increase
since 1993 in the number of kids ages 15 to 17 who are addicted to
smoking. Supervisors have learned, in a report they'll be considering
today, there are estimates that despite laws in every state
prohibiting tobacco sales to minors almost 950 million packs of
cigarettes and 26 million cans of smokeless tobacco are sold annually
to children between the ages of 8 and 17.

Last spring, county supervisors told their county counsel to come up
with an ordinance regulating tobacco advertising near places popular
with minors.

In a report he'll present to the council today, Assistant County
Counsel Rahn Garcia says a team of California lawyers and law
professors has prepared a model ordinance that can be adopted by
municipalities in the state. That ordinance, he said, was drafted to
meet free speech provisions of the First Amendment, ``which governs
what limits may be placed on commercial speech.''

The proposed ordinance, which Garcia is asking supervisors to adopt,
would prohibit the advertising of tobacco products ``in areas
frequented by minors, thus shielding children from the effects of
constant, involuntary exposure to such advertising.''

The law ``does not unduly restrict access by adults to information
about the availability and price'' of cigarettes, according to Garcia.
Nor does it interfere with powers of the federal government to
regulate smoking.

As outlined by the assistant county counsel, the ordinance, with some
major exceptions, would ban tobacco advertising ``in all publicly
visible locations, including areas inside a commercial establishment
that are visible from the street or sidewalk.''

But such advertising would be OK on parcels with commercial zoning
designations unless the site is within 1,000 feet of any school,
public park or public library.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry